Nebraska bill to restore prison and child welfare watchdog powers advances

A bill aimed to return the 'investigative bite' to the Legislature's watchdog agencies receives first round approval.

Legislative Bill 298 advanced on a 39-3 vote.

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Speaker John Arch said the compromise measure addresses an Attorney General's opinion two years ago that cast doubt on powers of the inspector generals of child welfare and corrections.

"This entire two-year process has been threading the needle. This bill is never going to be perfect. In everybody's eyes. There is always somebody who's going to want more," Arch said.

The inspector generals are the watchdogs hired by the Legislature to shed light on two of the state's highest-profile agencies--prisons and the child welfare system.

But two years ago, Attorney General Mike Hilgers' advisory opinion questioned the authority of the watchdogs and placed them under a tight leash, which kept them from getting information.

In his opinion, Hilgers claimed the OIGs violated the state constitution's separation of powers and significantly impaired the executive and judiciary branches from doing their jobs.

"The opinion certainly rocked our boat," Arch said.

He said they have been working with all three branches to come up with LB 298.

Arch said it answers the AG's concerns, better coordinates the Legislature's oversight structure and cleans up some statutes.

It also replaces the stopgap memorandum of understanding that allowed the OIGs to get some information for the past two years.

"One of our constitutional duties is to provide oversight. We need to get the information necessary to do what we are elected to do, legislate and appropriate," Arch said.

However, some senators said the Legislature already has that constitutional power and should have challenged it in court rather than capitulate.

"It's absolutely ridiculous. and if the speaker won't stand up for the institution that he leads, that tells you everything about what you need to know going on in Nebraska politics today," state Sen. Danielle Conrad said.

"I don't agree that we have capitulated. I don't believe that we are weakening, I believe that we are strengthening," Arch said.

Lawmakers stripped out a provision that would have made it a misdemeanor for an inspector general to disclose any confidential information to anyone other than the newly formed oversight committee of lawmakers.

The bill still has two more rounds of consideration.

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