The Legislative Process

I thought a good topic for this column would be a discussion of the legislative process since the Nevada Legislature convened for the bi-annual meeting on February 6th. This session, like all the others since the Nevada Constitution was amended, is mandated to last 120 continuous days until early June. I have been a registered lobbyist in Nevada for over forty years.

It always surprises me when during election season friends of mine who know the kind of law practice I have (legislative and government affairs) ask me about candidates for the State Assembly and State Senate. I give them my opinion base upon my experience with a candidate running for reelection or interviews with people who are first time candidates. Often, I hear comments from my friends that they might skip voting in these races because it doesn’t seem to have relevance to their personal or business daily life.

I can assure anyone with those doubts about relevance the legislature and its actions on hundreds of issues in any legislative session are very relevant and can impact in many ways negatively and positively the lives of the citizens of any state. I would venture to say the process by which ideas become laws passed by a legislature is not very wellknown by the electorate of any jurisdiction and that includes Nevada.

Let us say you have a great idea for a new law in Nevada or you think there is a law that should be repealed because it discriminates or is bad for business development. You have some neighbors or friends who agree with you. You all think this idea should be addressed in the next legislative session. How do you get this idea presented to the legislature for discussion and a vote.

You and your neighbors live in a district represented by a State Senator and a member of the State Assembly. One or both of these representatives should be contacted well before the next legislative session and your idea should be explained to them for consideration as a bill draft request (BDR). Each member of the legislature has a defined quantity of BDRs they can use to turn into bills to be introduced at the next legislature.

Once the member of the legislature is convinced your idea has merit to at least be heard they will request a place in line for the BDR and it will be assigned a number and published on the State Legislative web site. When the legislature convenes the BDR could be printed and pre-filed or shortly within the first month of the legislature the bill could be provided to you by the member for your review. If there are no changes you would tell the legislator it is fine to be introduced. The bill will be read the first time in the house of origin and a assigned to a committee with the relevant jurisdiction over the chapters in the statutes the bill seeks to amend or add.

The next step is the bill will be heard in a committee. Prior to this meeting the person who wants the change to the law should either hire a lobbyist to visit with members of the committee, do the visits themselves or a combination of both. These educational visits are imperative for the success of the bill because invariably there will be questions or opposition to the idea. The questions need to be answered before the hearing and a good advocate for the idea will understand the opposition point of view, articulate it in the meetings, and counter the opposition argument. If this is done correctly the hearing will go smoothly. It is unlikely the bill will be voted on during the hearing. That action will be done later. The vote will be to defeat the idea, pass with any amendments, and send the bill to the full house for a floor debate and a recommendation to pass it, or send to the full house with no recommendation.

Let’s assume the bill is passed in the house of origin. Once passed it is sent to the other house. This house reads the bill and refers it to the relevant committee where the process described above is repeated in the second house. Here again, the background work meeting with members of the assigned committee to prepare them for the hearing on the bill is essential for success of the bill.

The second house could pass the bill in the form sent to it from the first house. More often than not, the second house will amend the bill. If this happens and the bill passes the second house when sent to the house of origin three things could happen. The first house could agree to the other house amendments, they could reject the amended bill and send a message to the amending house about that action, or they could vote to defeat it. If they send the message the second house can agree the bill should not have been amended ,or they can send a message to the house of origin indicating they want to convene a conference committee to meet and see if they can reach a compromise position on the amended bill.

If this later path is chosen the leadership of each house will appoint conference committee members to meet and try to reconcile the differences between the two versions of the bill. If they are successful the bill will go to each respective house for a vote to agree on the recommendation of the conference committee. Assuming this is successful the bill is sent to the Governor for his signature or veto. If vetoed the bill is sent back to the legislature for a vote to override the veto. If the vote to override succeeds the bill becomes law. If not, the bill dies. If the Governor signs the bill the bill becomes law. By the way, the process described above is a shortened version of how a bill becomes a law in our legislature in Nevada. There are some fifty plus hurdles to overcome in the process before a bill can change or add to our statutes.

One thing missing in this rendition are the political factors which inevitably come into play during the process. An idea to add to our law can have the greatest merit and be supported by the best empirical evidence and still be subject to partisan political considerations or even intra party disputes among members of the same political persuasion. The legislature is the place where people are supposed to come together in the arena of public discourse and create solutions to the many problems facing any civilized society, but it does not always live up to democratic ideals.

However, it is the best system ever devised by man to deal with those problems. I hope the above has given you some food for thought.

I’ll see you soon.