Some urban lawmakers want special session
A group of urban state senators want a special session of the Legislature to discuss changing police powers and providing protection for workers threatened by the coronavirus and other related issues.
Can you say “snowball’s chance?”
Don’t get me wrong; these are issues that need to be discussed. I’d suggest doing it in interim hearings, but those are just talk and I know the proponents of the session want action.
But what exactly would that action look like? Defund police? Require packing plant employees to work in a bubble?
It’s obvious that it’s going to take a lot of discussion to come up with suitable action. There’s going to have to be input from a diverse mix of people. It’s NOT the fodder of a special session, which would have to be supported by 33 of the state’s 49 senators.
Special sessions (the last one in Nebraska was nine years ago) are generally called by governors and focus on one specific topic. Aye, there’s the rub. A governor who has balked at previous attempts to hold special sessions. An agenda that includes multiple topics.
Nine of the 11 senators calling for the special session are Democrats in an officially nonpartisan Legislature overwhelmingly dominated by Republicans (30). One is a Republican who often sides with his Democrat colleagues and one is an Independent. It is worth noting that the Republican Governor recently vetoed a number of Democrat-sponsored bills in the waning days of the session.
I know it’s to be expected because that’s politics. But it is becoming way too common in the nation’s only one-house nonpartisan Legislature. I can’t help but think that George W. Norris, the protagonist of Nebraska’s Unicameral, wouldn’t be happy.
If, by some miracle, 33 senators would agree to a special session, there would surely be legal challenges based on the subject matter multiplicity. The ensuant acrimony would be reminiscent of a nasty pandemic delayed regular session just ended last month.
That session was one of the ugliest I have ever seen with a loss of civility and far too many personal attacks. At one point, Speaker of the Legislature Jim Scheer of Norfolk ended the legislative debate early and sent everyone home.
To read more go to: https://etypeservices.com/Imperial%20RepublicanID359/