Nevada Legislative History

The purpose of this guide is to provide instructions on researching legislative intent for new or amended statutes. It is NOT intended to help you figure out where a statute came from (i.e., the statute's origin). 

The Legislative Counsel Bureau's (LCB) Research Library has several materials that are helpful when researching Nevada Legislative History:

The primary reason to research legislative history is to ascertain legislative intent. What were legislators thinking when they decided to create a new law or amend an existing law? What was the need for it? What problem was it trying to solve? This research is particularly important when the language chosen by the legislature in drafting the statute is considered ambiguous by those who have to interpret and apply it. 

One thing to keep in mind when researching legislative history, be it for Nevada statutes or federal laws:  materials produced by a legislature during the process of enacting a law are, at best, PERSUASIVE AUTHORITY. Courts may consult legislative history materials to assist with statutory interpretation problems, but they are not bound by whatever interpretive evidence those materials may provide.

Some things to know before moving forward:

• What are you actually researching when it comes to legislative history?  COMMITTEE MINUTES
  • When a bill is introduced, it is assigned to a committee (or committees) who hold hearings. Minutes are kept during these hearings. These minutes are your best insight into what legislators were thinking and concerned about while deliberating proposed legislation.
  • A compiled legislative history will include the bill history, committee minutes, and exhibits (supplemental documents submitted as part of the hearing and referred to during testimony).
• If you are trying to research a statute's history prior to 1965 (be it a statute's enactment or amendment), you are out of luck. Committees were not required to keep minutes for hearings until after 1965.
• Journals are also available for both the Senate and Assembly.  Journals are a record of daily activities that occur on the floors of each house. Because they are more of a record of what occurred, but no in-depth discussion of specific issues, they are an ancillary tool for Nevada legislative history research.
  • Journals are also available for both the Assembly and Senate beginning in 1999.