§ 25-21,262.Regulatory authority; sections; how construed.
Article 21: Special Proceedings and Actions · Last amended 1998 · Last verified July 22, 2026
Full Text of § 25-21,262
Source
Laws 1998, LB 395, § 9.
Plain-English Summary
Environmental audits let a company or governmental unit look inward at its own operations and catch problems before a regulator does. Sections 25-21,254 to 25-21,261 build a legal privilege around those audits, so businesses have reason to conduct honest self-checks rather than avoid them for fear that every finding becomes evidence against them. Section 25-21,262 draws a boundary around that privilege: it does not touch the separate authority a state department or agency already holds to require corrective action once it learns what an audit disclosed.
Read together with section 25-21,263, this section tells a court exactly what the audit privilege is not. It is not a shield against a regulator’s power to order a cleanup, revoke a permit, or otherwise respond to what an audit reveals. A company cannot use the privilege to argue that reporting a violation to itself somehow disarms the agency that would otherwise act on that violation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Nebraska’s audit privilege stop an agency from ordering a company to fix a violation an audit found?
No. Section 25-21,262 states that the audit-privilege statutes do not affect any department or agency’s existing regulatory authority to require action tied to what an audit discloses.
What sections does this provision protect from being misread as limiting agency power?
Can a business use the audit privilege to avoid a permit condition or an enforcement order?
No. The privilege governs disclosure and use of audit information; it leaves an agency’s separate authority to enforce permits and regulations fully intact.
Does this section create any new agency power?
No. It confirms that existing regulatory authority continues unaffected; it does not expand or create new powers.
How does section 25-21,262 relate to section 25-21,263?
The two sections work as a pair of guardrails: this one preserves agency regulatory authority, and section 25-21,263 preserves other legal privileges such as the attorney-client privilege and the work-product doctrine.