(Photo courtesy of the Nebraska Unicameral Information Office)Consider this the late afternoon update to my earlier post today, Nebraska- IMPORTANT mid-day legislative update, Contact the Legislators ASAP!
Nebraska Legislators ended for the day about an hour ago.
As it stands now all the amendments to date on LB 1 have either been voted on or withdrawn, If LB 1 passes in the final vote the Nebraska age limit would be set at 30 days, per AM 5.
They’re scehduled to start up again tomorrow morning at 9am Central. If there’s not a lot of ‘business’ to do, they may meet very briefly to fulfill the special session constitutional requirement and then close for the day. Other amendments could still be added, or those withdrawn could rear their ugly heads once again, so it will be important to keep a watchful eye.
The one bright spot is that for now at least, Sen. Schimek withdrew AM 10 and 11.
Barring a full repeal bill emerging out of thin air, this may very well be what we’re stuck with. Still, due to the constitutional constraints, they cannot take a final vote until Friday, so there’s still time to ask for what we really want.
There is STILL TIME to urge Legislators to introduce a permanent full repeal bill. (Aged down to Zero point Zero.)
Anything less than a full permanent repeal only guarantees yet another class of dumped kids in Nebraska:
Dump bill 1.0- ended up being kids under 18
Dump bill 2.0- would be kids 30 days old or younger
To date the actual voices of those abandoned and those of adoptees have been ALMOST completely absent from the “debate”, but for one man who gave testimony Monday afternoon. (No, I have not had time to transcribe our recording.)
Legislators have heard from Nebraska’s DHHS, from cooperative associations of childrens services providers, from pediatricians, from professional dump law marketers, from children’s advocacy organizations, from those deeply involved in foster care, from the private contractor the state has outsourced sheltering and intake path duties of the dump law to, Project Harmony, to health associations, and the adoption industry, and on and on.
They’ve heard the first hand account of a parent who used the legalized child abandonment law and from the Hospitals and staff that have been on the front lines as state authorized dump sites, telling stories of kids hysterically begging their parents not to leave, promising:
I’ll be good. I’ll be good! I promise!
And explaining that in at least one hospital system for every child dumped, other families have been talked into giving one more try. This hardly sounds like a solid fix, it sounds like a delayed disaster. It also implies the numbers, even the NE DHHS numbers, which exclude so many of the “attempted” dumps, are still only part of the picture.
But as for the voices of the abandoned themselves, other than the single gentleman who came in to testify at the very end of the hearing, they are marked by their absence, not by their chair at the table.
And as for adoptees, considering how many of the kids dumped in Nebraska are themselves either adoptees or are or have been wards of the state?
We too, find ourselves chair-less, sending in heart wrenching emails, only to receive form letters back, letters that make it abundantly clear, our voices are not being heard.
That said, here once again is the contact information for the Nebraska Legislators, please remind them that no matter what the age, it’s shameful when the state makes child abandonment its policy. The lasting, lifelong effects of abandonment on the kids themselves are simply never a “positive outcome.”
The only real answer to LB 157- the original Nebraska child dump bill is full repeal.
Aging the dump bill down to Zero point Zero may well be the only way for Nebraska to cease being a dumping ground for children.
ALL of us want to enable kids and families to access help, but legalized child abandonment is no solution, it only creates more problems that last a lifetime and are pushed down onto kids themselves.
The dump law does harm. It needs to be pulled, before still more kids have to deal with the consequences of the legislators’ initial mistake.
Here is the Nebraska Legislators main list (each entry has contact information & phone)
and
E-mail address for those that have them:
Adams, Greg - gadams@leg.ne.gov
Aguilar, Ray - raguilar@leg.ne.gov
Ashford, Brad - bashford@leg.ne.gov
Avery, Bill - bavery@leg.ne.gov
Burling, Carroll - cburling@leg.ne.gov
Carlson, Tom - tcarlson@leg.ne.gov
Christensen, Mark - mchristensen@leg.ne.gov
Cornett, Abbie - acornett@leg.ne.gov
Dierks, Cap - mdierks@leg.ne.gov
Dubas, Annette - adubas@leg.ne.gov
Engel L. Patrick - lengel@leg.ne.gov
Erdman, Philip - perdman@leg.ne.gov
Fischer, Deb - dfischer@leg.ne.gov
Flood, Mike - mflood@leg.ne.gov
Friend, Mike - mfriend@leg.ne.gov
Fulton, Tony - tfulton@leg.ne.gov
Gay, Tim - tgay@leg.ne.gov
Hansen, Thomas - thansen@leg.ne.gov
Harms, John - jharms@leg.ne.gov
Heidemann, Lavon - lheidemann@leg.ne.gov
Howard, Gwen - ghoward@leg.ne.gov
Hudkins, Carol - chudkins@leg.ne.gov
Janssen, Ray - rjanssen@leg.ne.gov
Johnson, Joel - jjohnson@leg.ne.gov
Karpisek, Russ - rkarpisek@leg.ne.gov
Kopplin, Gail - gkopplin@leg.ne.gov
Kruse, Lowen - lkruse@leg.ne.gov
Langemeier, Chris - clangemeier@leg.ne.gov
Lathrop, Steve - slathrop@leg.ne.gov
Lautenbaugh, Scott - slautenbaugh@leg.ne.gov
Louden, LeRoy - llouden@leg.ne.gov
McDonald, Vickie - vmcdonald@leg.ne.gov
McGill, Amanda - amcgill@leg.ne.gov
Nantkes, Danielle - dnantkes@leg.ne.gov
Nelson, John - jnelson@leg.ne.gov
Pahls, Rich - rpahls@leg.ne.gov
Pankonin, Dave - dpankonin@leg.ne.gov
Pedersen, Dwite - dpedersen@leg.ne.gov
Pirsch, Pete - ppirsch@leg.ne.gov
Preister, Don - dpreister@leg.ne.gov
Raikes, Ron - rraikes@leg.ne.gov
Rogert, Kent - krogert@leg.ne.gov
Schimek, DiAnna - dschimek@leg.ne.gov
Stuthman, Arnie - astuthman@leg.ne.gov
Synowiecki,John - jsynowiecki@leg.ne.gov
Wallman,Norman - nwallman@leg.ne.gov
White, Tom - twhite@leg.ne.gov
Wightman, John - jwightman@leg.ne.gov
-Lauren Sabina Kneisly
(Author of Baby Love Child
and co-author of Children of the Corn.)
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