Horsford says Senate will try finish as much as possible today

Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, told his members to be ready for a long day today with committee meetings beginning at 8 a.m. and a floor session at 10.

He said Senators should be prepared to go as long as necessary to process remaining bills.

Horsford and Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, both adjourned before 5 p.m., Horsford without voting on whether to override any more vetoed bills. But he said after adjournment there is nothing per se holding up those votes.

"We've had discussions about a list of all overrides we plan on voting on," he said.

Horsford said when the votes are taken, he doesn't expect problems in getting the necessary two-thirds majorities needed to reject the vetoes. He pointed to the three override votes Thursday night saying "17, 18, 19 Senators out of 21 speaks volumes."

Most of today will be spent in conference committees appointed to resolve differences between Senate and Assembly versions of different bills. There were a total of 25 conference committees already appointed Friday morning and probably a half-dozen more needed to handle disagreements between the houses on bills approved by the end of the day.

Under current rules, there is only one conference committee appointed on each bill. If that committee fails to reach agreement on language in the measure, it dies. In previous sessions, a second conference committee could be formed on each measure but leadership this session agreed that was basically a waste of time.

Each committee consists of three members from each house with at least one member of each party in each delegation. Since there is only one conference committee now, those members normally include the sponsors and prime advocates for each measure.

They meet, adopt one version or the other of a bill or find a compromise between the two, then bring their agreement back to the full Senate and Assembly for a vote.

Normally, the full body accepts the compromise.