Dozens of bills beat Friday deadline in Carson City

CARSON CITY — Bills to cap the price of certain prescription drugs and mandate substitute teachers hold an associate’s degree were among those to survive Friday’s bill-killing deadline.

Lawmakers voted to advance dozens of bills out of committee Friday, the first house committee passage deadline. Unless exempted, bills that didn’t get a committee vote were sentenced to death.

Among the pieces of legislation to survive the deadline was Assembly Bill 250, a bill that would cap the price of certain drugs at rates negotiated by the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

The legislation passed on a vote of 7-5, with Assembly members Bea Duran, D-Las Vegas, P.K. O’Neill, R-Carson City, Melissa Hardy, R-Henderson, Heidi Kasama, R-Las Vegas, and Toby Yurek, R-Henderson voting no.

The bill was passed with an amendment that delayed the effective date to Jan. 1, 2026.

No local government schools

Lawmakers voted 4-3 to advance an amended Senate Bill 344, a sweeping education bill sponsored by Sen. Dina Neal, D-North Las Vegas. Under the bill, local governments would be barred from operating or spending money to support charter schools and substitute teachers would be required to hold an associate’s degree.

The bill also prohibits the Clark County School District Board of Trustees from impeding or discouraging public comment during a meeting and would require large school districts to undergo an audit every six years.

State Sens. Scott Hammond, R-Las Vegas, Robin Titus, R-Wellington, and Carrie Buck, R-Henderson voted against the bill.

The Senate Education Committee also voted 6-1 to advance a heavily amended Senate Bill 347, legislation that would create the Commission on Higher Education Funding. Titus voted against advancing the bill.

Prior to being amended, the proposed legislation would have deconsolidated the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents by creating a board of trustees at each state college and community college.

Homeless issues

The Senate Government Affairs Committee voted to advance several bills Friday afternoon, including Senate Bill 155.

The bill, which was gutted by an amendment and passed unanimously, would allow local governments to create a diversion program for homeless people charged with certain misdemeanors. An original version would have prohibited local governments from passing laws that criminalized homelessness, including camping or sleeping on public property.

Senate Bill 184 was also voted out of the committee on a vote of 4-1, with Sen. Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, voting no. The bill would add two new seats to North Las Vegas’ City Council and requires the city manager to become a resident of the city within six months of their appointment into the position.

Sponsor state Sen. Pat Spearman, D-North Las Vegas, said the city had grown exponentially but its city council is the same size as when the city had fewer than 40,000 residents. There are more than 274,000 residents today, according to the Census Bureau.

Lawmakers voted unanimously to advance Senate Bill 371, a bill that would authorize local government officials to enact any measure relating to affordable housing and rent control.

A bill that would ban unincorporated towns in Nevada from ringing “sundown sirens,” which were once sounded to warn nonwhite people to leave town, passed on a vote of 4-1, with Goicoechea as the only no vote. The senator said he didn’t condone the sirens, but voted no because the bill impacted dozens of communities across the state.

Senate Bill 391 would bar a town from sounding a siren, bell or alarm from any reason outside of an emergency or a testing of the siren. Towns could face a penalty of $50,000 for violations.

Bills that died

Among the scores of bills that did not make Friday’s deadline was Assembly Bill 134, which would have required licenses for pharmaceutical sales representatives.

Assembly Bill 108, which would have allowed Nevada to join a multistate agreement that allows nurses to practice in multiple states while only holding a single license died without being voted on.

Senate Bill 227, a bill that would make an person guilty of the crime of intimidation it they created a symbol of hate on public property or in plain view of the public, also died.

Assembly Bill 149 — which would have created an independent inspector general to audit and investigate all education spending in the state — also failed. The bill had been sought by Assemblywomen Brittney Miller, D-Las Vegas and Natha Anderson, D-Sparks.

Assemblywoman Heidi Kasama, R-Las Vegas, saw her Assembly Bill 186 to prohibit restaurants serving water to customers except by request die. And Assemblyman David Orentlicher, D-Las Vegas, failed to get his Assembly Bill 294 that would have banned the sale of flavored tobacco products past the deadline.

All six of Gov. Joe Lombardo’s proposed bills survived the deadline. Assembly Bill 330, which would repeal legislation from 2019 that requires public schools to create a restorative justice plan prior to removing a disruptive student, and Senate Bill 10, which would create the Nevada State Infrastructure Bank, were advanced through committee.

Four of the governor’s bills were exempted from the deadline, including Senate Bill 405, which would make wide-ranging changes to Nevada’s election process. Assembly Bill 400, also exempted, would create the Office of School Choice, increase Opportunity Scholarship funding and reinstate the Read by Grade 3 program. Senate Bill 412, known as the Crime Reduction Act, and Senate Bill 431, the Government Modernization and Efficiency Act, are also exempt.

Contact Taylor R. Avery at TAvery@reviewjournal.com. Follow @travery98 on Twitter.