Failure to override Nebraska governor’s veto is more about politics than policy, some lawmakers say

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska lawmakers failed to garner the 30 votes needed Tuesday to override Gov. Jim Pillen’s veto of a needle exchange bill that had garnered wide bipartisan support, leading to tense debate and a return to the partisan acrimony seen in last year’s session.

The bill received as many as 39 votes from the unique one-chamber Nebraska Legislature’s 49 members during three rounds of debate earlier this year. When only 27 voted to override the veto, supporters accused flip-flopping lawmakers of caring less about public policy than partisan politics.

“That speaks for itself on what’s really going on here,” Lincoln Sen. Danielle Conrad said.

Omaha Sen. John Fredrickson was more blunt in his criticism of those lawmakers who he said voted against the bill on Pillen’s orders.

“Have a spine,” he admonished.

Nebraska is among a handful of states that don’t offer at least some form of needle-exchange program. Such programs offer sterile hypodermic needles to intravenous drug users, often taking used needles in exchange to safely dispose of them. The idea behind the programs is to prevent the spread of communicable and sometimes deadly diseases like HIV and hepatitis C through the use of dirty needles. The programs are widely supported by health care officials, substance abuse treatment experts and law enforcement.

The Nebraska bill by Omaha Sen. Megan Hunt, an independent, passed last month with 30 votes — including 16 from Republicans in the officially nonpartisan Legislature. But after Pillen’s veto, seven Republicans flipped their vote to oppose the bill. Among them was Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward, who had lauded the bill on her Facebook page last week and criticized Pillen for vetoing it without an alternative