Nevada Legislature approves 25 bills; lets a dozen die

Nevada legislators took action on dozens of measures, including a vote to approve a domestic partners bill, in efforts to meet a Tuesday deadline for approving the bills or seeing them end up on the 2009 session's scrap heap.

The state Assembly was done first with its deadline-day work, passing 25 bills and keeping about 15 others alive by calling for more committee discussion. About a dozen other bills died.

The Senate held several floor sessions, including a final one that ran into the night, approving about 20 bills, holding three for more committee debate and rejecting another proposal.

One of the last bills approved, on a 12-9 Senate vote, was SB283, the bill that gives domestic partners, whether gay or straight, most of the same rights as married couples.

SB283 moved to the Assembly for final legislative action after lawmakers rejected an amendment proposed by Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, who said the bill went "too far" in making a domestic partnership the same as a marriage.

Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas, the openly gay sponsor of the bill, opposed the amendment, saying, "Sadly, this is no different than the way things are today." Parks also rejected criticism that his bill clashed with Nevada's 2002 "Defense of Marriage" constitutional amendment.

The dead Assembly bills included AB34, to allow some state prison inmates, who lost the use of personal typewriters starting in 2007, limited Internet access; and AB35, making it tougher for a sex offender to be released from lifetime supervision.

Also shelved were AB42, making it easier for authorities to get access to medical records to prevent Medicaid fraud; and AB189, doubling Nevada's 5-day period during which tenants can stay in rented homes or apartments before being subject to an eviction order for nonpayment.

The rejected Senate bill, SB301, would have stopped industrial development in an area north of Nellis Air Force Base in southern Nevada. It got only 10 votes, one shy of the necessary 11 votes in the 21-member Senate.

Measures that won approval on Tuesday in the Assembly and were routed to the Senate for final legislative action included AB413, which proposes that the popular vote should determine the outcome of presidential elections; and AB162, which requires some private health insurers to cover screening and treatment of children for autism.

The Assembly also passed AB442, which started out a plan to bar government agencies from hiring paid lobbyists and wound up as a requirement that the agencies that employ lobbyists submit quarterly reports explaining terms of their contracts.

Bills that were endorsed in the Senate on deadline included SB252, authorizing police to have access to sealed court records of applicants for police jobs; and SB269, which provides, among other things, for immediate license suspensions of medical professionals convicted of felonies related to their practices.

Also approved and routed to the Assembly was SB292, to require courts to appoint attorneys who would act in children's best interest during cases involving abuse, neglect or termination of parental rights.

Also approved in the Senate, on a bare 11-10 vote, was SB259, setting up a program for alternative licensing of teachers; and SB288, which requires the state Division of Industrial Relations to attempt to meet with and assist families of workers killed on the job.

Under the legislators' rules, most Assembly bills had to cross over to the Senate and most Senate bills had to move to the Assembly by Tuesday. Many had already made the transition while others were exempt.

The cutoff date was one of several aimed at ensuring the legislators can complete their work by June 1 and adjourn. By the time they shut down the session, the lawmakers are likely to have approved nearly 500 bills and major resolutions, out of nearly 1,000 that have been proposed.