It is now possible to watch past legislative hearings through the Nevada Legislature’s website.  Go to this page http://www.leg.state.nv.us/Granicus/ and then go through the menu to find the meeting you’d like to watch.

League Supporters:

The following League priority bills will be heard the week of March 2^nd. To have your voice heard, you can email your representative, contact committee members, submit your opinion online, and/or provide public comment at the Grant Sawyer Building on 555 E. Washington Ave.

To find your representatives, enter your address in on this page: http://mapserve1.leg.state.nv.us/whoRU/

You can find committees here: https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/NELIS/REL/78th2015/Committees/List

You can submit your opinion on a bill here: https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/Opinions/78th2015/A/

To find out when a committee meets to provide testimony at Grant Sawyer, go here: https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/Calendar/A/

Monday March 2, 2015

AB138: Juvenile Justice: “AN ACT relating to juvenile justice; requiring the juvenile court to suspend a case if doubt arises as to whether a child is competent.”

9:00 AM

Assembly Committee on Judiciary

Agenda

• Room 3138 of the Legislative Building, 401 S. Carson St., Carson City, NV.
• Videoconferenced to Room 4406 of the Grant Sawyer State Office Building, 555 E. Washington Ave., Las Vegas, NV.
• AB183

Wednesday March 4, 2015

SJR9: Voting: “Expresses support for continued enforcement action against voting discrimination”

3:30 PM

Senate Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections

Agenda

• Room 2144 of the Legislative Building, 401 S. Carson St., Carson City, NV.
• Videoconferenced to Room 4412E of the Grant Sawyer State Office Building, 555 E. Washington Ave., Las Vegas, NV.
• SJR9

Sondra

League Supporters,

Thanks to everyone who participated at our February 21^st meeting. Whew! We heard so much great information from so many engaged community leaders. I know I left the meeting energized to make a real difference this legislative session.

From Judge William Voy we learned how integrated all our systems are when it comes to juvenile justice. Anything we can do to improve the quality of education, reduce bullying and violence, and provide better mental health services will cascade down to ensure fewer children end up in his courtroom.

The two bills Judge Voy asked us to support are:

AB124: https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/NELIS/REL/78th2015/Bill/1438/Overview

This bill revises the age a juvenile may be adjudicated and punished as a delinquent child.

SB99: https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/NELIS/REL/78th2015/Bill/1362/Overview

This bill revises parts of a law related to sex offenders and crimes against children.

We then heard from Senator Pat Spearman about one bill and two bill draft requests she is sponsoring to protect voting and voter rights. The first is SJR7, this Senate Joint Resolution is an amendment to the Nevada Constitution that protects the right to vote in a number of ways. SJR7 will be heard Monday February 23^rd at 3:30. You can watch the meeting online or you can participate at the Grant Sawyer Government Center at 555 Washington Ave.

3:30 PM

Senate Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections

Agenda²

• Room 2144 of the Legislative Building, 401 S. Carson St., Carson City, NV.
• Videoconferenced to Room 4412E of the Grant Sawyer State Office Building, 555 E. Washington Ave., Las Vegas, NV 
• SJR7

If you would like to submit comments on SJR7, please click on this link, indicate you are commenting on SJR7, type your comments, and then input your address. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/Opinions/78th2015/A/

Your address remains private, but the system uses it to determine your representatives and then sends your comments to those individuals as well as the Leg Ops Committee members.

When Sen. Spearman’s remaining BDR’s are translated into bills, I will post the full details.

Our main presentation on Voter ID featured Executive Director of the ACLU Nevada Tod Story and the Director of Silver State Voices Leora Olivas. Tod and Leora gave a fact-filled presentation on why the SB169 Voter ID bill is flawed and may very well cause voters to be disenfranchised unconstitutionally. You can read SB169 here:

https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/NELIS/REL/78th2015/Bill/1538/Overview

Here is a breakdown of Voter ID: LetNevadansVote-VoterIDOnePager 022215

You can receive updates on the efforts of Let Nevada Vote on Facebook and Twitter.

www.facebook.com/LetNevadansVote

@LetNevadansVote

SB169 has been referred directly to Senate Finance where it will receive a fiscal note. If it also receives an exemption from deadlines for bills to be heard and passed, it could sit in Senate Finance until the Chair decides to move the bill. League will be tracking SB169 and will provide updates throughout the session. The Let Nevada Vote coalition is also expecting a Voter ID bill to be submitted in the Assembly, but so far that hasn’t happened.

Lastly, we heard from Regent Sam Lieberman about higher education. March 2^nd is Higher Education Day at the Legislature and students will be spending the day talking to legislators about the need to fully fund higher education.

Two bills in particular can help students who qualify for the higher education Millennium Scholarship. SB128 increases the number of credits the scholarship covers from 12 credits to 15 credits. Right now if a student wants to attend full-time the scholarship only pays for up to 12 credits; this discourages students from completing faster. AB150 allows students who have a low GPA, but have scored high on certain tests, to be eligible for the scholarship.

SB128: https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/NELIS/REL/78th2015/Bill/1448/Overview

AB150: https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/NELIS/REL/78th2015/Bill/1482/Overview/

Other League priorities heard this week are listed below; you can submit comments on any of these bills at:

https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/Opinions/78th2015/A/

Tuesday February 24^th:

3:30 PM

SB75 Allows schools to administer tests after students have completed the same number of instructional days. This changes a law that requires schools to administer tests on the same date, which hurts students on year-round schedules.

Senate Committee on Education

Agenda

• Room 2135 of the Legislative Building, 401 S. Carson St., Carson City, NV.
• Videoconferenced to Room 4412 of the Grant Sawyer State Office Building, 555 E. Washington Ave., Las Vegas, NV.

SB75 (WS)

4:00 PM

AB94 Allows a voter to opt to receive a Sample Ballot electronically instead of in paper form through the mail. This will save funds by reducing the number of sample ballots printed and mailed.

Assembly Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections

Agenda

• Room 3142 of the Legislative Building, 401 S. Carson St., Carson City, NV.

AB94

Wednesday February 25^th

3:15 PM

AB112 Strengthens Nevada’s anti-bullying legislation and AB150 Expands eligibility to the Millennium Scholarship

Assembly Committee on Education

Agenda¹

• Room 3142 of the Legislative Building, 401 S. Carson St., Carson City, NV.
• Videoconferenced to Room 4401 of the Grant Sawyer State Office Building, 555 E. Washington Ave., Las Vegas, NV.

AB112, AB150,

Sondra Cosgrove

President League of Women Voters of Las Vegas Valley

League priorities will be heard in these legislative hearings for the week of February 9th.

If you are interested in watching meetings online, please visit this webpage and click on View under the meeting time.

https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/Calendar/A/

If you are interested in providing comments for the record, you can attend a hearing via the Grant Sawyer Building at 555 E. Washington Ave., Las Vegas (right across from Cashman Field). Please note the room number on the Calendar of Meetings webpage under the Committee Hearing.

If you would like to submit comments on a bill online (please be sure to READ the bill first), you can submit your opinion at:

https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/Opinions/78th2015/A/

You can search for bill on this page: https://www.leg.state.nv.us/Session/78th2015/Reports/

If you would like to order an audio recording of a hearing, please contact the Legislative Counsel Bureau at 775-684-6835 or at Publicantions@lcb.state.nv.us

If you are interested in detailed legislative updates on education-related bills, please sign up here: http://ccsd.net/departments/government-affairs/legislative-updates

Tuesday February 10, 2015

3:30 PM [State Superintendent Erquiaga presents on State Ed Board policy changes]

Senate Committee on Education

Agenda¹

• Room 2135 of the Legislative Building, 401 S. Carson St., Carson City, NV.
• Videoconferenced to Room 4412 of the Grant Sawyer State Office Building, 555 E. Washington Ave., Las Vegas, NV.

SB25

3:30 PM [State Tax System Presentation]

Senate Committee on Revenue and Economic Development

Agenda

• Room 1214 of the Legislative Building, 401 S. Carson St., Carson City, NV.

Today Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske reported to the Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections that Nevada is nationally recognized for the integrity of our election systems and processes.  She only noted one case of attempted voter fraud.  SOS Cegavske clarified that she would not be submitting a Voter ID bill, but would support such a bill if submitted by a legislator due to increased incidents of identity theft.  No explanation was provided to connect identity theft with voter fraud.

You can view the presentation here:

SOSReport2015

http://nic.unlv.edu/childrensweek

Click on image to enlarge

Please RSVP to join LWVLVV on February 21st to discuss the history and court cases associated with Voter ID at lwv@lwvlasvegasvalley.org by Tuesday February 17th.

Our guest is ACLUNV Executive Director Tod Story

Click image to enlarge

You can watch meetings over the internet through this website (click on View under the time): https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/Calendar/A/

If you would like to speak in favor or opposition of a bill, you can go to the Grant Sawyer Building at 555 E. Washington Ave. at the time listed on the Agenda.

Tuesday February 3, 2015

1. Priority: Mental Health (AB12 continues a program to provide probation violators with mental health treatment)

8:00 AM  Assembly Committee on Judiciary

Agenda

• Room 3138 of the Legislative Building, 401 S. Carson St., Carson City, NV.
• Videoconferenced to Room 4406 of the Grant Sawyer State Office Building, 555 E. Washington Ave., Las Vegas, NV.

AB12, AB16, AB31

2. Priority: Education (SB75 Ensures children are tested after receiving the same amount of instruction)

3:30 PM  Senate Committee on Education

Agenda

• Room 2149 of the Legislative Building, 401 S. Carson St., Carson City, NV.
• Videoconferenced to Room 4412 of the Grant Sawyer State Office Building, 555 E. Washington Ave., Las Vegas, NV.

SB75

Wednesday February 4, 2015

1. Priority: Elections (overview of activities of the Secretary of State’s Office)

3:30 PM  Senate Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections

Agenda

• Room 2144 of the Legislative Building, 401 S. Carson St., Carson City, NV.

Regular Meeting

2. Priority: Mental Health (SB35 Interstate Mental Health Compact)

3:30 PM  Senate Committee on Health and Human Services

Agenda

• Room 2149 of the Legislative Building, 401 S. Carson St., Carson City, NV.
• Videoconferenced to Room 4412 of the Grant Sawyer State Office Building, 555 E. Washington Ave., Las Vegas, NV.

SB7, SB15, SB35

Getting involved in the legislative process is pretty easy if you know where to look and when to engage.  League of Women Voters Of Las Vegas Valley is here to help you do just that with our 2015 Legislative Advocacy Guide.  Click here to view the Guide.