Senator Janssen and Schilz are still pushing their voter suppression bill, LB 239. The bill not only will decrease the vote, it will cost taxpayers and local counties hundreds of thousands of dollars for a problem that doesn't even exist in our state. 

Senator Schilz has prioritized the voter ID bill which means it could come up for floor debate as early as Monday. You might also have seen Senator Janssen's misleading Facebook ads pushing his bill. It's time for us to make sure our state senators hear from us loud and clear that we need them to defend our right to vote. 

Just like we did in 2011, we’ve put together a roundup of the bills we’re following closely in the 2012 legislative session. Some laws were held over from the 2011 session, and others are brand new. Our guide has also gone through some changes. Below we explain how to use our new guide and list the issue categories of bills we're watching this year.

How to use this guide:

Otto von Bismark said something about not wanting to see laws being like sausages and not wanting to see how they're made. After looking over Neal's flowchart, we're inclined to agree.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is an organization funded by some of our nation’s largest corporations, with names like General Motors, Bank of America, Exxon, and Pfizer appearing on their list of major donors. ALEC is committed to providing corporate America with direct access to state legislators, while drafting and promoting legislation that primarily favors the interests of the corporate funders.  

Common Cause Nebraska has been monitoring ALEC activity in our state for more than 15 years. ALEC’s national organization has been very secretive about its state legislative memberships. It often takes a public records request to identify state members, since ALEC records are often kept on state computers. 

We have lots of updates on the pipeline.  If you are new to this issue or want some more background, please check out our Resource Page or Action Page.  You can also stay up to date with links to LTEs, articles and more by following us on Facebook and Twitter.

Below are updates on the Citizen Hearing, Pipeline Bills, Department of State and county-level board meetings.

Thank you to every citizen and landowner that continues to stand up for our land and water. Yesterday's Citizen Hearing was another great event where Nebraskans from all over the state came together and told our state elected officials and Sec. Clinton that they each have a key role in protecting our land and water from TransCanada's risky tarsands pipeline.

What's most troubling about all the covergae from yesterday's event is Sen. Langemeier's continued dismissal of citizens.  He told Fred Knapp's NET radio that the Natural Resources Comittee has been working for "quite some time" and that "the rally has no relevance" in getting one of the bills (that was watered down to almost "no relevance") out of committee for a debate by the full legislature.  

On May 12, we are holding a "Citizen Hearing" in Lincoln to gather comments from citizens and landowners to submit to Sec. Clinton but to also submit to the Unicameral, Gov. Heineman and Att. Gen. Bruning to urge them to pass state-based regulations. 

If you plan on coming tomorrow, please arrive about 11:30am to find parking since it will be busy.  Also, you will not be able to get into capitol til around 11:45am because they are having a fire drill...meet us in the rotunda.  If you can not make it to the event, you can still submit comments to info@boldnebraska.org and we will make sure they get submitted to state officials and Sec. Clinton.