Pete Ricketts on Disability Rights: His Deciding Vote for Medicaid Work Rules, Confirming the Officials Who Dropped Disability Enforcement, and Nebraska's First Coverage Losses

On July 1, 2025, Nebraska Senator Pete Ricketts cast one of the 50 votes that passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, whose Medicaid work requirement makes disabled adults on expansion Medicaid prove they are exempt, and whose six-month eligibility checks CBO expects to leave 700,000 more people uninsured in 2034. The day before, he voted against motions to remove the bill's new paperwork requirements and to strike its Medicaid cuts. Mehmet Oz's Medicaid agency, which he voted to confirm, then wrote a rule that narrows who counts as medically frail.

Ricketts voted to confirm Attorney General Pam Bondi and civil rights chief Harmeet Dhillon, whose division cut its disability enforcement by about 85 percent, and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department joined states in asking a court to strike the rule against needlessly placing people with disabilities in institutions. Nebraska began enforcing the work requirement on May 1, 2026, becoming the first state to implement a key pillar of the law, and by August over 1,000 people lost or were denied Medicaid coverage under the new requirements between May and August.

Pete Ricketts's Votes and Confirmations on Disability Rights and Benefits

• Ricketts Cast One of the 50 Votes for Medicaid Work Requirements and Paperwork Checks That Put Disabled Adults' Coverage at Risk. On July 1, 2025, Pete Ricketts voted yes on H.R. 1, which passed 50 to 50 with the Vice President's vote, so it would have failed without him. The law requires states to verify that adults on expansion Medicaid work or qualify for an exemption, starting by January 2027, and adds eligibility checks every six months for those adults. The Medicaid agency projects that the work requirement means enrollment would be reduced by 2.3 million individuals in FY 2027, and CBO estimates the six-month checks will increase the number of people who are uninsured by 700,000 in 2034. Disabled adults who are not on disability-based Medicaid must prove they qualify as medically frail, a verification that will place an enormous administrative burden on individuals, health care providers, health plans, and states, Georgetown's Center for Children and Families found.
• Ricketts Voted Against Removing the Medicaid Paperwork Rules and Cuts in June 2025. On June 30, 2025, Ricketts voted no on a motion to send the bill back to committee to remove provisions stripping people of federal benefits through the creation of new administrative burdens and paperwork requirements, which failed 48 to 52. He also voted against a second motion that would strike any provision that cuts funding for Medicaid, which lost by 47 to 53. Home and community-based services, which let people with disabilities live at home rather than in institutions, are largely an optional Medicaid benefit, which makes these programs more vulnerable to reductions during periods of state or federal budget constraints, the Bipartisan Policy Center notes. People on Medicaid home care waiting lists waited 32 months on average in 2025, KFF found.
• Ricketts Voted Against Repealing the Six-Month Medicaid Checks in January 2026. On January 30, 2026, Ricketts voted no on Senator Bernie Sanders's amendment to repeal Section 71107 of the Act titled eligibility redeterminations, the six-month checks for expansion adults. It needed 60 votes and failed 49 to 51. Under the checks, a disabled adult in the expansion group has to prove eligibility again every six months or risk losing coverage, the change CBO tied to higher uninsurance in the item above.
• Ricketts Voted to Confirm Mehmet Oz, Whose Agency Narrowed Medicaid's Disability Exemption. On April 3, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Mehmet Oz as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and he was confirmed 53 to 45. Oz's agency issued a June 2026 rule for the work requirement under which a condition must significantly impair a person's ability to work, and Georgetown's Center for Children and Families concluded that Fewer people will qualify as medically frail.
• Ricketts Voted to Confirm the Justice Department Officials Who Cut Disability Rights Enforcement by About 85 Percent. Pete Ricketts voted to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general on February 4, 2025 and Harmeet Dhillon as assistant attorney general for civil rights on April 3, 2025, when Dhillon was confirmed 52 to 45. The Civil Rights Division's own website showed an approximately 85 percent reduction of disability-related enforcement activity in the administration's first year compared with the year before, according to Red Line for Civil Rights, a tracker run by former Justice Department lawyers.
• Ricketts Voted to Confirm the Officials Whose Departments Joined States to Strike the Rule Against Needless Institutionalization. Pete Ricketts voted to confirm Todd Blanche as deputy attorney general on March 5, 2025 and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary on February 13, 2025. By June 2026 Blanche was serving as acting Attorney General, NOTUS reported. In June 2026 the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel concluded that the disability laws impose no legal duty on states to provide integrated services, and the Justice Department, representing Kennedy's department, switched sides and agreed with the states that the requirement should be undone. On September 23, 2026, a federal court in Texas vacated the entire integration provision which includes specific prohibitions against segregation and institutionalization from the health department's Section 504 rule. People with disabilities who want services in their communities may have to go to greater lengths, including suing states, the Florida Phoenix reported.
• Ricketts Voted to Confirm Linda McMahon, Whose Education Department Dismissed Thousands of Civil Rights Complaints. On March 3, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Linda McMahon as secretary of education, and she was confirmed 51 to 45. About 12,000 complaints were pending before Trump took office, more than half concerning students with disabilities, and under McMahon the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights dismissed more than 6,000 complaints without an investigation, The Hechinger Report found, after the department closed regional civil rights offices in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco.
• Ricketts Voted to Confirm the Social Security Commissioner as Disability Hearing Backlogs Grew. On May 6, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Frank Bisignano as commissioner of Social Security, a month after he voted against amendments to prevent DOGE from closing Social Security offices and to preserve Social Security's phone service. The number of people waiting for a disability hearing rose by more than 73,000 from January 2025 to February 2026, to nearly 344,000, and the agency lost 13 percent of its administrative law judges, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found. Those waiting are applicants who have been denied once and are appealing.
• Ricketts Voted to Confirm the Labor Secretary Who Kept Subminimum Wages for Workers With Disabilities. On March 10, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Lori Chavez-DeRemer as secretary of labor. In July 2025 Chavez-DeRemer's department withdrew its proposal to phase out the issuance of subminimum wage certificates, so employers can still pay some workers with disabilities less than the minimum wage.
• As Governor, Ricketts Vetoed Funding for Nebraska's Developmental Disability Providers, a 3 Percent Rate Cut, in 2017. In May 2017, as Nebraska governor, Pete Ricketts vetoed $33.6 million in general funds lawmakers had approved for Medicaid, child welfare, behavioral health and developmental disability providers, which the Legislature's news service said amounts to a 3 percent cut in provider rates. The override attempt failed on a vote of 27-21, short of the 30 votes needed. Appropriations Chair John Stinner said rates for Nebraska Medicaid providers were already the sixth lowest of all the states that provide such information, and the cut lowered what the state paid the agencies that serve Nebraskans with developmental disabilities for the two-year budget.

What the Medicaid Rules Pete Ricketts Voted For Mean for Disabled Nebraskans

• Medicaid work requirement. Nebraska released figures on September 29, 2026 showing that over 1,000 people lost or were denied Medicaid coverage under the new requirements between May and August, Human Rights Watch reported. One 64-year-old Nebraskan who cannot work said he lost his Medicaid coverage while undergoing treatment for kidney cancer. The Urban Institute projects that Nebraska's enrollment could decline by between 16,000 and 30,000 people in 2028.
• Disability benefits. 37,084 disabled workers in Nebraska received Social Security disability benefits at the end of 2024, according to the Social Security Administration, and the national hearing backlog means longer waits for those who appeal a denial.

Frequently Asked Questions About Pete Ricketts on Disability rights

Last updated: 2026-10-25

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