This is Standard Republican Policy. Is This What You Want?
Forget the slogans. Judged by what they voted for, what they did, and what they refused to stop, this is what Republicans in Congress stand for, on 20 issues, with the receipts.
Articles about Jim Pillen
Jim Pillen Rushed to Make Nebraska the First State With Medicaid Work Requirements. In Four Months, Over 1,000 People Lost or Were Denied Coverage — Mostly Over Paperwork.
Nebraska's first data on the Medicaid work rule Pillen volunteered to launch early: at least 1,090 people lost coverage or were turned away, and 92% of those cut at renewal were dropped for missing paperwork. A 64-year-old kidney cancer patient lost his coverage mid-treatment.
Twenty-Four Republicans on This Site Have Refused to Debate Their Opponents This Year. Cliff Bentz Turned Down Four Invitations.
Updated October 15: David Rouzer skipped a UNC Wilmington forum and Russell Fry backed out of an NAACP forum six hours before it started; Tom Cotton's only agreed debate fell through. October 12: Keith Self, asked on national TV whether he would debate, called the district 'my seat.' October 10: Cliff Bentz declined four debate invitations because accepting would make his opponent look 'credible,' Jim Pillen called debates 'theater,' and Julie Fedorchak pulled out of North Dakota's public TV debate. Earlier: Jeff Hurd declined televised debate invitations and agreed to one 30-minute session before a friendly audience instead. John McGuire says he'll debate when his opponent apologizes for raising a BlackRock sale the disclosure records in his wife's retirement account. They join fourteen Republicans we have already documented ducking the one event they can't script.
Jim Pillen Handed a Lobbyist a $2.5 Million No-Bid Contract. Records Show His Office Was Warned About the Technology Her Company Was Selling.
Before Jim Pillen recommended lobbyist Julie Bushell for a $208,333-a-month no-bid contract, she was pushing lawmakers to fund her company's nitrate sensors. The state's top environmental official warned Pillen's chief of staff the technology was unproven. The lawmaker carrying the bill says he never saw the warning.
Jim Pillen Blamed Nebraska's Budget Forecasters for the Shortfall. Now He's Put the Two Senators Who Sponsored His Tax Cuts on the Board.
Six weeks before the forecast that will shape his next budget, Pillen replaced a third of Nebraska's independent revenue-forecasting board — the first governor to do that in its 40-year history — installing Lou Ann Linehan and Tom Briese, who championed the income tax cuts that have contributed to a third straight budget hole of at least $200 million. Linehan says she doesn't think there is a problem.
Jim Pillen Sent Nebraska's State Patrol to Work With ICE. His Own Hog Farms Employed Undocumented Workers for More Than a Decade.
A Flatwater Free Press and New York Times investigation found at least 20 Pillen Family Farms operations employed undocumented workers, and at least 12 Pillen workers were charged with using fake or stolen IDs. The company joined E-Verify the day Pillen launched his campaign for governor.
Jim Pillen Says Ballot Initiatives Aren't 'the Way Policy Should Be Made.' Now He Wants the Legislature to Make Them Harder to Get on the Ballot.
Nebraskans used ballot initiatives to win paid sick leave and medical cannabis. Pillen signed a bill narrowing the sick leave law and helped kill the cannabis bill. Now, citing a fraud case his own election officials caught, he wants to restrict the petition process itself.
One Co-Chairs the Hunger Caucus. One Chairs the Subcommittee That Writes SNAP Policy. Both Voted for the Biggest Food-Aid Cut in History.
The 2025 budget law cut SNAP by $187 billion — about 20%, the largest cut the program has ever taken. Six of these eight Republicans voted for it. Between them they co-chaired the hunger caucus, chaired the nutrition subcommittee, told the public a food bank was on their side, and turned down $18 million meant to feed kids.
Jim Pillen Expected $2.45 Million a Month From the McCook ICE Jail. A Year In, Nebraska Has Collected $14.6 Million Total — and Is Building Solitary Cells.
Pillen converted Nebraska's rehabilitation-focused Work Ethic Camp into a 300-bed ICE jail. Local Republicans learned about it from a national newscast. Now the state is adding isolation rooms at DHS's request.
Nebraskans Voted to Raise Their Own Minimum Wage. Republicans Cut It Back — and Are Now Suing the Cities That Tried to Restore It.
59% of Nebraska voters tied the minimum wage to the cost of living in 2022. Lawmakers replaced that with a flat 1.75% and created a $13.50 teen wage that stays below today's $15 until 2065. Now the attorney general is suing Omaha and Lincoln for trying to opt out.
In January Jim Pillen Said Nebraska Had "Bushel Baskets and Bushel Baskets of Money." In August His Agencies Proposed Employees Sleep in Their Cars.
Records obtained by Nebraska Public Media show what Pillen's 5% squeeze looks like on the ground: a DeafBlind support program discontinued, museum admission raised on kids, and a proposal to make low-income seniors and disabled Nebraskans start paying property tax.
Nebraska Was Offered $18 Million to Feed Hungry Kids Over the Summer. Jim Pillen Said 'I Don't Believe in Welfare.'
Pillen turned down federal summer grocery money for Nebraska's low-income kids in December 2023. He reversed two months later — after a petition and after sitting down with children who were living it. The program he blocked delivered nearly $24 million in its first summer.
A Reporter Found Nitrate Nearly 45 Times the Safe Limit on Jim Pillen's Hog Farms. His Answer: 'The Author Is From Communist China.'
Sixteen of the Pillen family's monitored hog operations recorded nitrate above 50 parts per million. The federal drinking-water limit is 10. Nebraska's governor said he hadn't read the story and wouldn't — then attacked the reporter's nationality.
Jim Pillen Called Nebraskans Who Criticize Him 'Libtards' Three Times in One Hour. Then His Staff Stepped In Before He Could Answer Reporters About It.
On the same telephone town hall where Pillen used an ableist slur three times, he waved off Nebraska's $471.5 million budget hole, saying the press 'tries to say that we're broke,' said the state has 'bushel baskets' of money, and promised he won't support any candidate who won't back a six-week abortion ban.