The 109th Nebraska Legislature reconvenes today, on the morning of Wednesday, January 7 in the last year of this biennium. This will be the last “first day” for at least 12 senators, as 10 will be term-limited after this session and two have indicated that they will not be running for a second term.  

This year’s session will run 60 days and is deemed the “short session” as Sine Die (the last day of session) will occur no later than April 17th. As the rules for debate were set and committees elected last year, many of the same dynamics we witnessed in 2025 will remain. Similar to last session, senators are tasked with addressing an unbalanced budget – highlighted by a projected $471.5 million deficit – and will spend much of their time debating spending, cuts and revenue raisers. 

Unless designated otherwise, all legislation introduced last session is still active, including winner-take-all bills like LB3 and LR24CA; however, with a shorter schedule and the added urgency to balance the budget, it is unclear how much time will be spent on legislation from last year. Speaker Arch released a memo that stated 2025 personal priority bills of senators will need to be re-prioritized in 2026 in order to be debated on the floor. The Speaker also emphasized spending the limited debate time on bills that received unanimous or near unanimous approval from their committees. 

We will continue to monitor existing and new legislation that threatens our elections and endangers our democratic processes. In the same turn, we will continue to push legislation that expands voting rights and creates more equity in our election systems. Bill introduction will end on January 21, and our Bill Tracker will be updated accordingly, so stay tuned.