Breaking down contested committee chair races in the Nebraska Legislature

LINCOLN — As state lawmakers reconvene for the 109th Nebraska Legislature, one of their first tasks will be selecting leadership in at least six contested races to chair legislative committees.

The start of the two-year legislative session comes as one-third of the 49-member Legislature is brand new to the body. Roughly two-thirds of the Legislature has less than three years of experience.

Lawmakers will reconvene at 10 a.m. Wednesday before returning Thursday with nine session days to introduce the full slate of bills. The 2025 session can last up to 90 days, with the 2026 session a constitutionally “short” session of up to 60 days. 

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After the newly elected and reelected are sworn in Wednesday, they will select leaders for speaker of the Legislature, the chairs of more than a dozen committees, members of the Committee on Committees that determines committee assignments and members of the Executive Board that manages the day-to-day operations and affairs of the Legislative Branch.

Ahead of the start of the Legislature, six races for committee chairs include two candidates, while the races for other leadership positions, including the speaker who sets the daily debate schedule, remain uncontested. 

Chairs help steer legislation through their respective committees, scheduling hearings and later votes to advance proposals to the full Legislature. This can sometimes be critical to the survivability of different measures. 

Leadership races could matter in a year when lawmakers have said they want to tackle tax reform, election changes, medical marijuana regulations, school finance reform, closing a projected budget deficit and much more.

Any senator can throw their name into the ring for the chairs, or they can be nominated from the floor. Winners are determined by secret ballot, under the Legislature’s internal rules.

Here is a breakdown of who is running for chairs in contested races:

Business and Labor Committee

The Business and Labor Committee will be weighing any modifications to recent voter-approved ballot measures incrementally increasing the minimum wage and baseline requirements for paid sick leave, which take effect Oct. 1. 

Nebraska’s minimum wage increased to $13.50 on Jan. 1 and will go up to $15 next year. Beginning in 2027, the wage will go up automatically, tied to cost-of-living bumps.

Because both measures were passed as state laws, rather than constitutional amendments, the Legislature retains wide latitude in how it could modify the provisions. However, such changes would require at least 33 votes under the Nebraska Constitution.

State Sens. Kathleen Kauth and John Cavanaugh, both of Omaha, are seeking to succeed the current chair, State Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston, who is seeking to lead another legislative committee. Neither has been chair before, and neither has served on the Business and Labor Committee.

Kauth said the role of a committee chair isn’t to push for one bill or another but to figure out where voters are at and help priority and other important bills reach the legislative floor as fast as possible.

“My job as chair is not to pressure people into voting the way I want them to,” Kauth said. “It’s to get everyone to put their name down and say, ‘This is how I vote,’ and help them think through and be able to articulate, ‘What is it about this bill that you don’t like and that you feel like it’s not necessary?’”

Cavanaugh said committees provide a service to the Legislature as a whole and, when well-run, committees mean treating everyone respectfully and giving them a chance to be heard. Also important, he said, is working to improve bills before they are advanced to the full Legislature.

“I think if people really did go look at the Legislature the last two years, they would see that those bills coming out of the committees that I’ve served on have come out ready,” he said.

Kauth said scheduling proposals on paid sick leave early is important, so they can be fine-tuned, if necessary.

“It’s not what work comes out,” Kauth said of being a chair. “It’s getting the work done.”

Cavanaugh said he would work to protect minimum wage increases. To him, senators can have substantive conversations while still preserving the will of Nebraska voters.

“Being able to find ways that address the concerns but don’t undermine the intention is really, I think, the key around here,” Cavanaugh said. “Obviously, you can’t solve everybody’s concerns about everything but finding those places where you can compromise.”

Education Committee

The Education Committee will be at the helm of ongoing efforts to reform Nebraska’s state funding formulas for its 245 public school districts, with the goal of reducing local property taxes.

State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil is asking his colleagues for two more years as chair. He highlighted his committee’s successes in having the state pay an increased share of special education costs (80%), creating $1,500 in foundation aid for roughly every public school student, prioritizing school safety, strengthening early reading programs and supports for students with dysleixa or literacy challenges, offering incentives to recruit and retain teachers and creating prospective college students with new scholarship or workforce opportunities to stay in Nebraska.

“In the last six years, especially the last two years as chair, I’ve worked hard to foster a team that values working together and finding compromise and delivering success for students and educators and the schools,” Murman said. “I will continue to do that.”

State Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward, who hasn’t yet served on the committee, is seeking the role because she has a long-term vision for K-12 school finance reform. She said that in her next six years in the Legislature, if she is reelected, part of the plan includes working to bring local school tax rates more in line with one another and to review educational spending to ensure it is working as intended.

Hughes and a group of other lawmakers have continued to work separately from Gov. Jim Pillen, which Hughes said must be done within the state’s financial reality.

“It was so big and robust this summer, so we’re just going take a smaller stab at it,” Hughes said.

Pillen will try again for the state to cover more school operational expenses, a proposal that would likely be introduced and shepherded by the next committee chair.

Hughes, an exercise instructor, substitute teacher and former engineering consultant, served four years in Seward on the school board before being elected in 2022. Murman, a farmer, is a former school board member of what is now Sandy Creek Public Schools.

Murman said he supports Pillen’s efforts and wants to cut administrative costs, find efficiencies and eliminate some state mandates on schools.

The current chair will also continue working with the Revenue Committee to modernize the state’s tax system to help with property taxes, such as by supporting a broader sales tax base on services. As part of those efforts, Murman helped guide one of his bills through the Revenue Committee that shifted most property taxes paid to community colleges onto state tax rolls.

“I’m pretty open as to how we can get the funding out,” Murman said. “But the big issue, of course, is how do we raise the state funding to replace whatever reductions we have in property tax funding?”

Hughes said when she first got to the Legislature, she “naively” thought committees were like “mini think tanks” to plan long-term policies. If elected as chair, she envisions the committee meeting more often, similar to weekly Wednesday meetings among agricultural-focused lawmakers.

She views Wednesday’s vote for chair like a job interview, asking colleagues to consider each candidate’s record, including their passion, focus, vision, how they would get bills over the finish line, how they would work with other members and how they’ll communicate what’s happening.

“Youth are our future, so we have got to make sure that we are educating our kids for that future,” Hughes said.

Health and Human Services Committee

Medicaid and workforce rank among top issues for the Health and Human Services Committee over the next two years, according to State Sens. Brian Hardin of Gering and Riepe, who are seeking to succeed State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair, who is running to lead the Legislature’s Executive Board.

Hardin, the committee’s vice chair, noted workforce concerns, particularly in rural Nebraska, including that the state is short more than 5,000 registered nurses.

“It’s not like anyone can wiggle their nose and go, ‘You know what? Those 5,400 nurses are all going to be made up in two years,’” Hardin said. “That’s not going to happen, and that being the case, can we broaden what either they do or others around them do so that we can actually participate in helping the health needs of Nebraska?”

Another topic for Hardin is whether the state should change or replace its scope-of-practice review process, which assists lawmakers when crafting technical bills. 

Riepe, who chaired the Health and Human Services Committee in 2017 and 2018, and is the current Business and Labor Committee chair, said his driving interest in seeking the top HHS spot is the state’s budget shortfall of more than $432 million.

“I do have clear strategic objectives,” Riepe said. “That’s the reason I’m walking away — I didn’t get impeached out of Business and Labor, and I think we had a good, good committee. It’s not as if we ran it into the ground.

“It’s just my love and interest, where I’ve spent my whole adult life, is in health care,” the former hospital administrator continued.

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services budget, Riepe noted, is about one-third of the state’s annual general fund expenditures, and with President-elect Donald Trump calling for significant changes to the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (Obamacare), Medicaid will be a major topic.

“When that happens at the federal level, believe me, it will come down the hill to the states,” Riepe said of federal changes.

Hardin said his experience leading several companies and board meetings in the insurance, fuel and child care industries, prepared him to be a chair, as has working with diverse personalities, where he was often in the political minority.

“I think the committee chair’s job is to try and create a safe environment for people to say, ‘This is what I think: Two plus two is five,’” Hardin said. “It’s creating that texture of, ‘OK, even if Brian may not agree with me, this is a place where we can have a meaningful conversation.’”

Riepe highlighted his experience as chair, as well as other qualifying experience from service in the Navy; consulting work in multiple states; an undergraduate degree in finance and a master’s degree in health management and policy, along with management roles overseeing hundreds of physicians and employees.

Nebraska Retirement Systems Committee

One of the quieter races this week might come from the Nebraska Retirement Systems Committee contest between Lincoln State Sens. Beau Ballard, the Legislature’s youngest member, and Danielle Conrad, the longest current tenured senator.

Conrad is entering her 11th nonconsecutive year in the Legislature, four of which she has served on the Retirement Committee. As an attorney with eight total years on the Appropriations Committee, she said she is ready to step up to the challenge of a committee that doesn’t grab a lot of headlines but does necessary technical work.

“Nebraska really stands out as a very prudently managed retirement system for state and local public employees,” Conrad said.

Ballard said he has always been interested in retirement issues but couldn’t get on the committee as a freshman lawmaker in 2023. He noted he has a background in finance and would embrace long-term projections, cost-benefit analysis plans and actuarial studies to ensure retirement plans are fully sustainable.

“Some people find that boring, but I find it very interesting,” Ballard said.

Both candidates said there are no major issues on the horizon, crediting past chairs for leading in fiscally conservative, prudent and nonpartisan manners, which they hope to emulate.

One issue for the committee will be confirming the pick of the next director of the board overseeing the Nebraska Public Employees Retirement Systems. In 2023, after confirming a board director, the Legislature reversed, led by a motion from Conrad, reviving the search. The next director tapped and later legislatively confirmed for the position, former State Treasurer John Murante, resigned from the post in December.

The NPERS board, as of September, now has direct management of the Omaha Public Schools retirement system, which both candidates said they would monitor.

Conrad noted she would never support OPS obligations transferring to state taxpayers.

She said the committee must ensure public employees can retire and live a life in dignity, with good stewardship of public resources top of mind.

Ballard said he would work to ensure the state’s retirement systems are supporting and fulfilling a promise for the state’s public servants. He said he would ensure plans are adequately funded.

Revenue Committee

A key contested committee race will replace the term-limited chair of the Revenue Committee, State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Omaha, who led the committee the past six years and oversaw major tax changes for income and property taxes.

Seeking to succeed her are State Sens. Brad von Gillern of Omaha and George Dungan of Lincoln, both members of the committee in their first two years of service.

Von Gillern, who was Linehan’s right hand as vice chair, said Linehan set a standard and gave him a front-row seat to the management, operation and strategy of being a Revenue chair.

“This isn’t completely foreign to me,” von Gillern said. “I want to be fair-minded. I want to listen to people, but I also won’t put up with a whole lot of horsing around as far as getting in the way of being an efficient committee structure.”

Dungan noted he has often been a key opposing voice on the committee, which he said often previewed the level of opposition legislation would face on the floor. He said his goal as chair would be ensuring there is a tax policy that lifts everyone and applies equitable treatment to taxpayers.

“My goal as the chair of the Revenue Committee would be to listen to as many people as I can, both in the Legislature and in my community, and try to meld together all of those needs as best as I could,” Dungan said. He said he would seek to be forward-looking and not “myopic” in short-term solutions.

Both senators said the projected budget shortfall is the looming issue, with von Gillern stating he will protect recent tax cuts while Dungan said it’s those decisions that led to the current problems.

“I know that’ll be an easy mark for a lot of people that want to spend money,” von Gillern said. “I want to make sure that we protect those, protect the property tax relief, because I think both of those are economic motivators for the state.”

“I think that we need to make sure when something comes out of the committee it is ready for the floor, insofar as it has been properly debated, property taken apart and put back together in a way that does achieve the goal of everybody having some input,” Dungan said.

Von Gillern said his background in the business and nonprofit worlds gives him a better understanding than many of what the impact of different revenue-related proposals would be.

Dungan said he would keep an equitable tax policy and the fiscal health of the state at the forefront of his mind, seeking to offer targeted relief to those who need it most.

Rules Committee

One challenged race is for the Rules Committee, which considers structural changes to how the Legislature functions, such as cloture motions to end filibusters on typically contentious legislation.

State Sens. Loren Lippincott of Central City, who hasn’t yet served on the committee, and Wendy DeBoer of Omaha, who has been vice chair of the committee for the past four years, are seeking the role.

Lippincott said top issues to him are considering possible rules about debate processes related to excessive filibustering, noting the evolution of cloture and the filibuster in the U.S. Senate that has since caused a “log jam” and held up business.

“We go off tangent, we do not talk about legislation,” Lippincott said of Nebraska lawmakers. “That really goes against the intent and rules of the rulebook, and that needs to be reined in.”

DeBoer noted that a significant portion of the legislative body has no more than two years of legislative service and said it limited how the body worked in an era ridden with filibusters and turmoil, particularly in 2023.

“I think that it is important to have a little more time under everyone’s belt before they see how everything works,” DeBoer said. “As far as I understand, there isn’t a lot of appetite amongst the members who have been here for a while, beyond just the last biennium, for upending the structure of the rules to try to change anything substantial.”

Over the past two years alone, there were 78 cloture motions to end filibusters after they reached a maximum amount of debate set by the speaker.

Lippincott said that’s part of the reason there is talk about changing the threshold to shut off a filibuster, such as down to three-fifths of the 49-member body (30), rather than two-thirds (33). Some senators have also suggested a sliding scale based on how many senators are present and voting, not who is absent or refuses to take a position.

Both candidates said they would listen to all lawmakers, with Lippincott saying he would seek to understand the pros and cons of different rules proposals and DeBoer, who often presides over the Legislature in place of Lt. Gov. Joe Kelly, saying she wants to be a mentor to all lawmakers.

“It’s important to be open-minded, to foster an atmosphere of listening to ideas, and whether it’s brainstorming, having all sorts of ideas come in, or whether it is maintaining status quo and why there are advantages in maintaining the status quo,” Lippincott said.

DeBoer said it is not the job of the rules to try to pick winners or losers or enact political change. She said she hopes her reputation of finding ways forward and negotiating stands out.

“I just believe in Nebraska. I believe in the Legislature,” DeBoer said. “As a result, I want to have rules and a rules process that’s fair to everyone.”