Nebraska lawmakers advance bill to let digital news outlets carry legal notices; Hall of Fame amendment withdrawn
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Summary
The Legislature advanced LB596, which would modernize legal-notice publication to allow notices on qualifying digital news sites and fold related records and open-meetings updates into a committee package. A floor amendment to name a living Nebraskan to the Hall of Fame was withdrawn after senators raised constitutional concerns about special legislation.
Senator Sanders opened debate on LB596, telling colleagues the bill would modernize Nebraska’s legal-notice statute to allow public notices to be published on websites and applications owned by digital news publications and to better protect public records and open-meetings requirements. She said stakeholders — including the Nebraska Press Association, county officials and school boards — worked with her office to reach consensus on the committee changes.
The Government, Military and Veterans Affairs committee package attached to LB596 (AM 22 82) incorporated several related bills, including measures addressing marriage-license fees, virtual conferencing for certain state bodies, local-records modernization and county-level veteran-service records. Senator Sanders asked colleagues to support the committee amendment and the underlying bill.
On the floor, Senator Linowski offered AM 24 05, an amendment to name one living person to the Nebraska Hall of Fame before Jan. 1, 2027; his floor explanation made clear the language was intended to make Tom Osborne eligible under specified criteria. Multiple senators objected. “We are creating special legislation, which is unconstitutional in Nebraska,” Senator Hunt said, adding she could not support legislation tailored to a single individual. Senator Conrad raised similar legal concerns and urged broadening the language or addressing the Hall-of-Fame process more generally to avoid creating a permanently closed class under Article III, Section 18 of the state constitution.
Following a short germaneness review and discussion, Senator Linowski withdrew AM 24 05. The clerk recorded the withdrawal and the Senate proceeded to other amendments.
The body adopted AM 24 28, a floor amendment offered by Senator Kaye incorporating provisions from LB869 to change how the state treasurer publishes notices about presumed-abandoned property, which would allow the treasurer to place a county-by-county ad or a display advertisement covering at least 25% of a standard broadsheet in many more newspapers. Senator Kaye said the change would let unclaimed-property ads reach rural communities directly and could increase the number of newspapers carrying the notice from 16 dailies to as many as 128 local papers.
Senator Rountree’s amendment (FA 10 27), attached to LB596, shortened the publication requirement for adult legal-name changes from four consecutive weeks to two, aligning adult and minor requirements and reducing cost and administrative burden; the amendment was adopted with sponsor support.
After closing remarks from Senator Sanders, the committee amendment AM 22 82 was adopted and LB596 advanced to E & R initial by recorded vote. The clerk recorded the advancement as 40 ayes and 1 nay.