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Proposal to reduce pre-session bill draft requests draws praise for efficiency and criticism over minority impact
Summary
The Nevada Senate Finance Committee considered AB585 June 1, a bill that would cut and re-time legislators’ pre-session bill draft requests and require draftable details earlier, a change legislative counsel says could save roughly $350,000 in overtime.
The Nevada Senate Finance Committee on June 1 considered Assembly Bill 585, a measure that reduces the number of pre-session bill draft requests (BDRs) available to legislators, shortens leadership allotments and requires earlier submission of draftable details.
Asher Killian, legislative counsel, outlined mechanics of the proposal and said the bill cuts pre-session allotments by about 25%, makes the December tranche contingent on providing draftable details, reduces leadership allotments and trims constitutionally elected officers’ BDRs in some cases. Killian summarized: "It reduces the overall number of BDRs, by about 25%. And more importantly for our office's operations, it makes sure that we're getting draftable details sooner in the process." He and his office projected fiscal savings by shifting drafting work into the interim rather than late-session overtime.
Speaker Steve Yeager, who joined the presentation, said the policy’s purpose is to encourage legislators to provide substantive drafting details early. Yeager said the real benefit is procedural: "I'm guilty of that too," he said of delaying details, and added the change would give more time to vet large governor-request BDRs earlier, avoiding an end-of-session rush.
Killian estimated the legislative counsel’s office could save roughly $350,000 in overtime costs over the upcoming biennium because more drafting could be completed before session. He provided prior-session averages: about $1,400 overtime per BDR historically and just under $1,200 this session after changes already made.
Opponents and concerned callers told the committee the reductions could unduly disadvantage the minority party. Janine Hanson, state president of Nevada Families for Freedom, said while the group supports reducing needless bills, the bill "lowers the minority party's opportunity for bills more than the majority party" and called for greater fairness. Joshua Skaggs of the Nevada Republican Party said the measure "accomplishes the overall goal of reducing BDRs, it does so at the expense of the minority party," and urged a clean, nonpartisan reduction.
Multiple callers echoed concerns that the proposal would shift power to majority leadership and noted committee and leadership pools of BDRs remain a route for additional measures. Other callers favored broader changes: Patrin Ivanov suggested equal BDR allotments with stricter page limits; callers including Tammy Romo criticized last-minute omnibus bills and said shortening the drafting window does not by itself prevent late-session cram jobs.
Committee members asked technical and fairness questions. Senator Titus and Senator Neal probed whether special advisory committees and other non-legislative BDR allocations would be covered or should include deadlines; legislative leaders said such details could be addressed in enabling language and joint standing rules. Killian and Yeager indicated joint standing rule adjustments (pool of leadership-assigned BDRs) could be considered to align practice with statutory change.
No committee vote was recorded during the hearing.
