There's only one week to pass 320 bills

That's the deadline for all measures to pass out of the house where they originated. Those that don't make it are automatically dead.

The first major deadline - committee approval or disapproval - was last Friday, and 180 Assembly and 140 Senate bills survived the cut. Another 320 were left behind to die.

"I'm very pleased with where we're at," said Assembly Majority Leader Richard Perkins, D-Henderson.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, echoed that sentiment.

"We can do this. There's no mystery to it. Thirty-six other states do this," Raggio said, referring to limits on how legislative session length. In Nevada's case, voters last year mandated a May 31 adjournment.

Perkins said a lot depends on how quickly the Legislative Counsel Bureau's legal division can generate the amendments needed for the pending bills.

LCB chief Lorne Malkiewich said amendments are coming through quickly - but bill drafters are backed up because more than 300 amendments were requested in just the past week.

In addition to this week's workload, the Assembly has already passed 160 bills and the Senate 180.

Raggio said the budget is the key to finishing in 120 days and that the money committees have been moving rapidly as well.

"We're far ahead (of previous sessions) on closing budgets," he said.

After Monday, lawmakers will focus almost exclusively on refining and discussing bills that have already made it through one house. And Malkiewich said he expects at least a brief period where the session will become much calmer before the final push to finish the session.

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