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Legislative Bills to Watch

Below are several legislative bills of interest. For more information on what is happening at the Nebraska Unicameral you can check their Web site by clicking here.

2010 Legislative Bills of Concern: By Al Riskowski, Executive Director Nebraska Family Council

The lawmaking process in Nebraska officially begins when a senator introduces a bill at the start of each Legislative Session. That bill is then heard by one of the 14 standing committees. About 8 State Senators make up each committee. It is common for a State Senator to sit on at least two committees. Once a committee hears public testimony, has a debate and proposes any amendments to a bill then it votes on moving a bill out of committee. If a bill receives a majority vote of the committee it is moved to general file and then debated by the full legislature. The 2010 session is the second year of a two year cycle. Thus, bills that do not get passed by the end of 2010 session will be terminated and the legislative bill process will start over in 2011.

Bills before the 2010 Legislature:

LB 444  Escort Service Bill  (Introduced by Sen. Christensen) 
LB 444 was inspired after I was searching the Yellow Pages for an Excavating Contractor and seeing Escort Service ads.  When I read the large Escort ads I was shocked at their bold immoral advertising.

In speaking with local police officers, they confirmed my assessment that Escort Services are often associated with prostitution.  There is also a suspicion that some of them are using underage run away children and human trafficking as employees. 

Senator Mark Christensen was willing to introduce this important piece of legislation. LB 444 would adopt the Escort Services Accountability and Licensing Act. This bill would require an Escort type Service to have an address, keep records of clients, obtain a license to operate, have the employer and employees checked through a national fingerprint search and become subject to criminal actions.

LB 19  (Introduced by Sen. Christensen)
The 50% divorce rate is intolerable.  Divorce is devastating children, costly to taxpayers and emotionally destructive to adults.  Oklahoma has seen their divorce rate decline. 
Working together with Sen. Mark Christensen's office LB 19 was introduced.  This bill encourages a couple to take an eight hour pre-marriage class.  If a couple completes the class the marriage license would be $15, without the class a marriage license is $75 with a 10 day waiting period.  The bill states that eight hours of instruction are to include conflict management, communication, financial management and parenting skills.  This type of legislation is an important first step in reducing the divorce rate.
Oklahoma is well ahead of Nebraska in addressing the divorce problem.  The Governor of Oklahoma realized a joint effort between the government, non-profits and the faith community could reduce divorces.  After passing a similar bill and a state wide effort, Oklahoma has seen the divorce rate drop 7%.

LB 443 (Introduced by Sen. Mark Christensen)
This bill would put additional regulations on strip bars and stores that sell pornography.  Why is it important for Statewide Regulations?  It is difficult for small communities and sparsely populated counties to legally defend themselves against this type of business but they experience the problems created by the secondary affects.