Create the offense of commercial sexual exploitation, require registration under the Sex Offender Registration Act for certain solicitation and trafficking offenses, provide for a grant program for law enforcement, and require the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct education and awareness campaigns

Brief

What this bill does

If it passes, what actually changes?

This is a criminal-law bill. It renames and rewrites Nebraska's crime of soliciting prostitution, raises the punishments, and reaches property used in the offense.

• Renames solicitation of prostitution as "commercial sexual exploitation" and rewrites its elements in section 28-801.01.
• First offense where the person solicited was eighteen or older: Class I misdemeanor plus a $1,000 fine.
• That misdemeanor tier also requires completing a mental health and substance abuse assessment and an education program.
• First offense involving someone under eighteen, or any repeat offense: Class IV felony plus a $5,000 fine.
• Those felony-tier offenders must register under the Sex Offender Registration Act.
• Adds new sections 6 through 9 to the Nebraska Criminal Code and extends forfeiture under section 25-21,302.

What it says it is for

Does it do what it claims?

Mostly yes, for the parts of the bill actually visible here. The excerpt stops partway through, so several promised pieces cannot be checked against operative text.

• Match: the rename to commercial sexual exploitation appears verbatim in amended section 28-801.01(1).
• Match: registration under the Sex Offender Registration Act is imposed by subdivision (2)(b)(iii).
• Match: forfeiture reach is extended in section 25-21,302 to new sections 6, 7, and 8.
• Not shown: the law enforcement grant program and Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement duties appear only in the title.
• Not shown: the Department of Health and Human Services education and awareness campaigns appear only in the title.
• Not shown: setting aside and expunging certain first offense convictions appears only in the title.

Where Scripture bears on it

What does the Bible say about this?

The bill asks whether buying sex should be named and punished as exploitation of the person sold, and whether that grade should rise when the person is a child. Scripture bears on this thematically rather than directly: it names the buyer and the man-stealer together as offenders, and it pairs judgment on sexual sin with an open door for repentance.

• "For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;" 1 Timothy 1:10
• "Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds." Revelation 2:22

These verses do not settle what the bill actually decides — misdemeanor or felony, the size of a fine, who belongs on a sex offender registry, when property may be forfeited, or whether a mandated assessment reforms anyone — and Revelation 2:22 in particular puts the woman under judgment alongside the men, which is the opposite of this bill's choice to aim at buyers rather than the person sold.

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Tri (turn 2, both legs live): Grok (`grok-4.3`) and Groq (`openai/gpt-oss-120b`) produced near-identical answers, both choosing 1 Timothy 1:10 + 1 John 3:4. All three of us independently picked 1 Timothy 1:10 — the only verse in the set that names both the buyer and the trafficker, so that agreement is real signal. I diverged on the second verse: 1 John 3:4 defines sin as transgression of divine law, which says nothing about *this* statute and reads as filler; Revelation 2:22 at least tracks the bill's structure of penalty-plus-a-path-out. Neither external model flagged the direction problem in Revelation 2:22, and neither noted that the bill's whole move is to relocate blame onto the buyer.

The case each way

What is the strongest argument for, and against?

The disagreement is whether punishing buyers harder, and listing some as sex offenders, reduces exploitation or reaches too far.

• For: The rewritten offense targets the person who pays or offers to pay, not the person paid.
• For: Felony treatment and registration attach when the person solicited was younger than eighteen.
• For: Forfeiture covers vehicles, computers, phones, and money used to arrange the exchange.
• Against: Sex Offender Registration Act listing is a lasting consequence attached to a Class IV felony solicitation.
• Against: Fixed fines of $1,000 and $5,000 replace older floors of $250 and $500.
• Against: If no answer is filed within thirty days, property is forfeited to the seizing law enforcement agency.

What is unsettled

What should I be careful about?

This reading covers only the excerpt supplied, which breaks off inside section 3.

• The text is truncated; sections 4 through 9 of the bill are not visible here.
• Strike-through and underline markup is collapsed, blurring old versus new wording in section 28-801.01(1).
• Whether the former "not his or her spouse" exception survives cannot be settled from the merged text.
• The grant program's funding amount, source, and eligibility rules do not appear in this text.
• The bill states legislative intent on appropriations, but no dollar figure appears in the excerpt.
• The operative date is promised in the title but is not shown in the excerpt.

Text (1)

• Introduced (application/pdf)

Each link opens the Legislature's own document. The text itself is not in our database yet (fetched lazily); when it lands these pages will carry it verbatim.

All Actions (5)

Votes (0)

There have been no roll call votes on this bill.

Sponsors (1)

• Sen. Rick Holdcroft [District 36] — primary sponsor

Amendments (0)

There are no amendments to this bill.

Fiscal Notes & Statements (2)

• Fiscal Note — Fiscal Note
• Statement of Intent — Statement of Intent

The Legislature's own companion documents; each link opens the official copy.

Committees (1)

Related Bills (0)

No related bill information was received for LB511.