2026 Nebraska legislative session
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| 2026 Nebraska legislative session |
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| General information |
| Scheduled session start: Jan. 7, 2026 Scheduled session end: April 17, 2026 |
| Leadership |
| Senate President Joe Kelly (R) House Speaker |
| Elections |
| Next Election: November 3, 2026 Last Election: November 5, 2024 |
| Previous legislative sessions |
| 2025 • 2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 |
| Other 2026 legislative sessions |
In 2026, the Nebraska State Legislature is scheduled to convene on January 7, 2026, and adjourn on April 17, 2026.
The legislators serving in this session took office following the 2024 elections. Although the Nebraska legislature is officially nonpartisan, Republicans won a 33-15 majority with one independent in the unicameral Senate. The party also controlled the governorship, creating a Republican state government trifecta. At the start of the 2026 session, Nebraska was one of 19 state legislatures where Republicans had a veto-proof supermajority.
Leadership in 2026
Nebraska State Senate
Partisan control in 2026
- See also: State government trifectas
Nebraska was one of 23 Republican state government trifectas at the start of 2026 legislative sessions. A state government trifecta occurs when one political party holds the governor's office, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House. For more information about state government trifectas, click here.
Nebraska was also one of 19 state legislatures where Republicans had a veto-proof supermajority. Veto overrides occur when a legislature votes to reverse a veto issued by an executive such as a governor or the president. If one party has a majority in a state legislature that is large enough to override a gubernatorial veto without any votes from members of the minority party, it is called a veto-proof majority or, sometimes, a supermajority. To read more about veto-proof supermajorities in state legislatures, click here.
The following tables show the partisan breakdown of the Nebraska State Legislature in the 2026 legislative session.
Nebraska State Senate
| As of February 2026 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Party | Members | |
| Democratic | 14 | |
| Republican | 33 | |
| Other | 2 | |
| Vacancies | 0 | |
| Total | 49 | |
Regular session
The list below shows up to 25 pieces of legislation in the 2026 legislative session that most recently passed both chambers of the legislature, were signed by the governor, or were approved by the legislature in a veto override. If no bills are displayed below, no legislation has met these criteria yet in 2026. This information is provided by BillTrack50.
Standing legislative committees
A standing committee of a state legislature is a committee that exists on a more-or-less permanent basis, from legislative session to session, that considers and refines legislative bills that fall under the committee's subject matter.
At the beginning of the 2026 legislative session, there were 14 standing committees in Nebraska's state government.
Senate committees
- Agriculture Committee
- Appropriations Committee
- Banking, Commerce and Insurance Committee
- Business and Labor Committee
- Education Committee
- General Affairs Committee
- Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee
- Health and Human Services Committee
- Judiciary Committee
- Natural Resources Committee
- Nebraska Retirement Systems Committee
- Revenue Committee
- Transportation and Telecommunications Committee
- Urban Affairs Committee
Legislatively referred constitutional amendments
In every state but Delaware, voter approval is required to enact a constitutional amendment. In each state, the legislature has a process for referring constitutional amendments before voters. In 18 states, initiated constitutional amendments can be put on the ballot through a signature petition drive. There are also many other types of statewide measures.
The methods by which the Nebraska Constitution can be amended:
| Nebraska Constitution |
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| Preamble |
| Articles |
| I • II • III • IV • V • VI • VII • VIII • IX • X • XI • XII • XIII • XIV • XV • XVI • XVII • XVIII |
Nebraska offers three different paths to amending its constitution:
- The legislature can propose legislatively referred constitutional amendments, which are defined in Section 1 of Article XVI.
- Sixty percent of the members of the state legislature must vote for the proposed amendment.
- The legislature can call a special statewide election to present the proposed amendment to the voters if 80 percent of the members of the state legislature vote for any such special election.
- If no special election is called, the proposed amendment must go on the next general election ballot that includes elections for members of the state legislature.
- The amendment becomes part of the constitution if a majority of those voting on the measure vote for it and if it wins favorable votes from at least 35 percent of those voting in the election for any office.
- A constitutional convention can be held to "revise, amend, or change" the constitution if 60 percent of Nebraska's legislators agree to put a question about whether to have such a convention before the state's voters.
- A convention is held if the question wins by a majority vote as long as those voting in favor equal at least 35 percent of those voting in the election.
- Voters must ratify amendments or revisions proposed by the convention.
- An initiated constitutional amendment can be used by the state's citizens to propose constitutional amendments.
- The rules for this are set out in Sections 2 and 4 of Article III.
- The number of signatures required to qualify an amendment for the ballot is 10 percent of the state's registered voters.
Historical partisan control
The table below depicts the historical trifecta status of Nebraska.
Nebraska Party Control: 1992-2026
Seven years of Democratic trifectas • Twenty-eight years of Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.
Historical Senate control
Republicans maintained control of the Nebraska State Senate in 2024. That year, they won a 33-14 majority with two independents.
While Nebraska's Unicameral is officially nonpartisan, most of its lawmakers are affiliated with the state affiliate of either the Democratic or the Republican Party. In 2015, Ballotpedia began to identify the party affiliation of the Legislature's 49 members. Ballotpedia assigned party affiliation based on voter registration, member lists provided by the Nebraska Democratic Party and Nebraska Republican Party, as well as information provided by nonprofit organizations.
The table below shows the partisan history of the Nebraska State Senate following the 2014 general election.
Nebraska State Senate election results: 2014-2022
| Party | 14 | 16 | 20 | 22 | 24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democrats | 12 | 15 | 17 | 17 | 14 |
| Republicans | 35 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 33 |
| Other | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
In 1934, Nebraska voters approved a constitutional amendment that transformed Nebraska's bicameral, or two-chamber, state legislature into a unicameral, or single-chamber, Nebraska State Senate. The amendment also established the state legislature as a nonpartisan body. The new unicameral Legislature met for the first time in 1937.[1]
Analysis
Adopted legislation, 2015-2024
- See also: The State Legislative Decade - Nebraska
In 2024, Ballotpedia released analysis of bills enacted in each state in the preceding decade. The charts and table below detail legislation passed each year by party sponsorship.
See also
| Elections | Nebraska State Government | State Legislatures | State Politics |
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External links
Footnotes
