Filibuster Has Prompted Adjustments In Debate Schedule For Nebraska Lawmakers

LINCOLN–(KFOR Mar. 14)–For the past three weeks, Omaha Senator Machaela Cavanaugh has been a one-person filibuster in the Nebraska Legislature.

She’s vowing to object to anything and everything, unless the rest of the Legislature gets its act together, in her opinion. Speaker of the Legislature and Papillion Senator John Arch on Tuesday said he will add time for debate and he’ll move up the date when debate will go into the evening hours.

“As I stated on this floor, I simply wanted to try to smooth out the work, so that we had fewer evenings at the end of the session,” Arch told his fellow lawmakers. “That attempt has been unsuccessful.”

Originally, the Legislature was scheduled to start all-day debate on March 28, and go into evenings on April 11.  Arch changed the schedule to have debate go into the evenings for the rest of the session starting March 28.

Cavanaugh says, for now, she’ll keep doing what she’s been doing.

“We will just past few bills and if nobody has any control over what’s happening, except for me, then I guess I’m gonna keep on talking,” Cavanaugh said.

Cavanaugh’s goal is to get enough support to oppose LB 574, which would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Cavanaugh, the parent of a transgender son, says she will continue to stand in the way of bills that she says legislates hate.