Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal Legislative Counsel Brenda Erdoes works in her office at the Legislature Thursday afternoon. Legislative staff members continue to work through the legal logjam as Monday's deadline approaches for lawmakers to introduce bills.
The logjam breaks Monday when staff is expected to deliver more than 400 bills to members of the Nevada Senate and Assembly.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, told his members Thursday they will receive "all of the bill drafts for individual senators." He said he intends to get all 206 of them introduced so they can be referred to committee and that Senate members should plan on two floor sessions to get the job done if necessary.
Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, said he hopes to get 200 bills introduced in that house.
Raggio told members they are responsible for reading the bill drafts to make sure they do what was intended.
"If there is some compelling reason why a bill cannot be introduced, please see me," he told the Senate. In that case, he said, they can waive the deadline until the flaw is fixed.
Most of the bills requested by lawmakers, committees and agencies have been tied up in the legal division, which Legislative Counsel Bureau Director Lorne Malkiewich said was put way behind in drafting bills by preparations for the impeachment of Controller Kathy Augustine and the legal research necessary to draft property tax reforms.
As a result, the number of bills introduced so far is 200 fewer than were introduced at this point in the 2003 session.
Even lawmakers with seniority and members of leadership say they have received only a couple of their bills so far.
Malkiewich went so far as to ask lawmakers to take the past two Fridays off to let fiscal and legal staffs focus on getting those bills ready for introduction.
Monday is the Legislature's self-imposed deadline for introductions by individual legislators.
Perkins said the next crunch will hit in just one more week, however, because March 29 is the deadline for introducing committee-sponsored legislation.
He said the committees can focus on all those proposals after the end of the month when a property tax plan has been approved.
n Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.
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