Nearing the end of its 120-day session, the Nevada Legislature’s recent acts of law-making literally sound like auctions. Bill summaries are read at breakneck speed. The readings of bill histories are nixed as a waste of time. Most bills are passed—and a few killed—without much discussion.
Of course, by the time the Nevada Legislature reaches this point, the last week of its session, a few key issues—education, tax reform, medical malpractice—have received plenty of debate. The bills facing votes on the floor of the Senate and Assembly have been hammered out, debated and amended in committee meetings.
The time crunch is on. In the press to finish everything by June 3, legislators passed more than 120 bills on Friday, working late into the evening—then coming back over the Memorial Day weekend for more meetings. Every second counts.
Still, haste makes waste. It’s too darn easy for ideas to get lost, issues overlooked, mistakes made. Some say that’s already happened.
“This has been kind of a disastrous legislative session,” one activist recently told me. “Something’s seemed wrong—like the whole feeling of the leg has been dominated by huge economic issues and everything else has been pushed aside.”
One example: The Senate voted 7-14 Friday to kill AB 337, a bill that would have restored some rights (like voting and licensing for some occupations) to felons who’ve done their time, completed conditions of parole and launched into new lives as productive citizens. The bill had survived five committee hearings and had been amended twice. It died without debate and received no eulogy.
A more popular bill, AB 250, that doubles the sentences for those who commit violent crimes defined as terrorism, met with several minutes of discussion. Sen. Joe Neal (D-Las Vegas) repeated concerns that language of the bill might allow the law to be used in a broader sense than was intended. Sen. Bob Coffin (D-Las Vegas) worried over subjective definitions of terrorism.
“To some people, your terrorist is my freedom fighter,” Coffin said. “Are we really going to make criminals out of people who donate to any organization that could be considered ‘terrorist’? … That’s what people do to own their freedom. I have participated in movements like this. Others give money.”
While it may be hard to prove that money given to an organization thousands of miles away is intended to support terrorism, Nevadans shouldn’t be giving “terrorist” groups money if the donors know the group is going to buy weapons with it, replied Sen. Mark Amodei (R-Carson City). “That is exactly the type of conduct this seeks to prohibit,” Amodei told Coffin.
The bill passed, 19-2.
The Assembly had passed another anti-terrorism bill, AB 441, earlier Friday. This bill sets up a 14-member Nevada Commission on Homeland Security that would plan the state’s response to acts of terrorism. The bill passed unanimously in about a 10-second vote sandwiched between unanimous votes on AB 418, which would temporarily privatize “certain duties” of the State Public Works Board, and on SB 18, which requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to establish regulation procedures for smog check stations.
The Assembly went on to approve changes to industrial insurance provisions, to the payments of benefits to retired public employees, to qualifications of the state health officer, to qualifications of people who counsel problem gamblers. They broke for a minute to recognize a birthday, then went on to vote on items of concern to cosmetologists, health care workers, university employees, unemployed workers, pharmacologists, cell phone users, tax payers and senior citizens.
Paying attention yet? It’s hard to keep up with this lawmaking pace. Reporters for the Associated Press and daily newspapers pick up on a few key stories. But the impact of the rest of the lawmaking frenzy remains to be seen.