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Lawmakers OK rules to finish work in 120 days

Tuesday, Feb. 2, 1999 | 10:06 a.m.

A resolution on the rules and deadlines passed the Assembly without comment on Monday, the first day of the 120-day session.

But in the Senate, Minority Leader Dina Titus,

D-Las Vegas, and Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, sought assurances the rules would be applied fairly.

The rules, based on a voter mandate in November, establish deadlines for bill introductions and approvals, with the goal of ensuring adjournment by May 31.

The rules limit the number of bill drafts

that can be requested by lawmakers, but also provide for

emergency exceptions to allow for bill introductions

beyond the deadlines.

The authority to issue the

emergency bill drafts lies primarily in the hands of Senate

Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, and Assembly

Speaker Joe Dini, D-Yerington, who can each make

five requests.

Two requests each can be made by Titus

as the Senate minority leader and by Assembly Minority

Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville.

"It doesn't take us long to calculate that 12 of those

(emergency) requests reside in the hands of northern

individuals and that two of those requests would be in

the hands of one person in Clark County," Neal said.

Titus said she supports the rules, but asked the

people's business not be rushed unduly.

"We need to always give citizens the opportunity to

be heard," she said.

Titus also asked the rules be implemented in a

bipartisan manner.

Raggio said the rules were approved by a bipartisan committee of

lawmakers. He assured the Senate that any requests for

emergency measures would be given full consideration

without regard to party or geography.

Raggio also urged lawmakers to put aside

"petty differences" so the Legislature could accomplish

its work this session.

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