Out of nearly 700 bills requested by members of the Legislature, lawmakers have introduced a little more than 500 as of Monday evening, including 61 on Monday.

Check the Legislature’s YouTube page, and you’ll find a cornucopia of videos showing the hundreds of committee meetings and floor sessions that occur everyday. All except one.

State officials are lifting a requirement that unvaccinated employees undergo weekly COVID-19 tests, while also preparing to roll back a planned monthly surcharge for state workers who have not received a COVID vaccine.

Members of the joint legislative budget committee during separate meetings earlier this month gave initial approval to the Legislative Counsel Bureau’s base budget, which for the upcoming biennium will equal about $73.8 million and funding for 290 full-time positions.

The Legislature is lifting most COVID-related restrictions and mask-wearing requirements for the fully vaccinated in accordance with the recently updated Center for Disease Control guidance, according to a notice sent out by Legislative Counsel Bureau Director Brenda Erdoes on Wednesday.

In an email sent late Friday, Legislative Counsel Bureau Director Brenda Erdoes announced that the physical legislative building in Carson City would be reopened to lobbyists or members of the public on an appointment basis starting on Thursday, April 15. The building has been closed to everyone save staff, lawmakers and a small press pool since the session started in February.

In this edition: How lobbying might look once the legislative building re-opens, a controversial home-schooling bill, raising the smoking age to 21 and education bills making it easier to fire principals and requiring all charter school teachers be licensed. Plus, the debut of ‘Carson City Restaurant Spotlight.’

For legislative leadership, getting LCB staff vaccinated is a prerequisite before opening the building up to members of the public, lobbyists, or anyone outside of the small pool of media currently allowed inside the building. Since it began Feb. 1, the Legislature has operated primarily through virtual committee meetings and has not allowed public access to the building.

Welcome to the second edition of Behind the Bar, which digs into why lobbyists aren’t having to register so far this session, the return of Joyce Woodhouse, a push for environmental justice and COVID vaccine for Department of Corrections staff and inmates. We’re also sharing remembrances of former Assembly Sergeant at Arms Robin Bates, who passed away from COVID-19 complications this week.

The FBI issued a bulletin to law enforcement warning of armed protests being planned in all 50 state capitals and threats of an uprising if President Donald Trump is removed from office.

Members of the Legislative Commission — composed of state lawmakers who give final approval to state agency regulations — met Monday to approve the regulations submitted by the state’s Financial Institutions Division (FID), which will oversee and manage operations of the database. The majority-Democratic committee voted along party lines, 7-5, to approve the regulations.

Lawmakers will not be asked to take a COVID-19 test nor have testing made available to them prior to the start of a second special session that could convene as early as Thursday, according to multiple lawmakers and a letter from Republican legislative leaders.

The announcement comes on the same day that Kevin Powers, the LCB’s general counsel, issued a 20-page opinion that argues limited physical access to the building is legal. It draws on sources including a recent New Mexico Supreme Court decision allowing that state’s Legislature to bar in-person public participation, and minutes from a constitutional convention in the 1860s to determine what the framers intended when they sought to ensure legislative proceedings were “open.”

Last week, The Nevada Independent toured the capital’s Legislative Building alongside new Legislative Counsel Bureau Director Brenda Erdoes and facility manager John Vietti, who showcased some of the safety features and changes that will greet lawmakers, lobbyists and members of the public in the coming weeks.