With only a week and a half until sine die, the constitutionally mandated end of the 120-day legislative session, lawmakers are voting hundreds of bills out of their second house and sending them to Gov. Joe Lombardo’s desk as the end of session nears.
Though many contentious and high-profile bills — including a stadium public financing deal for the Oakland A’s and a proposed multibillion-dollar film tax credit program — have received exemptions from normal legislative deadlines or have not been introduced, the vast majority of bills will either be dead or on their way to Lombardo after Friday’s second house passage deadline.
Those bills alive after Friday will include Democratic priorities not supported by Republicans at risk of being vetoed by the governor, as well as many more that passed with bipartisan support and are expected to receive Lombardo’s signature.
Ahead of the penultimate deadline, lawmakers are voting on dozens of bills that have not received exemptions, which are generally granted to bills with a financial impact on the state and special measures, such as Lombardo’s five policy bills.
That includes votes on nearly 200 bills from Monday through Wednesday.
The push forward also comes against a backdrop of sweltering tensions between Democratic leadership and Lombardo, who have exchanged threats over the path forward on the state budget. Lombardo said he would not sign the major budget bills if his priorities were not passed, while Democratic leaders said they would not be able to act on several high-profile bills without approval of a state budget.
Republican lawmakers have also taken a stance against the five budget implementation bills, voting against four of them earlier this week. But as of Thursday afternoon, two of those bills (the K-12 funding bill and the Authorizations Act), are on their way to Lombardo’s desk, and he must act on them by June 1.
Below, we’ll be tracking floor votes, and provide highlights on what bills do and don’t make it to Lombardo’s desk. This story will be updated throughout Thursday and Friday ahead of the deadline.
THURSDAY
Closing loopholes in sundown siren law
Members of the Assembly passed SB391 on a 41-1 vote with Assemblyman Ken Gray (R-Dayton) as the lone opposition. The measure aims to close loopholes in a law prohibiting “sundown sirens,” which were historically used by small towns to warn people of color to leave town by a specific time or risk bodily harm.
The measure would ensure towns only use sirens for emergencies and comes in response to the city of Minden continuing to sound a siren, even though lawmakers passed a prohibition of sundown sirens during the 2021 legislative session.
The bill passed out of the Senate with a vote of 17-4 and now awaits approval from the governor.
MONDAY-WEDNESDAY
Medical aid in dying advances to governor’s desk for first time ever
A measure seeking to legalize life-ending medication for terminally ill patients with less than six months to live passed out of the Assembly on Wednesday in a 23-19 vote, with five Democrats joining Republicans in opposition.
SB239, sponsored by Sen. Edgar Flores (D-Las Vegas), cleared the Senate on April 19 in a narrow 11-10 vote, and now heads to Gov. Joe Lombardo’s desk.
2023 marks the fifth legislative session where Nevada lawmakers debated a measure to legalize life-ending medication for terminally ill patients. Recent polling conducted by Susquehanna Polling & Research and sponsored by a pro-medical-aid-in-dying organization indicates 82 percent of Nevada voters support legalizing the option.
Advocates celebrated the bill’s passage in a press release emailed Wednesday.
“Gov. Lombardo, I am asking you to sign this bill, as it puts much-needed peace in the hearts of patients,” said Hanna Olivas, who is 49 and has a rare form of blood cancer. “We urge you to sign this bill as we fight for our lives.”
Lombardo has not indicated whether he will approve the measure.
Temporary rent control for seniors
The Senate voted 12-8 along party lines with all Republicans opposed on Tuesday to pass AB298, a bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui (D-Las Vegas) that would temporarily cap rents for tenants who are older than 62 or who rely on Social Security benefits. The bill previously passed out of the Assembly with some Republican lawmakers in support in a 36-6 vote last month.
Though Democratic legislative leaders have not supported statewide, blanket rent control policies, they have argued in favor of capping rents for vulnerable populations.
Protecting out-of-state abortion seekers
Members of the Assembly on Monday voted along party lines (27-14) with Republicans in opposition, to pass SB131, a bill sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas) that would codify former Gov. Steve Sisolak’s executive order protecting out-of-state abortion seekers in Nevada and those providing reproductive care, regardless of other state policies. The measure now heads to the governor’s desk.
The legislation is likely to be the first significant test of Gov. Joe Lombardo’s stance on abortion, which shifted throughout the election cycle. Most recently, Lombardo signaled he would support the measure, telling KNPR he would sign it as long as it was a “clean bill” that focused only on preventing state agencies from cooperating with other states looking to prosecute someone for receiving reproductive care in Nevada.
Preventative STI services
Under Nevada law, minors can consent without parental permission to receive treatment and examination services for sexually transmitted infections (STI).
On Wednesday, members of the Assembly voted on party lines with only Democratic support (28-14) to pass SB172, a measure sponsored by Sen. Dallas Harris (D-Las Vegas) that would expand the ability for minors to consent without parental permission to receive preventative STI services.
The bill passed out of the Senate in April on a 14-7 vote, with Sen. Heidi Seevers Gansert (R-Reno) joining Democrats in support. It now heads to the governor’s desk.
Election bills advance along party lines
Several election-related measures advanced along party lines on Tuesday and Wednesday with Republicans in opposition, including SB133, a bill from Sen. Skip Daly (D-Sparks) that would criminalize the act of submitting a false slate of presidential electors. It comes as a response to the scheme that saw six Nevada Republicans falsely pledge the state’s electoral votes in 2020 to former President Donald Trump, despite him losing the popular vote in Nevada.
Anyone found guilty of doing so would face four to 10 years imprisonment and would be barred from holding public office in the state.
Other election-related bills passed along party lines included SB404, which would allow counties to begin counting early vote ballots as soon as the first day of early voting, rather than Election Day, and AB394, which would restrict election officials from counting ballots more than once except when required during a recount or audit — a response to Nye County officials last year counting votes by using machines and by hand.
The two measures now await approval by Lombardo, though the governor has not signaled if he will sign off on them.
Education bills net bipartisan support
AB282, a measure that would require school districts to provide monthly subsidies for long-term substitute teachers to purchase health care, cleared a final vote in the Senate with bipartisan support on Tuesday. That included votes in favor not only from 12 Democrats (minus Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas), who was absent after the birth of her son), but also four Republicans: Senate Minority Leader Heidi Seevers Gansert (R-Reno), Sen. Pete Goicoechea (R-Eureka), Sen. Ira Hansen (R-Sparks) and Sen. Scott Hammond (R-Las Vegas).
Separately, SB292, which would make new principals at-will employees, meaning they can be fired for any reason without warning, for the first three years of employment and reinstate at-will status if certain performance metrics fall for an extended period of time, saw some resistance from Assembly Democrats in a 39-3 vote on Wednesday.
Those three ‘nays’ included Assemblywomen Shondra Summers Armstrong (D-North Las Vegas), Natha Anderson (D-Reno) and Clara Thomas (D-North Las Vegas).
It comes after the bill cleared the Senate unanimously, and after an Assembly committee moved to soften the language of the bill by replacing the “immediate dismissal” of principals with the non-renewal of principal contracts by local school boards.
Train safety bill clears Senate on party lines
AB456, a bill that would limit the length of trains running through Nevada to 7,500 feet, came down to a party line 13-8 vote with Republicans in opposition in the Senate on Wednesday without any additional amendments. It passed after the bill was briefly gutted out of committee in the Assembly, before having the key provisions — the limit on train length — restored ahead of a floor vote.
The move comes as train safety advocates, especially rail worker unions, have pushed for improved safety standards that could avoid or reduce the likelihood of a serious derailment, such as the one that spilled deadly chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio in February. It has been opposed by rail companies — especially Union Pacific — which have argued the bill may be unconstitutional by potentially violating the Commerce Clause.
Bill proponents have generally downplayed potential legal challenges, arguing that the key 1940s-era Supreme Court ruling cited by rail companies would be superseded by a major federal rail safety law passed by Congress in the 1970s.
Bill to shrink Board of Regents heads to governor
The Senate voted 13-7 on Tuesday to approve AB118, a bill sponsored by Assemblyman Howard Watts (D-Las Vegas) that would reduce the number of members of the Board of Regents governing higher education from 13 to nine, as well as dropping the length of regents’ terms from six years to four.
The measure is the latest in a long line of legislation proposed in the last half decade submitted against the backdrop of increasing friction between lawmakers — long skeptical that the higher education system is sufficiently transparent and accountable — and the regents. But regents, and some Republicans, have raised concerns that the move would reduce representation on the board in rural areas and Northern Nevada.
The vote was nearly along party lines save for one Republican defector — Sen. Scott Hammond (R-Las Vegas) — who broke with his party and voted in favor. His vote mirrors similar defections in the Assembly, where only two Republicans — Assemblywoman Heidi Kasama (R-Las Vegas) and Assemblyman Toby Yurek (R-Las Vegas) — voted in favor.
