Here’s a report by Riley Snyder of the Nevada Independent on my efforts to reopen the People’s House to the people…
The effort to reopen the doors of the Legislature to the public has finally moved beyond rhetoric and press releases.
After giving a floor speech denouncing the continued closure of the building on Tuesday, Assemblywoman Annie Black (R-Mesquite) made a motion on the Assembly floor to “open the Legislative Building under the same safety procedures of Walmart, bars, casinos and other businesses.”
After a short recess to discuss legislative rules, the motion wasn’t recognized — the motion came under the wrong order of business (“Remarks from the Floor” and not “Motions, Resolutions and Notices”). Speaker Pro Tempore Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) told my colleague Michelle Rindels after the session on Tuesday that it was an “inappropriate motion.”
Black nonetheless wrote in her newsletter that she plans to bring up similar motions during floor sessions. But Black — a freshman in the minority party who opted to not join the Assembly Republican Caucus — has relatively few cards to play under Assembly procedural rules.
In essence, there’s no realistic pathway for a motion like the one Black brought to pass unless she’s able to get the support of a majority of the Assembly — an impossible task in the Democratic-controlled body. If she’s able to get her procedural ducks in a row, make the motion at the right time and is recognized by the Assembly speaker, Black could in theory force a roll call vote related to the building’s closure.
Such a vote would likely be on a motion to table Black’s initial motion, so not a direct vote on opening the building. It’d also default to a voice vote, but she’d need support from only two colleagues to force a roll call vote (fellow Republicans Jim Wheeler (R-Minden) and John Ellison (R-Elko) spoke in favor of her motion on Tuesday).
Even if all the pieces fall into place and a roll call vote is taken, any victory would be symbolic — I don’t think any Assembly Democrats would publicly move away from leadership’s position that a limited reopening should come in mid-April, after building staff are fully vaccinated.
