Nebraska Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh On Her 11-Week Filibuster

The Takeaway

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4.6 • 716 Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2023

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

Nebraska state senator from Omaha, Machaela Cavanaugh, promised to filibuster every bill that comes before the legislature this year — even those she supports. Why? She’s trying to stop a bill intended to outlaw gender-affirming care for people 18 and under. Senator Cavanaugh has been filibustering since February 23 and halfway through the legislative session in March, she’d managed to prevent even a single bill from passing. Her work took on a new urgency this week when Republicans introduced an amendment to the bill framed as a compromise: only gender-affirming surgeries would be banned, but a 12-week abortion ban would also be instated. We spoke with Sen. Cavanaugh prior to this development on Monday about her efforts.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Lulu here, whether we are romping through science, music, politics, technology, or feelings,
0:05.9	we seek to leave you seeing the world anew. Radio Lab adventures right on the edge of what we think
0:11.9	we know, wherever you get podcasts.
0:19.6	Welcome to The Takeaway. I'm Melissa Harris- Harris Perry. We begin today with some very interesting legislative developments out of Nebraska.
0:30.0	Court modernization project page 179, The Martian.
0:37.3	Wait, wait, stick with me.
0:38.5	I promise you, it's not as boring as it might initially sound.
0:42.1	That's Nebraska State Senator Michaela Kavanaugh.
0:45.4	She's in the middle of a filibuster.
0:48.1	And $1 million in FY25.
0:49.9	I think I started to read this already.
0:52.2	Oh, I did.
0:52.9	Yeah.
0:53.3	Okay.
0:53.7	So where did I leave off?
0:55.2	The governor's recommendation for this issue was to amend section 48-145.
1:17.7	Now, a filibuster is a procedural tactic whereby a senator can take the floor and never give it up.
1:28.0	Senator Kavanaugh has kept up her filibuster for 11 weeks. In the Nebraska legislature, a senator can speak for as long as five minutes at a time, up to three times, for every motion or amendment introduced.
1:33.3	They can also lend their own time to others.
1:36.3	Once a new motion or amendment is introduced, they can start it all over again.
1:41.3	I received a couple of emails about concrete.
1:43.3	Thank you for those.
	...

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