LINCOLN- After the rancor of last year's legislative session, Sen. Danille Conrad's prediction that things would be better in 2024 was dismissed as wishful thinking. However, as this session wraps up, Conrad says she was right, as the Legislature was able to increase productivity and reduce animosity significantly. Conrad described the sessions as one of the "most significant turnaround stories in American politics."

Hyperbole or not, the improved legislative climate in 2024 was tangible, and stemmed from the strategic scheduling of bills, intentional efforts to improve cross-party relationships, and behind-the-scenes efforts to improve the way measures were heard and debated. Speaker of the Legislature John Arch said he purposefully saved the most contentious bills for the end of the session, including Sen. Kauth's LB575, which, had it passed, would have limited access for transgender K-12 students to sports teams and bathrooms based on their sex assigned at birth.

Arch said his intent this year was to have the Legislature pass noncontentious measures early in the session to help senators develop and remember some "muscle memory" for how constructive debate should be handled. Sen. Wendy DeBoer pointed out that, despite several filibusters this year, many ended short because opposing lawmakers reached a compromise. That, she argued, is how the Legislature os supposed to operate.

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