The bill that would halt mountain lion hunting in Nebraska was expected to get final approval Thursday morning from the Legislature.

It didn’t happen.

As the Legislature reached the lunch hour, the bill was pulled for the day by Speaker Greg Adams.

What took place between 9:53 a.m., when final reading on the bill (LB671) began, and 11:58 a.m. when debate stopped, was a not-so-well defined filibuster led by Omaha Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh and several other senators. Near the end of the morning, a motion by Ernie Chambers of Omaha, who introduced the bill, to delay it until the last day of the session, which would kill the bill, was made and then withdrawn by Chambers.

Chambers said Lautenbaugh’s plan was a political maneuver to determine the length of a filibuster on final reading. That kind of extended debate on final reading is exceedingly rare.

But that’s the kind of session this has been.

The morning debate went on for 2 hours and 5 minutes. There is no official time for how long a filibuster can go on final reading before a motion to force a vote on the bill, a cloture motion, can be made.

Lautenbaugh’s constitutional amendment on historical horseracing (LR41CA) is expected to be debated on final reading Tuesday, and amendments and a possible filibuster are pending on that resolution.

Speaker Greg Adams said the filibuster on the mountain lion bill was unanticipated when he put the agenda together.

The Legislature recessed for lunch and Adams said senators would not continue with the bill when they reconvened.

The bill is not on Friday’s agenda. Chambers said Thursday night he expects the bill could come back on final reading next week.

During the filibuster, opponents brought up arguments that the protection of the constitutional right to hunt could be violated by the bill.

Chambers has said through debates on the bill that the small number of mountain lions the Game and Parks Commission has verified in the state shows there is no need at this time to manage the game animal. There also have been no reports of attacks by lions on livestock or people in the state.

The Game and Parks Commission scheduled two hunting seasons this year, both of which have ended.

Two male lions were killed in January in the Pine Ridge and a female was killed in February in Sheridan County as part of two hunting seasons.

Chambers especially objected to the commission allowing hunters in the Pine Ridge to use dogs to chase the lions into trees, making them easier to shoot.

In addition to those killed in hunting seasons this year, two mountain lions were killed in traps, one of those a female, and one was run over by a car.