Latest news with #LegislativeBill298
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Nebraska advances bill codifying legislative oversight role dealing with executive branch agencies
Speaker John Arch of La Vista listens to State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln. Aug. 2, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) LINCOLN — The Nebraska Legislature inched Wednesday toward clarifying the legislative branch's legal authority to provide oversight of how the executive branch spends the people's money, including how it handles children and adults under state supervision. Lawmakers advanced Legislative Bill 298 by voice vote. The measure, sought by Speaker John Arch, would create a new Division of Legislative Oversight and a new Legislative Oversight Committee. LB 298 would place the Ombudsman's Office, also known as the Office of Public Counsel, in the new division. 'We need information in this Legislature to legislate and appropriate,' Arch said, adding that senators require more information to do its job well than relying on news reports. State Sen. Eliot Bostar of Lincoln emphasized the need to dig deeper independently of reporters and the state auditor. He had wanted to add new employees who monitor spending by all levels of government as a job, an amendment that failed 7-22. 'We do not have adequate oversight over all of the levels of government, over all of the governmental bodies, over all of the political subdivisions in the State of Nebraska,' Bostar said. Senators spent much of the debate arguing about how specific the bill should be about response times for requested records from the agencies under the governor's control. Some also discussed the origins of the debate, whether senators need to pass a new law in response to a non-binding legal opinion in 2023 from Attorney General Mike Hilgers. State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln has argued the Legislature should have sued the executive branch and let the courts decide the limits of legislative oversight. Conrad has argued that Arch and the Legislature should not accept an executive branch interpretation of the limits of legislative power that lacks the power of law. It is, she said, an opinion. Evolving fix for Nebraska legislative oversight faces continued resistance 'I strongly disagree with how legislative leadership reacted to the attorney general's political opinion, which undermined our undeniable ability to conduct legislative oversight,' she said. On Wednesday, Conrad argued that if the Legislature was going to proceed on codifying its oversight role, it should specify a timeline for record requests and responses. She said her overarching goal was making sure that the state agencies that the Legislature funds understand that lawmakers are watching how they work, that 'the agencies are on notice.' Arch responded that he agreed with her that a time may come when the Legislature has to set a number of days but that the experience under a memorandum of understanding has been good. He said the inspectors general for corrections and child welfare tell him that the offices are getting information in a timely manner, often four to seven days, so deadlines aren't needed yet. But State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha, who has long fought with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services for timely information, said agencies should not have the option. Cavanaugh and Conrad pointed to an Ombudsman's Office report that argued the administration has been less accessible and slower in responding to the child welfare questions. 'I appreciate Speaker Arch's comments … that it hasn't been a problem recently, but that's part of the reason that we put things in statute,' Cavanaugh said. Under the bill, the Legislature's watchdogs would retain the subpoena power to demand documentation and answers. Using that power would require a majority vote of the Executive Board. Lawmakers seemed to agree that their oversight would need to pause during criminal investigations and that lawmakers might not be able to access every bit of executive information. Arch has said the Legislature and executive branch sought a balance to make sure state senators get the information they need and that the executive branch can carry out its work. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Evolving fix for Nebraska legislative oversight faces continued resistance
State Sens. John Arch of La Vista, Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha and Ben Hansen of Blair, from left, meet on the floor of the Nebraska Legislature. Arch is speaker of the Legislature. Jan. 15, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) LINCOLN — The Nebraska Legislature's Executive Board heard testimony Tuesday about the effort to clarify its oversight of state agencies after Attorney General Mike Hilgers and Gov. Jim Pillen sought to limit legislative reach. Legislative Bill 298, sponsored by Speaker John Arch of La Vista, would reconstitute many functions of the Offices of Inspectors General for child welfare and corrections and place them under a newly created Division of Legislative Oversight as part of the Legislature. This design would operate as the legislative branch's eyes and ears for how the money it spends on behalf of taxpayers is being used, primarily by the executive branch. The new division would report to a new Legislative Oversight Committee picked by the Legislature's Executive Board. 'We aren't police,' Arch said during his testimony about the reasons behind the bill. 'Our requests are not part of a criminal investigation. Our purpose is to legislate and to appropriate. We can't do either without information.' LB 298 was built this way in part to get around a 2023 legal opinion from Hilgers that questioned whether the Legislature had gone too far by offering its inspectors general too much power over executive branch functions. The watchdog roles continue to function under a temporary agreement with the executive branch that, unless extended, will end later this year. Arch said the Legislature and executive branch were seeking a balance to make sure state senators get the information they need to hold the executive branch accountable and that the executive branch remains free to carry out its work. Said Arch: 'The goal of LB 298 is to address the issues raised in the AG's opinion, but also, again, to lay down a foundation and build an oversight structure that is … constitutionally sound and maintains and grows legislative oversight in Nebraska.' Hilgers testified in neutral about the bill on Tuesday, saying that he believed Arch and the Legislature were headed in the right direction but that 'the changes in LB 298, while helpful, do not alleviate the constitutional problems.' Hilgers said he was encouraged by the work and saw a path to permanently securing legislative oversight without trampling on the ability of the executive branch to carry out the policy directives of the Legislature independently. However, he said the Executive Board and Arch would need to continue to work to ensure the amendment they offered, AM 238, included all of the negotiated changes between the branches and did not accidentally create new powers that go too far. 'I think Nebraskans will welcome this being resolved in a legislative room rather than a courtroom,' Hilgers said. Under the bill, two-thirds of the Legislature would have to approve hiring an executive director for the new oversight division, aiming to ensure the division is led by a person 'without regard to political affiliation and on the basis of integrity, capability for strong leadership and demonstrated ability.' Improving oversight eyed as a 'hallmark issue' of 2025 legislative session The Legislature's independent watchdogs would retain subpoena power to demand documentation and answers, a key lawmaker concern. However, using that power would require a majority vote of the Executive Board. Disputes would head to court. Part of the design creates a more careful way for the executive branch to share sensitive information with the Legislature, through the new division in the Office of Public Counsel (the Ombudsman's Office), which reviews and investigates taxpayer complaints about state agencies. The bill would clarify hard limits on sharing confidential information publicly. It would limit the public-facing reports of the oversight division to aggregating information and summarizing results that might otherwise be confidential, which some argued risks limiting the effectiveness of public pushes for change. One person who testified against LB 298 represented the judicial branch, Corey Steel, the Nebraska state court administrator. His complaints, much like those from Hilgers, focused on direct access to information held by another branch. Steel said the courts are willing to share requested information with the legislative branch and that the courts' opposition is fluid, based on how the final bill implements inspector general for child welfare access to data on juvenile probation, which the courts oversee. 'One branch of government may not unduly interfere with the ability of another branch to perform its essential functions,' Steel said. Kenny Zoeller, the policy research director for Pillen, testified in neutral and thanked Arch for his work on LB 298. Zoeller said the governor intends to provide the Legislature with what it needs but that Pillen has a duty to follow his best understanding of what is legal. 'Moving forward, the governor wants to ensure the Legislature gets the information it needs for legislation and to legislate in a constitutional way,' Zoeller said. Julie Rogers, who serves as public counsel, the state's ombudsman, also testified in neutral. Her office today has oversight of the Offices of Inspectors General. She said those offices need access to information to provide legislative oversight. At several points in the hearing, State Sens. Terrell McKinney of Omaha and Ben Hansen of Blair, the chair of the Executive Board, questioned whether the judicial branch would accept any level of legislative oversight. McKinney worried specifically about prisons and parole. McKinney asked whether the changes in LB 298 might weaken legislative oversight of a state prison system that has been crowded and does not have a history of running well without prodding. Hilgers told him he thought senators would retain that power. Hansen tried to find the line for where the court system would accept some oversight from the legislative branch that has to write the checks from taxpayers when the probation system gets successfully sued by someone who was wronged. Steel at one point said the courts would not welcome legislative oversight into its matters any more than the Legislature would like if the courts placed a judge in every legislative hearing or vote to verify whether a bill was constitutional. State Sen. Eliot Bostar of Lincoln, who jousted with Steel about the separation of powers, seemed to be prepping for a pending fight about LB 684, his bill that would pull juvenile probation from the judicial branch and put it into the executive branch. 'With your concerns over overreach, particularly into the judicial branch, isn't this why the judicial branch shouldn't have administrative functions?' Bostar asked. At one point, Steel responded, 'We've always had juvenile probation.' Arch asked the committee to wait to vote on whether to advance the bill to the legislative floor so lawmakers could address some of the concerns voiced Tuesday. Six letters were submitted in support of LB 298, with none opposed and one neutral. 'This bill is to create a structure of oversight with strong legislative control,' Arch said. The committee took no immediate action on the bill. Also on Tuesday, State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha discussed LB 579, which would prohibit state agencies from charging for public records requests from state senators and their offices. The Pillen administration testified against the bill, arguing that they would not want to make filing a higher volume of requests cheaper. They also argued it might violate the separation of powers clause of the Nebraska Constitution. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
