State Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood, chair of the Legislature's Appropriations Committee, smiles as colleagues applaud his 10 years of service and after the Legislature broke gridlock on a main budget bill for 2026 on March 26, 2026. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
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LINCOLN — After two failed attempts at advancing Nebraska’s main budget bill, state lawmakers moved the budget forward Thursday with little fanfare or fuss.
Lawmakers advanced Legislative Bill 1071 in a 34-7 vote, moving the bill to its third and final round of floor debate. The state’s second budget bill, LB 1072, was also cleaned up and sent to its final round Thursday, setting the stage for Nebraska’s budget to be sent to Gov. Jim Pillen’s desk next week.
LB 1071 failed to secure the 33 votes needed to overcome a filibuster twice before Thursday. The first attempt at advancing the bill failed 19-10, and the second failed 27-15.
Thursday took a different tone toward the budget, as LB 1071 saw little debate and no opposition. Though the bill received more than 33 votes toward advancement, it was the first time this session that a cloture motion wasn’t needed to advance the bill.
Without a filibuster, the bill only required 25 votes to advance.
It sharply contrasted the tense discussions that made up the budget debates to this point. Thursday’s debate was mostly quiet and sometimes celebratory. It included a standing ovation for Appropriations Committee chair State Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood and Speaker John Arch of La Vista for their work.
“People ask me a lot, ‘Are you enjoying it?’” Clements said of the budget process. “Well, come to Appropriations for 10 years and see what you say. But I do enjoy numbers. I think you guys know that.”
LB 1071 was held up because lawmakers hit an impasse on whether to remove or include a new proposed $3.5 million school vouchers program, largely to use state funding to offset some costs of attendance at private K-12 schools for the students who started attending under a school choice law that voters repealed in 2024.
The “bridge” program came at Pillen’s request, who originally set the funding at $7 million in his early session budget proposal. The Appropriations Committee halved the funding, citing cost concerns as lawmakers sought to fill the state’s $646 million projected deficit.
Just before LB 1071’s first stall, Clements tried to remove the provision on his own, believing that it lacked enough support to pass — a theory his fellow conservatives tested on the floor days later. Some supporters of the school choice proposal said they wouldn’t support the budget if the program was removed, leading to the cloture motion failing.
On LB 1071’s second attempt at advancing on Wednesday, lawmakers tried adding the voucher program back into the budget. Some supporters aired grievances about the inclusion of LB 304 from State Sen. Wendy DeBoer of Bennington in the budget. The policy would permanently extend income eligibility for the state’s child care subsidy program at 185% of the federal poverty level, rather than letting it fall to 130% this October.
Several school choice supporters expressed that the budget likely wouldn’t progress unless both the voucher program and the child care subsidies were included in the budget — or neither.
State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair said Wednesday’s debate was a chance to advance a budget that had components that every lawmaker would be happy with. That attempt ultimately failed 27-15.
The budget debate resumed Thursday with a new amendment to remove the child care subsidy provision from the bill. Removing the voucher program wasn’t necessary because Clements’ initial choice to remove the program was still in effect. Lawmakers adopted the amendment with no one speaking in opposition.
DeBoer said she was happy to see LB 1071 advance, but she still hopes to make progress on her child care subsidy proposal. LB 304 remains on the books and is DeBoer’s priority bill, but it’s up to Arch to schedule the bill for floor debate, and after Thursday there are only nine days left in the 60-day session.
“We’ll just see where the session goes from here,” DeBoer said.
It’s unclear whether supporters of the voucher program will attempt to pass the policy through a separate bill. Its path isn’t as straightforward, as the measure wasn’t introduced as a standalone bill, but instead was a recommendation from Pillen included in the budget package.
Arch said he was “very pleased” with the outcome of Thursday’s debate. He said the quiet consensus lawmakers found on the budget bills exemplified that some senators got what they wanted out of Wednesday’s debate — an opportunity to make the case for why their preferred policies should be included in the budget.
“This year is a classic example that the budget is a process,” Arch said.
The gridlock lawmakers encountered prior to Thursday’s vote also showed why it’s inappropriate to add policy changes to the state’s budget bills, Arch said. He said he hopes returning lawmakers remember the lesson in new budget cycles.
The likely passage of LB 1071 and LB 1072 next week doesn’t mean Nebraska’s budget deficit has been closed. Legislative Fiscal Analyst Keisha Patent said the projected deficit stands at around $38 million, assuming no other changes are made to the budget package.
This means filling the deficit will likely rely on a collection of revenue-generating bills still up for debate, including efforts to increase taxes and roll back existing tax exemptions.
This story is provided by States Newsroom, a nonprofit state news network and Blox Digital content partner.
