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Nebraska Legislative History

The organization of the Nebraska legislative history materials and how to compile a Nebraska legislative history.

Steps to Compile a Legislative History in Nebraska

The following steps apply to bills dated prior to the 2007/2008 Legislature. From 2007/2008, consult the Digital Records tab above.

Step 1: Identify the best format for accessing the materials. Legislative history materials in Nebraska have been exclusively on microfilm until recently when some materials for the past few years have been digitized. These are available on the Nebraska Legislature's website.

Step 2: Identify the location of the records; there are eight repositories holding the legislative records in the form of microfilm. Creighton University School of Law Library has the records going back to 1937, the beginning of the Unicameral Legislature in Nebraska.

Step 3: Identify the Legislative Bill (LB) that you want to research, if not already known. Use the indexes in the Legislative Journal or Laws of Nebraska to identify the LB number(s). LB numbers are repeated at the beginning of each new legislature. Be aware that one needs the year as well as the LB number. If obtaining the LB number from the Revised Statutes of Nebraska or Revised Statutes of Nebraska Annotated, one must know how to read the history note following the statute. For example, the history note below is for § 25-207, a statute of limitations.

R.S.1867, Code § 12, p. 395; R.S.1913, § 7569; C.S.1922, § 8512; C.S.1929, § 20-207; R.S.1943, § 25-207; Laws 1947, c.243, § 11, p. 766; Laws 1975, LB 481, § 9.

Note that the semicolon separates units. All the units before R.S.1943 refer to earlier codes where the language of this statute appeared. These earlier codes predate 1937, so no legislative history is available. There may be something for the Laws 1947 (session laws of 1947) entry, because committee minutes may or may not appear on the microfilm, depending on whether the committee kept records. A look at the session laws for 1947, chapter 243, reveals that LB 175, § 11, changed something about § 25-207. Unfortunately, the session laws at that time did not follow the current practice of underlining new language and crossing out deleted language, so we do not know if LB 175 affected the particular language in § 25-207 in which we are interested. A complete legislative history would be available for LB 481 enacted in 1975. A glance at LB 481 in the 1975 session laws shows that a very minor change was made.

Step 4: Identify the committee to which the LB was referred and the hearing date. Using the example above, LB 481, Laws 1975, find the Legislative Journal for 1975, and go to the blue index, the "Chronology of Bills."

 


(1975 Nebraska Legislative Journal)

Note that the LB was referred to the Judiciary Committee and the hearing date was Feb. 26, 1975. Important note: If the first entry for the LB in the chronology reads "Title" and not "Read first time," that means that the LB was carried over from the first session, i.e., the previous year. Look in the previous year's Legislative Journal to determine the committee and hearing date.

Step 5: Consult the committee records in microfilm. For the period 1961-1984, the records are arranged alphabetically by committee and then by the bill book (all the LB's referred to the committee) followed by the minute (hearing) book with verbatim testimony. Find the minute book(s) on the microfilm and go to the hearing date. The hearing pages are dated and numbered. Several LB's normally are heard during a committee hearing, so the hearing transcript for that day may run to several hundred pages. Generally, the LB number is given at the top of each page. Besides the hearing record, look for short (one page) committee documents, such as "Introducer’s Statement of Intent," "Committee Statement," and "Executive Session Notes." There is no section-by-section analysis or large committee report similar to federal legislation.

For the period 1985 to date, the LB's and related hearings are grouped together by hearing date. The usual order on the microfilm is:

  • Introduced bills
  • Introducer's Statement of Intent
  • Hearing transcript
  • Executive Session Notes
  • Committee report with any amendments
  • Committee Statement for LB's voted out
  • Exhibits

Step 6: Consult the floor debate records. Floor debate for the two-year legislature currently runs to about 14,000 pages. Floor debate is indexed only by LB number. There is no subject or senator index. The bill number index is a listing of each LB followed by a notation of the pages on which the LB was mentioned. Look for a span of pages, such as 3942-3953. Single page references usually deal with a procedural point. The bill index is located at the beginning of the debate microfilm. Some repositories have printed out a copy of the index for user convenience.

As noted above, constitutional amendments, which are proposed by the legislature in the form of a legislative resolution, can have legislative history. Locate these by using the indexes in the Legislative Journal. Generally, a proposed amendment, which has a hearing, will be on the ballot in the next general election.

A final note: if the hearing appears to have nothing to do with the bill being researched, the bill has been gutted.