State Sen. Eliot Bostar of Lincoln, center, is flanked by State Sens. Carolyn Bosn and Beau Ballard, from left to right, both of Lincoln. April 10, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

LINCOLN — Though thousands of miles away, a Nebraska lawmaker hopes a prospective state law sent to Gov. Jim Pillen on Thursday could help prevent conflict in the Pacific region.

Lincoln State Sen. Eliot Bostar on Wednesday heralded his Legislative Bill 1300, which includes the Pacific Conflict Stress Test Act, as a way to prepare for and mitigate some threats that a Pacific conflict may pose. But a greater goal is to prevent a conflict from even occurring.

“I would forgive anyone for thinking, ‘Well, how could a state law in Nebraska influence whether or not a conflict in the Pacific occurs?’” he told the Nebraska Examiner.

The governor requested that Bostar introduce the Pacific conflict portions this year.

Through LB 1300, lawmakers are also seeking to build bridges with nations in the Pacific as well as people of Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander descent living in Nebraska. The legislation would create an advocacy Commission on Asian American Affairs as proposed by State Sen. Rita Sanders of Bellevue.

LB 1300 received final approval 46-0 on Thursday and will go to Pillen for his approval. 

Should Pillen sign the bill, Bostar’s Pacific conflict provisions would take effect the next day. Other laws were attached to LB 1300, and those would take effect three months after the Legislature adjourns this year, which is scheduled for next week.

Bostar said officials in the U.S. Department of Defense and National Security Council, under both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, have indicated U.S. foreign adversaries will evaluate how effectively they can disrupt American lives ahead of a conflict.

“The more disruption they can produce domestically in the United States, the more confident they can be — as our adversaries — that we will have a muted response,” Bostar said. 

“Just by preparing here, here in Nebraska, we are in effect doing our part to prevent a conflict from even starting,” he continued.

LB 1300 would define a Pacific conflict as a declared war or armed conflict between the U.S. or an allied country with another nation in the land, sea or air area of the Pacific Ocean. 

Such conflicts would threaten or be thought to reasonably escalate to threaten supply chains, critical infrastructure, safety or security of Nebraska or the United States.

Under Bostar’s bill, the Nebraska Department of Administrative Services and Nebraska Investment Council would need to respectively review state supply chains and state-managed funds to prepare for a Pacific conflict, possibly including divestment or different supply routes.

The Pacific Conflict Stress Test Act also calls for a Committee on Pacific Conflict, which would be in effect for an initial three years, consisting of:

• The director of state homeland security (who will chair the committee).
• The director of administrative services.
• The state investment officer.
• The adjutant general.
• Three individuals appointed by the governor who have applicable knowledge of the threats posed to Nebraska by a Pacific conflict. One would need to represent an entity responsible for the operation and maintenance of critical infrastructure in the state.

Four state senators would serve as non voting members, and the committee would need to meet within 90 days of the law taking effect and then at least once every three months after.

The governor would need to produce and publish a state threat assessment, including an overview of “substantial threats” to state or national security, economic security or public health, no later than one day prior to the annual State of the State address.

“Even if the U.S. wasn’t a participant in the conflict, a conflict in the Pacific would have enormous ramifications, which would be felt in the everyday lives of all Nebraskans,” Bostar said.

Sanders’ LB 2 was included in a committee amendment to LB 1300, which would create the Commission on Asian American Affairs. The state has three similar commissions on Indian Affairs (since 1971), Latino-Americans (since 1972) and African American Affairs (since 2020).

The importance of the commission, Sanders said, is for a small but growing population in Nebraska. She said a committee of advocates formed to push for the bill, including in a meeting with the governor where he “immediately” got on board.

“If we can educate and integrate into the community, the more successful everyone will be,” Sanders said.

Education would be one of the commission’s major focuses with opportunities to build bridges, such as with countries with major AAPI populations.

Sanders, who is Filipina and the only current state lawmaker of Asian descent, as well as the first Asian woman to serve in the Legislature, said one connection could be the Philippines, which the United States has been allied with for more than a century. Sanders said her grandparents left the country to work in Hawaii’s sugarcane industry.

“There’s approximately 40ish countries that make up the ‘Asian’ community, and I think even within that it’s hard to distinguish,” Sanders said.

Tony Fulton was the first state senator of Asian descent after former Gov. Dave Heinemann appointed him to the Legislature in 2007. Fulton served until 2013 and later became state tax commissioner from 2016 to 2022.

In the fall, Gov. Pillen faced national criticism when he dismissed a Flatwater Free Press investigation from reporter Yanqi Xu about nitrate levels on Pillen Family Farms because “the author is from communist China. What more do you need to know?”

The Asian American Foundation, Asian American Journalists Association and the chair of the Congressional Pacific American Caucus blasted Pillen, who refused to apologize.

Sanders said the commission could have played a role at that time — such as through education — and Nebraskans can’t be complacent about history.

She pointed to Japanese internment camps during World War II that included Filipinos and Mexicans.

“Let’s not do that again,” Sanders said. “I think for that reason this is a great group that can help educate in that area.”

Advocates say the commission can be a resource for everyone based on facts and figures, not misinformation, Sanders said.

LB 1300 also includes five other bills from Bostar and State Sens. Tom Brewer of north-central Nebraska and Mike McDonnell of Omaha.

One from Bostar, LB 1048, would require Nebraska chemical facilities to follow federal counterterrorism standards for the most dangerous, riskiest facilities in the country that have since expired due to “congressional dysfunction” and “gamesmanship.”

“Places where what they contain is a valuable weapon itself and places that if sabotaged could lead to catastrophic loss of life,” Bostar said.

Bostar said he has spoken to and reviewed the records of various congressional members — including ones outside Nebraska — who all think the guidelines are critical, but the reality is one U.S. senator can derail legislation, he noted.

If the federal government renews the standards, the Nebraska provisions would go away.

“It doesn’t replace what the federal program was doing, but it’s better than nothing,” Bostar said.

Also included in the package of legislation:

• LB 869, from Bostar, extends eligibility for certain veterans services to veterans who served during peacetimes or on active duty for training in the Nebraska National Guard.
• LB 887, from Brewer, would create a grant program for Nebraska nonprofits related to security measures, up to $500,000 in grants each year. Individual organizations would be limited to up to $100,000 annually.
• LB 1243, from McDonnell, would create the Wildland Incident Response Assistance Team in the office of the State Fire Marshal. The team already exists through informal agreements, but McDonnell, a former firefighter, seeks to enforce it in state law.
• LB 1358, also from McDonnell, would require voters to have the final say in whether salaries of city council members or mayors of cities of the metropolitan and primary classes (Omaha and Lincoln) should increase in excess of inflation plus 1%. It also would limit how frequently increases may occur.

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