On Monday February 12 my priority bill for the session, LB 1120, had its public hearing in the Banking, Commerce and Insurance Committee. The bill deals with national security and making sure that land around the intercontinental ballistic missile facilities is not purchased by enemies of the United States.

The introduced copy of the bill established a restricted zone with a 10-mile radius around military installations. Whenever property that was in whole or in part inside the restricted zone, the purchaser must sign an affidavit stating that they are not affiliated with a foreign adversary of the US. For determining who is considered to be an enemy of the United States, we looked to the federal government and the Code of Federal Regulation for that list. In Title 15 of the Code of Federal Regulations Section 7.4 the government identifies six countries as foreign adversaries: the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Cuba, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Russian Federation and the Venezuelan Maduro Regime.

After conversations with stakeholders that the bill will impact, there were concerns with how the original bill was drafted. There were concerns about what the language of the affidavit would be and with making sure that there were not multiple types of affidavits submitted with land purchases. We also heard concerns about if purchasers would know if an affidavit would need to be submitted with their land purchase and where the 10-mile radius would be.

From these concerns we came up with AM 2519. The amendment is what is known as a white copy amendment, which is an amendment that strikes all the original sections of a bill and replaces it with all new sections. With the amendment, an affidavit is still required for land purchases around the ICBM facilities but identifying what land qualifies for needing an affidavit is much easier. For this fix, again we looked to a Code of Federal Regulations. For this we referenced Title 31 C.F.R. Section 802.211. This C.F.R. plainly spells out what land is considered to be sensitively located near nuclear missile facilities. Also in the amendment is a sample affidavit to be submitted with necessary land purchases to ensure affidavits are uniform across all purchases.

On Thursday, February 15, the Banking, Commerce and Insurance Committee advanced LB 1120 to General File with AM 2519 as a committee amendment. I am thankful for the Banking Committee and Chairwoman Slama for their swift work to advance the bill to General File so that it can be debated by the full body of the Legislature. This is a very important measure that will add another layer of safety to the Nebraska Panhandle. It is important to ensure that land near the ICBM facilities is not purchased by an individual affiliated with enemies of our country.

 

Please contact my office with any comments, questions or concerns. Email me at;

[email protected], mail a letter to Sen. Brian Hardin, Room 2004, P.O. Box 94604, Lincoln,

NE 68509 or call us at (402) 471-2802