Latest news with #JimPillen
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Nebraska lawmakers wrap up 1st session, 4 bills approved
NEBRASKA (KCAU) — Today was the last day of the 1st Session in Nebraska's 109th legislature, the last of the three Siouxland states. State lawmakers wrapped up their work by voting on four bills earlier this morning. Then, this afternoon, Governor Jim Pillen and First Lady Suzanne arrived at the unicameral for the governor to deliver his Sine Die Address to state senators. Story continues below Top Story: Community remembers Alicia Hummel 10 years after her murder Lights & Sirens: Venue change motion for Bloomfield double homicide case pending Sports: Huskers baseball drops NCAA opener to Oklahoma in 7-4 defeat Weather: Get the latest weather forecast here Pillen spoke about remembering trooper Kyle McAcy, who was killed in the line of duty while responding to a crash on I-80 back in February. The governor also spoke about the 2025-27 biennium budget that he signed into law. The Governor Pillen also said lawmakers will return to Lincoln in 7 months, in January 2026. Pillen does not plan on having a special session this year. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Nebraska governor touts ‘historically conservative budget,' wins
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, center, greets State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil on the final day of the 2025 legislative session. June 2, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) LINCOLN — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, in his end of session speech to state lawmakers, called the state budget 'historically conservative.' Pillen portrayed the session as 'positive,' highlighting the passage of some of his priorities this session, including limiting high school and college sports participation to sex at birth, banning lab-grown meat, prohibiting cell phones in schools and a merger of the state's agencies in charge of overseeing water quality and quantity. He also praised a budget with a two-year average general fund spending growth of 1% a year. 'I believe we are setting the Cornhusker State up for success, and when we commit to strong fiscal conservatism and reduce the tax burden for Nebraska families, the potential of this place for generations to come is beyond our understanding,' Pillen said. Pillen said he and state lawmakers worked together to pass a 'budget package that said no when we needed to say no' and put the state's 'idle pillowcase money to work.' Nebraska lawmakers balanced the budget mostly by using the state 'rainy day' cash reserve fund and a series of cash transfers and spending cuts to fill budget holes. Democratic lawmakers have compared the budget to 'The Emperor's New Clothes,' a fairy tale where the ruler is naked but his subjects pretend he has extravagant clothing. Pillen tried and then withdrew his intended $14.5 million in general fund line-item vetoes to the budget. Property tax relief, a top Pillen priority, was dealt a blow when the Legislature's last shot at meeting his pledge to keep property taxes flat this year fell short last month, Nebraska's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' that would have shifted sales taxes toward property tax relief. That bill became the third property tax package in the past year to propose and lack support for broadening the sales tax base to lower property taxes. Pillen's push for 'Winner-Take-All' failed, as grabbing too few votes to overcome a filibuster. The governor, whose family owns a major hog operation based in Columbus, alluded to addressing property taxes in future sessions. 'We can decrease spending and actually fix our tax system — and we have to fix it because it is badly broken,' he said. Pillen achieved some of his culture war-related goal issues, including the school sports law, a law against foreign agents, age verification for future social media accounts and the ban on lab-grown meat. Pillen didn't directly address some of the session's controversies, among them several heated debates as the GOP-majority Legislature pushed back against a handful of ballot measures passed by Nebraska voters, including new laws requiring paid sick leave, raising the minimum wage, repealing school vouchers, and legalizing medical marijuana. He said he would continue to work with lawmakers to serve the people of Nebraska — and this time made no mention of a possible special session. 'I'm really proud to have partnered with you all on many of these initiatives,' Pillen said, 'So good news in just seven or so months, we all get to do it over again.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Nebraskans have a couple of questions
Nebraska's congressional delegation is shown in Washington. From left: U.S. Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb. Feb. 5, 2025. (Courtesy of Nebraska Governor's Office) Welcome to another 'What If?' press conference, questions for Nebraska's congressional delegation in Washington. Since our last session, the White House has tried to shutter the U.S. Department of Education, our tariff 'policy' resembles a yo-yo, the inaptly-named 'big, beautiful bill' has uglied up the nation's balance sheet, and curious Americans have taken to looking up both 'emoluments' and 'original sin.' Let's start with the aforementioned BBB. The House kept vampire hours to pass it by a single vote, after which the yays, apparently in a fit of sleep-deprived hubris, congratulated themselves before the bill went to the Senate. We have a couple questions: Your own accounting firm, the Congressional Budget Office, determined the BBB gives 60% of its tax breaks to the top fifth of the income bracket, yet cuts food assistance and health care to millions of poorer Americans. How does this benefit the country and what problem does it solve? The five of you belong to a political party that has historically railed against deficits. The CBO projects the BBB will add $3.8 trillion to the nation's deficit over the next decade. Please explain what the economic advantage is here, given the dismal history of such cuts: See Reagan 1981, G.W. Bush 2001 and 2003 and Trump 2017 for details. We'll move on. During a recent congressional hearing the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security couldn't come up with the meaning of habeas corpus when she was asked to define it. This comes on the heels of recent interviews in which high-ranking administration officials, including the president, couldn't guarantee that federal detainees would be given due process. Hmm? Assuming you still support habeas corpus and due process, when and how should Congress intervene when the administration ignores these most basic of principles in a country in which the rule of law is paramount? This next question is actually a matter of math. According to the Partnership for Public Service, using numbers from the federal Office of Personnel Management, 'in absolute numbers, the federal workforce is slightly smaller than it was 50 years ago, even as the U.S. population has increased by nearly two-thirds during that time period.' Even though the courts have tied up or reversed much of the Department of Government Efficiency's work, how do you square those numbers with DOGE's scorched-earth policy, especially since the American public has been provided scant evidence of findings of waste, fraud, and abuse, the triplex premise on which DOGE hangs its hat? Time to talk tariffs. To date, even a casual observer would conclude that the president's on again, off again tariff proclamations have roiled markets and created uncertainty with little resulting economic benefit. As you know, Article I, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution gives only Congress the power to levy tariffs. Even though previously enacted laws allow Congress to let the president set tariffs in certain situations, could you explain and defend the 'qualifying' situation in which we find ourselves and detail how Congress sitting on the sidelines at this juncture in the levying of tariffs benefits Americans? The president has pulled $2.5 billion from Harvard University, threatened its tax-exempt status, tried to block enrollment of foreign students and pretty much wants a say in whom it should hire and what it should teach. All this to curb what he says is Harvard's anti-semitism, a charge which, while acknowledged in part by the school, remains without specifics. (Nevermind that the president hosted a cryptocurrency dinner during which a number of coins carried virulently anti-semitic names.) Some have argued that Harvard is simply the poster child for the administration's 'war on higher education,' in the guise of eliminating DEI, CRT, essentially any voice contrary to its liking. First, should the government be telling colleges and universities what to teach, who should teach it and who is allowed to learn? Please respond to the following quote as it relates to social studies and history curricula. 'History is not there for you to like or dislike. It is there for you to learn from. And if it offends you, even better, because you are less likely to repeat it. History is not yours to change or destroy. It belongs to all of us.' Could you explain what problem is solved by closing the Department of Education, which, as you know, sets no curriculum? Finally, does it ever occur to you that some in Washington have no idea what they are doing or worse, know what they are doing, know it's bad for America and do it anyway? Asking for some friends. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Engadget
3 days ago
- Politics
- Engadget
A new Nebraska law wants to make social media less addictive for kids
Nebraska is the latest state to crack down on how kids can use social media. The state's governor, Jim Pillen, recently signed into law a package of bills aimed at restricting certain social media features that keep kids hooked on the platform. The final bill signed, called the Age-Appropriate Online Design Code Act, will require companies to offer time limits on usage, restrict certain categories of content and provide chronological feeds instead of algorithmic ones that promote infinite scrolling. The Age-Appropriate Online Design Code Act, also known as LB504, details that social media companies can only collect the minimum amount of personal data from younger users, and offers parents more tools to limit how their children use their accounts. Along with those restrictions, the law prohibits any ads related to gambling, alcohol, tobacco or drugs from reaching kids on social media. Alongside LB504, the signed package of bills includes LB140 that limits student use of smartphones in schools, LB383 that requires social media companies to verify the age of its users and require parental consent for creating accounts, and LB172 that creates criminal penalties for AI-generated pornography. "Collectively, all these bills have an incredible impact on helping our teachers and giving our schools the opportunity to teach our kids, instead of being disrupted in the classroom," Pillen said in a press release. "They also provide parents with the tools they need to protect our kids from big tech online companies and predators." The law is set to go into effect January 1, 2026, and any companies that violate these new regulations will face civil penalties. Nebraska is the latest state to restrict social media usage for minors, but Texas is also trying to pass a similar ban. With more efforts to regulate social media, NetChoice, an Internet advocacy organization whose members include Google, Meta and X, has voiced criticism of these states' efforts, arguing that they infringe on First Amendment rights and user privacy. In 2022, California signed a similar law meant to protect underage users, but it has since been in a legal battle following a lawsuit filed by NetChoice that claims a violation of free speech rights.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Pillen signs Adopt the Age-Appropriate Online Design Code Act
NEBRASKA (KCAU) — Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen signed a measure into law that will protect minors and their private information on websites and social media. The governor signed LB 504, the age-appropriate online design code act, at the state Capitol Building in Lincoln. Story continues below Top Story: UnityPoint Health to acquire MercyOne Siouxland Lights & Sirens: Sioux City Police Department: Deadly March stabbing justified Sports: Local Iowa high school boys soccer playoff highlights and scores (5-29-25) Weather: Get the latest weather forecast here The measure will have online service providers face civil penalties if they commit a violation. The bill will also give parents the ability to monitor privacy and account settings. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
