Pillen Dishes on Filibuster, Lobbyists, and Conservative Infighting as Session Draws to a Close

by Matt Johnson

(Photo credit Matt Johnson)

OMAHA — The Nebraska Legislature is scheduled to adjourn sine die in just a few days, on April 17. On Monday at an event in Omaha, Governor Jim Pillen reflected on another legislative session in which Republican bills were hampered by the filibuster and other procedural roadblocks.

“So, what we have a problem is we elect—we have 33 people, 33 people that are registered Republicans in the session today, right? So we lost on Common Sense Reading (LB 1050)? We lost on Blue Dot (LB 3), for God’s sake. You think California would elect the President of the United States the way we do? Not ever, not a chance. And then this one—it really, really hurts me … We’re Nebraska, we’re about love and life, and we could not pass an anti-Semitism bill (LB 538)? What the heck?”

The nominally nonpartisan legislature is controlled by 33 Republicans—a coalition that can only overcome a filibuster by holding every vote together.

Last week, Pillen called the filibuster “antiquated” and said that it failed to “serve the will of the people.” The Plains Sentinel asked Pillen to clarify whether he supported completely abolishing the filibuster or wanted to modify it.

“If I was the speaker, I would change the rules and get it down to 30,” Pillen said. “I would go so hard because who’s got the power in the Unicameral right now is the lobbyists. If I was speaker, I’d run that show, I’d be done, I’d be done in a 90-day session, I’d be done April 1st, and make sure that everybody is way too tired to have time to go out every night drinking and eating off the lobbyists.”

Pillen suggested that term limits, which do not allow state senators to serve more than two full consecutive terms, have created an environment where lobbyists have an outsized amount of influence among the many freshman senators entering the legislature.

“Since 2008, you know who runs the show? lobbyists,” he said. “A year ago in January, not this January, a year before this last biennium started, out of 49 members of the unit camera, we had 33, 33 that had two years or no years of experience.”

Pillen also reflected on how the persistent use of the filibuster backfired on Democrats in 2023.

“The first year that we served, if you remember, the Democrats were filibustering nonstop,” Pillen said. “I said, we should be sending them flowers every day because of what they did. We had a historic session. … Because they were so obnoxious, they kept the conservative coalition together. It kept us together—we stayed on the team.”

This session, however, was different—partly because Democrats’ behavior changed early on, Pillen said.

“Does everybody remember what happened on the second day?” he asked. “Senator Machaela Cavanaugh tore the 250th history signs off the wall. Remember that? Since then, the Democrats have been really nice … So you know what happens then? Us conservatives start eating each other.”

Pillen did highlight some legislative successes from this past session. Among them was the Adopt the Grow the Good Life Act (LB 1165), which creates a performance-based tax credit for Nebraska businesses that attract high-wage employees. He also cited agricultural bills such as the Agricultural Data Privacy and Conversational Artificial Intelligence Safety Act (LB 525) and the Behind-the-Meter Private Electric Generation Act (LB 1261).

The legislative elephant in the room, however, is property taxes—always a topic of conversation for candidates knocking on doors and a perennial burden for homeowners in Nebraska.

The Plains Sentinel asked Pillen how he planned to move forward with his goals for more property tax relief.

“We should do exactly what we did for community colleges,” Pillen said. “The state took over funding of community colleges, dollar-for-dollar property tax relief. We fund about $2.5 billion to do all of K-12 education. It would take another $1.2 to $3 billion. And then that’d be dollar-for-dollar. So we have the state fund K-12 education—not run it, fund it. And how are we going to do that? We need to broaden the sales tax base.”

As this year’s legislative session draws to a close and the midterm elections loom ahead, Pillen sees flipping a few more seats toward conservatives as the only chance for passing legislation, though he knows it will be a tall order this year.

“I just want to win for Nebraska. We have to have 33 seats. We should own 38—and we will. We will own 38. But it’s going to take a couple more cycles. And this cycle could be hard.”

— Matt Johnson is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel.

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