Nebraska Looks to Increase Government Accountability and Transparency
ALEC has made reforms like Nebraska’s a priority with the creation of the ALEC Government Efficiency Coalition.
Regulatory reforms have emerged as a key issue in 2025 as D.O.G.E. leads federal efforts to boost government efficiency. The momentum in Washington, D.C. is growing, and states are now looking internally to identify ways to reduce wasteful government spending at home.
Nebraska has taken the lead on this issue. Legislators introduced a package of seven bills coined the GOAT (government oversight, accountability, and transparency), which aims to increase government accountability and transparency in the Cornhusker State. Three of the bills resemble ALEC model policies aimed at reigning in government regulation.
One bill, the REINS (Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny) Act introduced by Senator Merv Riepe, requires any regulation with an estimated economic impact of $1 million or more over the five-year period in which it would be in effect to receive legislative approval. Similar to the Targeted Legislative Review Act, featured in the ALEC Essential Policy Solutions for 2025, this bill aims at reducing bureaucratic rule-making that would have a large economic impact across the state.
The Targeted Legislative Review Act creates a Legislative Economic Analysis Unit (LEAU) to provide economic analysis relevant to the Legislature. If the LEAU determines the proposed regulation qualifies as a “major rule”, that rule must be approved by the legislature before it goes into effect. Kansas passed similar legislation last year.
Another of the bills, LB29, sponsored by Senator Danielle Conrad, aims at codifying a 2017 executive order requiring agencies to review existing regulations. The bill would require agencies to review their regulations every three years and submit a report to the Legislature. Similarly, the ALEC Regulatory Sunset Act, also featured in the ALEC Essential Policy Solutions for 2025, requires rules and regulations to automatically sunset after five years, unless they are amended or reapproved by the Legislature.
In Virginia, Governor Glenn Youngkin signed Executive Order 19 in 2022, creating the Office of Regulatory Management (ORM) to “provide transparency, streamline regulatory management and… reduce 25% of Virginia’s regulatory burdens.” The Virginia ORM estimates that it saves the state $1.2 billion each year and is committed to increasing efficiency and transparency in the permitting application process through the Virginia Permit Transparency program.
Nebraska has followed in Virginia’s footsteps, with Senator Dan McKeon introducing a bill to bring an ORM to the state. Like the Virginia Executive Order, it would create the Office of Regulatory Management to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of regulations. The bill aligns with ALEC model policy, An Act to Establish the Office of Regulatory Management, which establishes an ORM to “enhance and utilize transparency to reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens and ensure that new regulations are evidence-based and cost-effective.”
ALEC has made reforms like Nebraska’s a priority with the creation of the ALEC Government Efficiency Coalition. Vivek Ramaswamy’s speech during the States and Nation Policy Summit last December laid out the purpose of legislation like the GOAT package, saying, “The people we elect to run the government ought to be the ones who actually run the government… We the People create a government that is accountable to us, not the other way around.”