Regulatory Reform in Nebraska: Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities

Nebraska was an early mover in regulatory reform, but there is still room for improvement. The State RegData project, in a first-of-its-kind inventory of state regulations, found that in 2017, the state of Nebraska had 100,627 regulatory restrictions on the books—that is, terms within regulatory text that create legal obligations or prohibitions, such as the words “shall” and “must.” In response to this finding, former Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts issued Executive Order 17-04,1 initiating a review of the state’s regulations. Under the governor’s plan, each regulatory agency in Nebraska was ordered to, among other things, conduct a review of all existing and pending agency regulations and revise or repeal any regulation deemed to be more restrictive than required under state or federal law, or that creates an undue burden. 

Subsequent data2 from the State RegData project show that the executive order likely led to a substantial reduction in unnecessary regulations. As of 2023, Nebraska’s regulatory code had shrunk to 76,201 regulatory restrictions—a reduction of about 24.3 percent. Such dramatic progress puts Nebraska in an elite group – only a handful of states have been able to reduce red tape by even 5 percent. For the most part, states have created regulatory processes that result in consistent accumulation of new regulations, and rarely reexamining existing regulations to see what may no longer be necessary or working.  

Yet for all its progress in cutting red tape, Nebraska still has several opportunities for further improvement. This report describes several best practices for establishing a regulatory process that ensures maximum value out of regulations – because while regulations are undoubtedly necessary, few people want regulations that fail to achieve their purported goals or do so at unreasonable costs. 

To read and download the full report, click here: FINAL Regulatory Reform in Nebraska.