Why does Nevada have a short legislative session?

The Nevada Legislature begins its lawmaking session on Feb. 3, starting a 120-day spirit to get hundreds of bills considered before the Legislature adjourns until 2027.

Nevada is one of four states that meets biennially (the others being Montana, North Dakota and Texas). The state’s 21 senators and 42 assemblymen and assemblywomen have about four months every odd year to introduce bills, update laws, establish the biennial budget and any other legislative work that may come up.

This year, the Legislature will adjourn – called sine die – on Monday, June 2.

Part-time legislatures, also known as citizen legislatures, were more common in state governments in the past, according to David Damore, a UNLV professor of political science. But a “legislative professionalism” movement in the 1960s and 1970s changed that for many other states.

“Over time, consistent with Nevada’s libertarian ethos, there’s been a tug of war between the people and the Legislature through direct democracy,” Damore said.

The Nevada Constitution originally called for regular sessions to be no longer than 60 days. In the early to mid- 20th century, however, sessions went longer but were only officially recorded at 60 days long. In 1958, voters removed that limitation from the Constitution and sessions grew lengthier until 1998. Then, voters approved a constitutional amendment limiting each legislative session to 120 days.

Damore said the part-time legislature plus term limits – also established through a voter-approved constitutional amendment – can make lawmaking more challenging.

“One of the criticisms of that is because of the turnover and lack of staff support, there’s a real reliance on party caucusing for determining how people are going to vote,” he said. “Party-line voting goes up because that’s the cue they take – the only one that’s really available to them.”

It’s possible for lawmakers to work more than four months in a year, though. The governor has the power to call a special session, bringing lawmakers back to Carson City for a specific purpose. In 2023, for instance, Gov. Joe Lombardo called a special session that lasted eight days to establish state funding for a Major League Baseball stadium on the Las Vegas Strip.

A petition of two-thirds of the members of each house can also convene a special session, though that has yet to happen in the state’s history, according to a 2023 report from the Legislative Counsel Bureau.

Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.