Late in the 2021 legislative session, a resolution adding Nebraska to the list of states calling for a convention to propose amendments to the U.S. Constitution appeared dead in the water.
The proposal (LR14) from Sen. Steve Halloran of Hastings had failed to advance from committee, and a motion to pull it onto the floor fell two votes short of reaching a simple majority of 25 senators.
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But a motion to suspend the Legislature’s rules late in the 90-day session allowed the resolution to be considered in committee once more, and negotiations between Halloran and Omaha Sen. John McCollister produced the fifth vote needed to put LR14 on the floor.
The Legislature advanced LR14 to second-round consideration on a 32-10 vote after a first-round filibuster attempt was scrapped Monday afternoon, the first day of floor debate in the 2022 session.
Four senators were present but not voting.
“Honestly, I think most people were expecting the full eight-hour filibuster, and that didn’t happen,†Halloran said after the vote. “I was surprised.â€
The resolution, and others like it introduced by Halloran and others in recent years, have failed to gain traction in the Legislature, despite many conservative senators supporting it.
LR14, like resolutions adopted in 15 other states, would call for a convention of states as outlined in Article V of the U.S. Constitution.
Under the resolution, convention delegates would be responsible for drafting proposed constitutional amendments imposing fiscal restraints on the federal government, limiting the power and jurisdiction of the federal government and setting term limits for officeholders and Congress.
Supporters said constitutional amendments are necessary to rein in out-of-control spending that has grown the country’s debt as well as the deficit. Halloran, a Republican, laid blame at the feet of presidents dating back to George W. Bush.
“The debt clock is ticking,†he said, referring to the U.S. Debt Clock, which puts the national debt at nearly $30 trillion, equal to about $89,000 for every person in the country.
While a constitutional amendment could erect guardrails for federal spending and limit the government’s authority to spend, opponents said Halloran’s resolution left room for delegates to interpret intent.
Lincoln Sen. Matt Hansen said the language in LR14 was too broad, potentially allowing a convention of states to interpret the call to “limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government†as anything up to the elimination of Congress.
Other senators who signaled opposition to the resolution also said reasonable people could disagree about what the resolution was actually calling for, and noted the convention could go further than intended.
Halloran said the Constitution was clear on the process, however.
Any proposed amendments that emerged from a convention of states would need to be ratified by three-fourths of the states before they would become law.
Lincoln Sen. Adam Morfeld, who sponsored an amendment stating the convention could not restrict Second Amendment rights, warned the convention would not be limited by any resolution passed by the state legislatures.
“The only precedent we have is the constitutional convention that went rogue the last time we had one,†Morfeld said, referring to the 1787 convention that replaced the Articles of Confederation with the U.S. Constitution.
Morfeld pointed out the Legislature had suspended its own rules to give Halloran's resolution new life, stating there was nothing to stop a convention of states from doing something similar.
After about three hours of debate, the Legislature soundly defeated Morfeld’s amendment, with LR14 backers opposed because it was not in similar resolutions adopted by other states.
Two other amendments introduced by senators who signaled opposition to LR14 — Hansen and Omaha Sen. Megan Hunt — were then withdrawn, clearing the way for the resolution to reach a vote.
Instead of taking the resolution to the eight-hour limit on first-round debate, Hunt said after Monday’s vote that opponents would attempt to defeat LR14 in the second round of consideration, where a filibuster only needs to push debate four hours under the rules adopted by the Legislature.
If that happens, LR14 will need 33 votes to escape a filibuster.