The LSC Experience

Miss me? This past couple of weeks has been a real challenge working on this new custody bill. While I was told some time ago that the bill had been sent to LSC (Legislative Select Committee), late last week I finally got the contact from LSC.  This is the longest it has ever taken in my many trips down this path since 2001.

Before starting LSC has always asked questions to make sure that they and I are on the same page and so that the process goes smoothly.

SB144 and HB232 went very smoothly and came out with less than 100 words different than what I wrote and submitted. Most of this came from a place where “shared parenting” was used in a very odd place that I missed.

After those bills were blocked by National Parents Organization the Senate sponsor came back and was ready to go again. The bill got put thru again with some minor changes of mine and came back with ZERO changes.  That bill never got introduced as the Senator ran for another office.

This time has been nothing but frustration since March and the governors shut down of businesses, the courts, and the Statehouse.  With everyone working from home it has been a struggle to get anything going.

With the assignment to LSC, the process is in full swing except for this new person immediately starts telling all involved how she is going to rewrite the bill and remove equal physical custody. She then asks questions which admit she can’t grasp what the bill is for and doesn’t understand the concept.

She came at me about a couple f minor changes to the third party visitation section that had to come due to abuse of this section by the courts and total strangers that were filing for custody.

She came at me over changes that were made to the military deployment section that I changed to prevent the courts from blindsiding the deployed and only allow them to make temporary changes for the duration of the deployment.

She got a very sharp answer to every question she asked and I supported each response with what had been done before and she was told to not change the submitted language.

BTW – I have been dealing with this while fighting my December cold/bronchitis.