By: Zach Wendling
Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — Two years after a motion-filled and filibuster-riddled 2023 session, Nebraska lawmakers in 2025 settled into a new rhythm as stall tactics again dominated legislative debate.
Throughout the 89-day session that concluded June 2, Nebraska lawmakers filed 347 motions, according to legislative records. It’s the second-highest tally for any session except 2023, when a record 1,160 motions were filed throughout the 88-day session. Similar to that year, State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha again filed the most motions.
In 2023, Cavanaugh filed 437 motions (38% of the total filed). In 2025, she filed 80 (23%).
The extent of filibustering also has changed — the procedural effort to extend debate to time limits as set by the speaker of the Legislature. At those limits, 33 votes are required to enact “cloture” to advance legislation, instead of the usual 25.
Since 2023, it has been more routine for legislative opponents to file all three kinds of filibuster motions ahead of debate — to recommit to committee, to bracket (or delay debate) to a set date or indefinitely postpone (or kill a bill).
Motions to reconsider those motions and various amendments also are common. Introducers have more frequently filed these “kill” motions to their own bills because they get the chance to introduce the motions and speak ahead of opponents trying to stop their proposals from advancing.
A total of 24 measures reached cloture votes in 2025, the second most in a “long” session behind only 2023, which had 58 separate votes held for cloture motions. This year, four bills fell to filibusters, compared to one in 2023.
In 2025, 47 of Nebraska’s 49 lawmakers had a bill reach the governor’s desk, whether on its own or after being folded into various legislative packages, including the budget. The two exceptions: State Sens. Rob Clements of Elmwood and Loren Lippincott of Central City.
Clements, chair of the Appropriations Committee, played an instrumental role in ushering several budget bills to passage, which ultimately faced no line-item vetoes from Gov. Jim Pillen over a gubernatorial attempt to trim $14.5 million in general fund spending, most of that to the Nebraska Supreme Court. Lippincott also serves on the Appropriations Committee.
The state will end with a final positive budget balance of $4.15 million for the next two fiscal years. Lawmakers started with a projected budget deficit of $432 million in January.
Speaker John Arch of La Vista has already warned senators to pay attention to changing fiscal dynamics, including in Congress, ahead of the 2026 legislative session, which begins Jan. 7.
2025 statistics — from 89 days in session
- 715 bills introduced, an average 15 per senator. An additional 18 constitutional amendments and six policy-based resolutions introduced.
- 347 motions filed, about one-fourth (23%) from State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha (80). State Sen. John Cavanaugh of Omaha followed with 29 motions.
- Top bill targeted: LB 316, from State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha, seeking to ban most consumable hemp and other tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) products (22 motions). The runner-up was LB 258, from State Sen. Jane Raybould of Lincoln, seeking to weaken voter-approved minimum wage provisions (17 motions).
- Top senator targeted: State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha (55 motions). The runner-up was State Sen. Bob Hallstrom of Syracuse (33 motions).
- 24 bills were forced to maximum debate limits, or cloture. Four efforts to end debate failed: moving the state’s allocation of presidential electors to winner-take-all (LB 3), reducing the state’s inheritance tax (LB 468), adding property tax relief by expanding sales taxes (LB 170) and providing clearer regulatory guardrails to medical cannabis (LB 677). Two more bills were pulled before they reached maximum debate, because they likely lacked the 33 votes needed to stop a filibuster — one to legalize online sports betting (LR 20CA) and the other to ban most consumable hemp or THC products (LB 316).
- 204 bills passed — 177 laws and 27 accompanying appropriations bills. Two bills were vetoed.
- One constitutional amendment passed — to ask voters in 2026 whether to extend lawmaker term limits to three four-year terms. They can currently serve up to two full terms (LR 19CA).