Weekend Recap

Friday wrapped up with continued Bill Introduction. Another 48 bills were introduced, 3 Constitutional Amendments, and several more congratulatory resolutions.

Among the newly added bills, the following stood out to us or is supported by our NAGO Legislative Plan for 2025’s 109th Legislative Session:

LB89 – Adopt the Stand With Women Act
Introducer: Kauth – kkauth@leg.ne.gov

View Bill text here: https://nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/109/PDF/Intro/LB89.pdf

At the top of our legislative plan (though it really isn’t ordered by any level of greater importance) is the Stand With Women Act! The Stand with Women Act (LB89) will be important legislation this session that protects the girls and women of this great state! In a time such as this, where much of society thinks evil is good and good is evil, we need every God fearing American to be informed and get involved!
Yesterday morning, Governor Jim Pillen, Senator Kathleen Kauth, and other supporting senators gathered for a press conference on the introduction of the Stand with Women Act.

Governor Pillen’s address during the press conference can be watched on the NAGO Facebook page by clicking here.

We genuinely appreciate them for their commitment to this issue, to protecting the girls and women of this great state, and we look forward to supporting LB89!

LB117 – Provide sales and use tax exemption for electricity, natural gas, propane, and sewer utilities
Introducer: Holdcroft – rholdcroft@leg.ne.gov

View Bill text here: https://nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/109/PDF/Intro/LB117.pdf

Did ya know they taxed YOU for your electricity (and other necessary utilities)?! They attempted this legislation during the special session and couldn’t manage to get it passed. We’ll see if the senators take it more seriously this time around.

LB121 – Prohibit land disposal of solar panels and wind turbine blades and the component parts of solar panels and wind turbine blades
Introducer: Hardin – bhardin@leg.ne.gov

View Bill text here: https://nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/109/PDF/Intro/LB121.pdf

This legislation does exactly, as the title says.


LB122 – Require display of the state and national motto in schools
Introducer: Meyer – gmeyer@leg.ne.gov

View Bill text here: https://nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/109/PDF/Intro/LB122.pdf

We appreciate Senator Meyer continuing the work to implement this legislation. It’s a no-brainer, and we’re here to support it!

LB123 – Change provisions relating to withholding money due to noncompliance with budget limits and annual audits for certain political subdivisions
Introducer: Sanders – rsanders@leg.ne.gov

View Bill text here: https://nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/109/PDF/Intro/LB123.pdf

Senator Sanders is quickly becoming one of our favorites! This is great legislation! If a government unit or city or village is determined to be out of compliance by the State Auditor, they forfeit their state aid. If not remedied within 6-12mo, the money is reallocated elsewhere in the county.
Love it!


LB124 – Change penalties for motor vehicle homicide of an unborn child
Introducer: Holdcroft – rholdcroft@leg.ne.gov

View Bill text here: https://nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/109/PDF/Intro/LB124.pdf

This legislation increases the penalty from a class iiia felony to a class iia felony. We can get behind that!


LB125 – Provide for regulation of products containing nicotine analogues and include alternative nicotine products under the Tobacco Products Tax Act
Introducer: Hughes – jhughes@leg.ne.gov

View Bill text here: https://nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/109/PDF/Intro/LB125.pdf

We’ll take a moment to burst everyone’s bubble. Nicotine isn’t the problem and likely saved lives from covid. 🤯 Hughes sure does love to tax things, but hopefully, she and others will take the time to look into this issue further.

Here’s a great and succinct article from a local NE Patriot: https://open.substack.com/pub/theawakenedpatriot/p/nicotinethe-universal-antedote

That’s just a starting place, and we highly encourage you to look further into Dr Ardis’s work!
The reality is, it’s shortsighted, and to be honest, not exactly a conservative position to tax and regulate this way. These alternatives are often used to help people quit smoking. By raising, or in this case, adding taxable items, will only increase revenue for a short period until people or businesses decide the increased cost isn’t worth it and they stop spending their money or close down their business. Ultimately, you end up with revenue lost.


LB127 – Provide for damages for defendants who are found not guilty or whose cases are dismissed
Introducer: McKeon – dmckeon@leg.ne.gov

View Bill text here: https://nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/109/PDF/Intro/LB127.pdf

NAGO is thrilled to support LB127! Thank you, Senator McKeon, for agreeing to introduce this very important legislation. There have been countless instances where Nebraskans have been dragged through court for months, sometimes years, by our own government, incurring substantial attorney and court fees. LB127 puts a mechanism in place that provides for recourse from the government for these defendants in the instances where they are found not guilty or the case is dismissed.
A huge shoutout to one of our long-time friends and NAGO admin Angee Hock for getting the legislation to where it needed to be!


LR5CA – Constitutional amendment to eliminate provisions relating to marriage and marriage licensesIntroducer: M. Cavanaugh – mcavanaugh@leg.ne.gov

View Bill text here: https://nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/109/PDF/Intro/LR5CA.pdf

LR6CA – Constitutional amendment to recognize the marriage of couples regardless of gender and race and strike language regarding gender
Introducer: M. Cavanaugh – mcavanaugh@leg.ne.gov

View Bill text here: https://nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/109/PDF/Intro/LR6CA.pdf

As we can see, M. Cavanaugh has two Constitutional Amendments intent on diminishing the sanctity of marriage. We will want some opposing testimony submitted – simply so they can’t say there wasn’t any, but there’s little need to have concern about these amendments having enough support to pass.


LR7CA – Constitutional amendment to change legislative salaries to thirty thousand dollars annually
Introducer: Dorn – mdorn@leg.ne.gov

View Bill text here: https://nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/109/PDF/Intro/LR7CA.pdf

It’s hard to advocate for the salary increase for a government body that hasn’t been able to deliver on the absolute necessity that is property tax relief, among numerous other issues. However, it is important to consider, if the legislators recieved a more fair/reasonable wage, we might actually find ourselves in a position where Nebraskans other than just the independently wealthy or retired individuals would actually be able to run for office and still provide for their families.


The Legislature will resume tomorrow, Monday afternoon, at 1pm. Reminder to those who wish to follow along. You can watch the live stream of the Legislature on the Nebraska Public Media website under the LIVE section.

Other important dates to remember:

Bill introduction ends January 22nd.
Public hearings for bills begin January 22nd.
Rules Committee hearings, however, are expected to occur at some point next week!! Please keep a close eye out for updates!!!

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The NEGOP SCC meeting occurred yesterday, starting at 10 am and going well until 6 pm. It was a long day. Following our previous recommendations on proposed amendments, we feel it’s only appropriate to report on the day’s activity.

Senator Kauth was the featured speaker. Following the press conference Friday, spirits were high, and people are excited! Hopefully, the momentum behind the Stand With Women Act will continue.
Kauth also took the time to take questions, from Day Light Savings time to the issues of abortion. Unfortunately, it was suggested we likely won’t see any further protections for a couple of years. The concept of protecting babies from conception was immediately shot down as an impossibility.

If we want to protect all babies, it will have to be done by referendum, a lot like what we see with taxes. Which was also asked about. The answer?
“We all know spending is out of control, but that’s really a local problem. You need to look to your county officials and local school boards.”
While this is entirely true , it seems to disregard that many of us DO, in fact, attend such meetings, seek cuts in their budget, and accountability from the members, often to no avail. To be honest, it’s a little insulting. We’ve said it before, and we say it often. Our senators just haven’t figured out that the system is broken. There’s no fix, even at the local level, until property taxes are eliminated.

(Quick side note while on the subject of taxes. There is swelling support to eliminate Inheritance Tax! If you’d like to join in that effort, consider joining this Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/15UjAZ9YRX/?mibextid=K35XfP )

Back to the SCC! After speaking with Kauth, it was down to business. There were motions to adjust the agenda and discussion about what order exactly to go with. Ultimately, the people unanimously agree to keep business first and listen to reports/speakers afterward. This is the second SCC meeting where this has been successfully done. One can only hope that the message has been received and in the future that will be applied from the get-go.

With that, the budget report was given, and the body broke into their Congressional caucuses. The tensions were high as opposition to the recommended amendments coordinated strong attacks on the author and supporters. The authors certainly held strong and explained the intent of the amendments and plan to correct any issues in order to remedy any concerns. CD1 and CD2 had fairly civil discussion, lively debate sure, a correction or two, absolutely, but no one left feeling correctly attacked.
Meanwhile, in CD3, the chairwoman started out misrepresenting the second amendment to deal with endorsements of initiatives and charged up on one of the authors upon their objection to the misrepresentation. He said it well, “I submitted the amendment, the committee changed the verbiage, and therefore, the intent, why am I being penalized?”
That was the theme for the second, third, and forth amendments brought which sought to ensure that support for initiatives and the process for determining representatives was ALWAYS a decision and reflective of the will of the governing body, the We the People of the Nebraska Republican Party. To support a constitutional republic structure of the county and state parties. Yet the opposition argued loss of “county autonomy.” They failed to recognize that by “county autonomy,” they really meant “leaderships’ autonomy.” The problem with that is that the elected officers and staff are NOT autonomous. They are REPRESENTATIVE of a body of voting individuals. Anything and everything they do or say in their official capacity should reflect the will of the body, not of their own personal desires.
Obviously, we could go on about this issue for days. In the spirit of not writing a novel this evening, we’ll move forward.

Amendment 1 passed.
Amendment 2 was pulled in those last moments, as the audience was showing obvious favor, for being unconstitutional (an issue the committe conveniently kept to themselves 🤔).
Amendment 3 adopted the amendment from the committee and then passed.
Amendment 4 adopted the amendment from the committee and then fortunately failed.
Amendment 5 was also adopted.

The resolutions went similarly. Anything that seemed to actually bring accountability failed. Anything that called on Republicans to hold true to their values was shot down and labeled micromanaging. The resolution condemning the ear tags for livestock passed, and the resolution against medical marijuana failed.

The last few hours, several of the NEGOP leadership explained past decisions and spoke about plans moving forward.

It was a long day! Thank you to those who remain involved and work to best represent the will of We the People! As our friend JT reminds us all frequently, the number one rule – Show up! and Know the Rules!

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A quick reminder!

Tomorrow at noon, the Convention of States will be meeting at the Capitol rotunda to discuss the need for a COS, and supporters will be talking with their Senators seeking their commitment.

Come and join us!

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As always, feel free to contact us with any comments, questions, or concerns. If you haven’t yet, sign up for our newsletter and get involved today! www.nago.group