My first bill
For my fellow Gen-X’ers, think back to those Saturday morning cartoons… Remember School House Rocks? “I’m just a bill?” The poor little lonely bill up on Capitol Hill?
Well here’s the Nevada version. After securing a “BDR” (bill draft request) with the Legislative Counsel Bureau (LCB- so many abbreviations!) on a given subject for legislation, and providing as much supporting documentation as possible, a legislator waits… and waits… for language to emerge from the bill drafters in the legal division. The first three weeks have been action packed. Water, education, highways, mining- the shear volume and diversity of information is staggering. But all the while I’d been waiting anxiously for pieces of legislation that I myself would need to navigate through the complicated world known as the “legislative process.”
Monday marked the delivery of my first two bills. One ready to go, one that needs some tweaking before I’m confident the language can go forward. This first bill, for the creation of a repository for living wills, constituted my big task for the week. In between meetings of the four committees on which I serve, the floor sessions, the answering of constituent mail, etc., I spent my week pitching the bill to members of the Assembly and Senate, both Democratic members and Republicans with the goal of securing support for the legislation. I dropped off copies at legislators’ offices, cajoled my way past their secretaries to make my case, dashed over to other desks during short recesses on the floor, and sent a few e-mails as well.
The score card? A manila sheet with places for signatures from all 63 members of the Nevada Legislature. The extra ambitious seek out every signature on the list, the expedient sign their name, turn in the bill for introduction and hope for the best.
My target list was created based on a number of considerations. Some basic bi-partisan support? Check. Members of both houses? Check? Speaker Buckley as a primary sponsor? Check. Majority Leader Oceguera? Check. A number of my freshmen colleagues? Check? Republican Assemblywoman Heidi Gansert (who had recently expressed interest in the concept?) Check. Legislators with expertise in health care issues? Check. Chairwoman of the Assembly Health and Human Resources Committee (where the bill will be heard?) Check.
With a respectable number of signatures on the card, I turned in the legislation to the Chief Clerk’s office so that it will make it onto the floor session agenda for introduction as a bill tomorrow.
Stay tuned for more information on the progress of this bill. In addition to making my case for why this legislation is needed, I hope to keep everyone up to date on the progress of the bill and how it (hopefully!) makes it through both houses of the Legislature and to the Governor’s desk for signature.
February 22nd, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Good luck on the bill! I personally will be reading your blog to learn in detail what it takes to get a bill passed in Nevada.
February 23rd, 2007 at 6:58 am
David,
Congrats and good luck. I look forward to hearing how it goes.
April 6th, 2008 at 11:56 am
[…] I’ll be joining Secretary of State Ross Miller in both Reno and Las Vegas tomorrow to announce the launch of the program. There is much to celebrate- particularly the hard work of the Secretary of State’s office staff, and the Nevada Center for Ethics and Health Policy. Hats off to the Center for bringing me the idea for my first bill, and kudos to Ross Miller for seeing the possibility. I remember my first conversations with Ross and his office: “yeah, that makes a lot of sense- documents are what we do!” […]