Weekly Legislative Update – 4/21

While last week’s deadline brought a buzz to Carson City and a sense of urgency to the Nevada legislative process, this week we saw a quiet legislative building with few committee hearings. Vice President Kamala Harris visited University of Nevada Reno on Tuesday to discuss reproductive health and rights with a crowd of students, community members and government officials. She was joined by Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve, actress Rosario Dawson, and many of Nevada’s Democratic legislators were in attendance. This cancelled committee hearings on Tuesday afternoon.  

Behind the scenes work continues to be done this week including modifying conceptual amendments into bill language by the Legislative Counsel Bureau and legislators caucusing and attending long floor sessions to adopt amendments and get bills out of their respective houses by April 25, the next deadline. 

Last Friday was the deadline for bills to pass out of the first committee, and with that deadline we saw 239 proposed pieces of legislation die. A few to note: 

·         AB105 – accessing nonexclusive easement, public right-of-way or other property right granted to a public utility or others to install broadband internet. 

·         AB108 – enacting the nurse license compact. 

·         AB209 – repealing medical malpractice.  

·         AJR3 – accessing a clean and healthy environment and protection of environmental resources. 

·         SB179 – bringing transparency to third-party litigation funding and advertising. 

·         SJR6 – changing the constitution to allow for annual Nevada legislative sessions. 

And while some bills died, many more lived on – for now – including ones on general business, healthcare, insurance and mining, to name a few.  

·         AB313 – mining reclamation involving pit lakes.  

·         AB404 – medical malpractice changes.  

·         AJR5 – changing the constitution to allow for the operation of lotteries.   

·         SB57 – insurance omnibus bill.  

·         SB239 – terminally ill, end-of-life medication administration. 

·         SB419 – Medicaid coverage regardless of immigration status (HOPE Act).  

·         SB441 – repeal of COVID-19 housecleaning requirements on hospitality and casino industries.  

·         SJR7 – ensuring reproductive rights. 

Of the 956 bills for the 82^nd Legislative Session, we have 717 remaining. Bill deadlines to note from the 120-Day Calendar include:  

·         First House Passage – April 25 

·         Committee Passage – Second House – May 19