Nevada State Legislature essays

Nevada State Legislature essays Regular sessions of the Legislature begin the first Monday in February of odd-numbered years. Nevada is one of only six states that have true biennial sessions. From 1961 through 1997, the length of the legislature sessions in Nevada depended upon the time required to process propsed legislation, review the spending proposals of state agencies, and adopt a biennial state budget. At the 1998 General Election, Nevada voters approved a constitutional amendment limiting future regular biennial sessions to 120 days. The amendment also requires the governor to submit the executive budget to the Legislature two weeks before the start of the session. Both the 1999 and 2001 regular sessions ran for the full 120 days. A special session of the Legislature may also be called by the governor. In 2001 a 1-day special session was only the 17th special session in the past 138 years. The Legislative Counsel Bureau is the legislature's ongoing staff agency. It provide support for the Legislature and is comprised of the Fiscal, Legal, and Research Divisions. It also includes the Audit Division whose job consists of auditing the accounts of state agencies, and an Administrative Division, which provides accounting, security and vrious "housekeeping" functions. The Legislative Commission is a body of 12 legislators, six from each house and supervises over the Legislative Counsel Bureau.When the full Legislature is not in session, the commission takes actions on behalf of the legislative branch of government. They provide guidance to staff of the Legislative Counsel Bureau and deals with other interim matters. This body meets every few months between sessions. The Interim Finance Committte endeavors to maintain an adequate fund balance to meet unforeseen financial emergencies. It is composed of the members of the Senate Committee on Finance and the Assembly Committee on Ways an ...