Deadline, revisions promise chaotic start to week at Nevada Legislature

CARSON CITY — State lawmakers will be spending hours on the Senate and Assembly floors and behind closed doors in caucus meetings as they jam through countless bills that need action by midnight Tuesday.

Tuesday is the deadline for bills to be passed by the chamber in which they were introduced, or they die — unless they were granted an exemption or waiver.

That means the Senate and Assembly will convene for multiple floor sessions in the first two days of the 12th week of the 2017 session.

It’s a time when the process can become bogged down by logistics, as legislative bill drafters scramble to keep up with amendments that must be printed before lawmakers vote.

Few committee hearings are scheduled for the week, though that can change. The Legislature is not bound by Nevada open meeting laws, and agendas are often updated at the last minute.

Two committees that will convene are the money panels — Assembly Ways and Means and Senate Finance. The money committees are closing out hundreds of agency spending plans.

But big budget decisions won’t come until May, after the Economic Forum meets to make its final projections on how much tax revenue the state will collect over the next two years. Under state law, the forum’s forecast must be used as the basis to balance the budget.

But before the money matters take over the Legislature, lawmakers must get past the looming deadline.

Contact Sandra Chereb at schereb@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3821. Follow @SandraChereb on Twitter.