- Apr 2, 2025
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The Nevada Legislature remains in the middle of its 120-day biennial session, with lawmakers busily hearing costs, taking votes and writing changes.
And there's no time at all like the middle of the procedure to recognize ways it can be made much better, more effective or simpler.
Here are 5 things citizens might think about to improve the Legislature.
1. Start writing earlier
The state constitution strictly limits sessions to 120 days, however anyone who's operated in Carson City understands that legislators are working all the time. No faster does a session end than planning for the next one begins, and requests for expenses to be heard in 2025 will start coming in shortly after the last gavel falls this year. But frequently, work on those bills does not start till a couple of months before the session begins.
The staff of the Legislative Counsel Bureau could be expanded (and, let's be honest, much better paid) so that work on bill drafts could take location all the time, providing legislators a huge dive on the next session. That could get rid of the logjam that typically happens as a session gets underway and deadlines approach. (The due date for costs to be introduced needed to be extended this year.).
2. Cooperation.
In most cases, various legislators may request the really similar or exact same bills. Rather of preparing the exact same legislation, legislators ought to be alerted to the resemblance and be asked to co-sponsor a single costs. This would not just free up costs drafters to deal with special legislation, it would also cut down on confusion when two comparable costs with different numbers on the very same subject wind their method through the process.
3. Concrete, not conceptual, changes.
This session, there have been a large number of "conceptual changes," documents that describe what legislators want to see in a modified expense, however without the accurate language that will really appear in the law. Any excellent lobbyist will inform you that's a sure method to develop unintended repercussions, or even undercut the intent of a bill. Each committee should have the precise language of each modification before its members vote.
3. When to break the rules, Know.
Currently, individuals presenting expenses (generally legislators or executive branch authorities) have an unlimited time to present their concepts, and address questions from lawmakers in committees. People affirming for or against those steps are typically limited to one or two minutes of testimony, and committee chairs may put total limits (say, 30 minutes or an hour) on testimony. For specific costs, that's fine. For extremely intricate measures, that's not nearly enough. Lobbyists in some cases get a bum rap, but they are generally professionals on their issues and may have valuable information for committees to consider. Committee chairs need to suspend those rules on certain bills, so legislators can find out more while legislation is being vetted.
4. Mentioning lobbyists.
There are strict guidelines about lawmakers not accepting gifts from lobbyists, consisting of meals. Those guidelines have likewise cut down on lobbyists' and lawmakers' capability to get to know one another in social circumstances, away from the legislative structure and main company, which used to be a key component of working in Carson City.
5. Ask the voters for assistance.
Citizens have actually authorized term limits, a 120-day hard cap on sessions, a two-thirds supermajority to raise taxes and stricter rules on lobbyists. Yearly sessions. Even if lawmakers still kept to the 120-day guideline, conference for 90 days in odd-numbered years and 30 days in even-numbered years, budgeting and lawmaking might become a lot more efficient.
Contact Steve Sebelius at SSebelius@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253. Follow @SteveSebelius on Twitter.
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