Revises provisions relating to the Legislature. (BDR 17-931)
Summary
AB 348 revises several administrative provisions governing the Nevada Legislature and related legislative support functions. The bill expands the duties and clarifies the structure of the Interim Retirement and Benefits Committee so that it also reviews the Legislators’ Retirement System, in addition to the Public Employees’ Retirement System, the Judicial Retirement System, and the Public Employees’ Benefits Program. It establishes terms for committee members, allows alternates to be appointed when regular members cannot attend, and provides that membership ends after the general election if a member is not seeking reelection or is defeated.
The bill also removes two existing duties from the Fiscal Analysis Division of the Legislative Counsel Bureau: the requirement to perform biennial budget stress testing and report the results, and the existence of the Legislative Bureau of Educational Accountability and Program Evaluation. To carry out that abolition, AB 348 makes conforming changes throughout the Nevada Revised Statutes to delete references to the Bureau from education accountability, school improvement, assessment, and professional development reporting provisions. The bill takes effect July 1, 2025.
Impact
AB 348 changes Nevada law by narrowing the Fiscal Analysis Division’s statutory workload, eliminating the budget stress-test/reporting mandate, and repealing the statute that created the Legislative Bureau of Educational Accountability and Program Evaluation. It also updates multiple education-related reporting statutes to remove the Bureau as a recipient of reports, while preserving the underlying reporting obligations to other entities such as the Governor, Legislature, State Board, and education committees. In addition, it formally broadens the Interim Retirement and Benefits Committee’s oversight to include the Legislators’ Retirement System and adds procedural rules for membership, alternates, vacancies, and term expiration.
Sentiment
The bill appears to have been noncontroversial and broadly accepted. It passed the Assembly 42-0 and the Senate 21-0, indicating unanimous support in both chambers. The absence of committee transcript discussion suggests there was little public or legislative opposition recorded in the available materials.
Contention
No major contention is evident in the available record. The most notable policy choices are the elimination of the educational accountability bureau and the removal of the Fiscal Analysis Division’s budget stress-testing duty, which reduce legislative support functions and shift reporting structures in education oversight. Any concern would likely come from stakeholders who relied on those analyses or reports, but no specific opposition, debate, or dissent is reflected in the votes or transcripts provided.