Kansas – from www.cjonline.com – Angst in the Senate about negative influence of the Kansas adult entertainment businesses Wednesday didn’t rise to a level necessary to force to the floor an industry regulation bill bottled in committee.

The motion by Sen. Steve Abrams [pictured], R-Arkansas City, fell short of garnering the minimum 24 votes in the 40-member chamber to overstep the normal process of moving bills to the full Senate.

Without a word of debate, the chamber voted 17-22 to reject Abrams’ motion.

“Hearby declared lost,” concluded Senate President Steve Morris, a Hugoton Republican.

Sens. Vicki Schmidt, R-Topeka, Laura Kelly, D-Topeka, and Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, voted against the motion to pull the bill from committee.

Abrams had attempted to resurrect the House-passed bill limiting the location of new topless clubs, bookstores and movie outlets. The measure constrained existing businesses by shortening operating hours and banning nudity.

Morris had declared the House’s regulatory bill “materially altered,” a procedural designation affixed to legislation substantially altered by the House after leaving the Senate.

The Senate president also placed the bill on idle in the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee.

Abrams’ motion would have withdrawn the bill from committee and moved the measure closer to a floor vote in the Senate.

He said the state had an obligation to bring order to sexually oriented businesses that damage communities with inspiring criminal behavior and creating other negative secondary effects.

The House bill would prohibit new adult-based businesses from locating within 1,000 feet of a school, library, day care center or church. There was an effort in the House to streamline the bill to this lone provision, but that failed.

A majority of House members declined to surrender a ban on nude dancing in existing clubs. Entertainers would stay 6 feet from clients and perform on an elevated stage. The adult businesses would be forced to close from midnight to 6 a.m. Cities and counties could adopt regulations more stringent than the state law.