Government

Deadline Looms for Bills Languishing in Committee Hell

N&V Staff

April 14, 2011

(Nevada Republican Study Committee) – This coming Friday, April 15, is not only the day of the Tea Party demonstration at the Capitol from 4 to 6 pm [Grant Sawyer Bldg in Las Vegas, 4 to 7 PM] – it’s the deadline for bills in the Nevada Legislature to be passed out of their first committee. Unless a bill receives an exemption, if it doesn’t pass out of committee by April 15 it’s dead for the session.

Please contact committee chairs and members! Emails for committee members are below – phone numbers for members are listed at:

http://www.leg.state.nv.us/Assembly/Current/Assembly/alist.cfm for Assembly members, and http://www.leg.state.nv.us/Senate/Current/Senators/slist.cfm for the Senate.

Following are some bills that need a vote by Friday. Your action on one or more of these bills is critical. Please contact the committee chairs and members for the listed bills and urge them to vote on these bills so that they may go before the whole legislature for consideration:

AB327, AB425, AB435, AB104 and SB373 – Requires Photo ID to Vote, Prohibits voting under an assumed name (Senate and Assembly Legislative Operation/Election Committees):

This set of bills may be our best chance to make a difference. Over ten different bills have been introduced in the Assembly and the Senate that are on the subject of requiring photo ID to vote, or have a photo ID requirement as a provision. AB327, AB425 and AB373 are all based on an Indiana statute upheld by the US Supreme Court as being non-discriminatory. AB435 allows a wider range of ID based on what is in current law for voters appearing at the polls for the first time after registering to vote by mail. AB104 makes it a category D felony to vote under an assumed name, or to aid another person to do so.

The Senate and Assembly committee chairs have not allowed any of the many bills on this subject a hearing – please contact the chairmen and committee members listed below and ask them to allow a hearing and vote on any of these three similar bills.

Also, please be sure to contact Speaker of the Assembly Oceguera to push for these bills to have a hearing. In his Assembly campaign the speaker took a stand against voter fraud, saying “Voter registration and elections must be carefully monitored and voter fraud must be punished.” Please remind Speaker Oceguera of this promise, and encourage him to give these bills a hearing.

Speaker Oceguera: joceguera@asm.state.nv.us, 775-684-8595

Assembly Legislative Operations (AB327, AB425):

Chairman Segerblom: tsegerblom@asm.state.nv.us
Committee members: lflores@asm.state.nv.us, mconklin@asm.state.nv.us, rdaly@asm.state.nv.us, whorne@asm.state.nv.us, mkirkpatrick@asm.state.nv.us, joceguera@asm.state.nv.us, dsmith@asm.state.nv.us, pgoicoechea@asm.state.nv.us, tgrady@asm.state.nv.us, chardy@asm.state.nv.us, phickey@asm.state.nv.us, rmcarthur@asm.state.nv.us, lstewart@asm.state.nv.us

Senate Legislative Operations/Elections (SB373):

Chairman Parks: dparks@sen.state.nv.us
Committee members: shorsford@sen.state.nv.us, mdenis@sen.state.nv.us, bcegvaske@sen.state.nv.us, jsettelmeyer@sen.state.nv.us

AB282 – Revises various provisions regarding Concealed Carry Weapons (CCW) Permits (Assembly Judiciary Committee):

This bill combines several important provisions from other bills into one bill. It includes Speaker John Oceguera and Mark Manendo among it’s primary sponsors. It had a hearing on March 30, but no committee vote has been taken. Please contact Speaker Oceguera, Assembly Jusiciary Chair William Horne and the other members of the Assembly Judiciary Committee to ask for a do-pass vote on this bill:

Speaker Oceguera:            joceguera@asm.state.nv.us,
Chairman Horne:                whorne@asm.state.nv.us,
Committee Members:        johrenschall@asm.state.nv.us, sbrooks@asm.state.nv.us, rcarrillo@asm.state.nv.us, rdaly@asm.state.nv.us, odiaz@asm.state.nv.us, mdonderoloop@asm.state.nv.us, jfrierson@asm.state.nv.us, rsegerblom@lvcoxmail.com, shammond@asm.state.nv.us, ihansen@asm.state.nv.us, kkite@asm.state.nv.us, rmcarthur@asm.state.nv.us, msherwood@asm.state.nv.us,

SB231 – Concealed Carry on campuses of NV System of Higher Education (Senate Judiciary):

Bipartisan sponsorship by Senators Lee and Settelmeyer, among others. Hearing was on March 18 with moving testimony by Amanda Collins. Please contact committee chairman Lee and the other committee members and ask them to bring this to a vote:

Chairman Lee:                    jlee@sen.state.nv.us
Committee members:       mmanendo@sen.state.nv.us, jhardy@sen.state.nv.us, jsettelmeyer@sen.state.nv.us, mschneider@sen.state.nv.us

SJR6 – Asserts Nevada’s state sovereignty under the 10th Amendment (Senate Government Affairs):

Introduced by Senator Settelmeyer, this is a resolution that has been introduced in each of the past few sessions. Chairman of Government Affairs Senator Lee should be given great credit for allowing it a hearing – prior committee chairs never even allowed similar proposals a fair hearing on March 7. But, Chairman Lee needs to allow a vote on this resolution this week so that it can be debated on the floor. Please contact the chairman and committee members – thank them for allowing this resolution a hearing, but remind them that a hearing without a vote does no good. Let Chairman Lee known that if this resolution is passed we’ll make sure that we the people will take action in support of the resolution at the federal level.

Chairman Lee:                   jlee@sen.state.nv.us
Committee members:       mmanendo@sen.state.nv.us, mschneider@sen.state.nv.us, jhardy@sen.state.nv.us, jsettelmeyer@sen.state.nv.us

AB430 – Omnibus Immigration Bill and AB208 – English as common language of Nevada (Assembly Government Affairs):

AB 430 includes several positive provisions to limit the impact of illegal residents on Nevada’s budget. It requires Nevada law enforcement to check the citizenship status of individuals arrested and booked for crimes, and turn over individuals found to be here illegally to ICE, rather than convicting and housing them in NV prisons. It also removes eligibility of illegal residents for government benefits, such as driver’s licenses, professional licenses, various kinds of public assistance, etc. It also specifies that only US citizens are eligible for the Governor Kenny Guinn Millenium Scholarship.

AB208 designates English as the official language of Nevada, and with limited exceptions specifies that all proceedings in the state will be conducted in English and that records of the state will be in English.

To her credit, Chair Kirkpatrick held a hearing on AB430 on 4/6/11, but no hearing has been held on AB208. Please contact Chair Kirkpatrick and the members of the committee and request a hearing on AB208 and votes on both bills so that they can be considered by the full Assembly.

Chairwoman Kirkpatrick: mkirkpatrick@asm.state.nv.us
Committee Members:        ibustamanteadams@asm.state.nv.us, eanderson@asm.state.nv.us, tbenitezthompson@asm.state.nv.us, lflores@asm.state.nv.us, hmunford@asm.state.nv.us, dneal@asm.state.nv.us, ppierce@asm.state.nv.us, jellison@asm.state.nv.us, egoedhart@asm.state.nv.us, plivermore@asm.state.nv.us, lstewart@asm.state.nv.us, mwoodbury@asm.state.nv.us

In addition to the bills above that need positive action, there are some bills that need to not pass as follows:

AB336 – 4.5% tax on business incomes over $500,000. (Assembly Taxation)
SB386/AB333 – Increased taxes on tobacco and alcohol products (Senate Revenue and Assembly Taxation):

AB336 was heard by Assembly Taxation yesterday, April 12, but no vote was taken. There’s still time to contact committee members to ask them to oppose this legislation that directly attacks Nevada’s status as a great state for businesses, especially those looking to flee the high tax environment of California.

SB386 and AB333 roughly double taxes on cigarettes and tobacco products, and significantly increase taxes on different types of liquor. They each had a hearing on April 5, but no vote has yet been taken. There’s still time to let the committee members know that you oppose additional regressive taxes on Nevada citizens.

Assembly Taxation:

Chairwoman Kirkpatrick: mkirkpatrick@asm.state.nv.usCommittee