Nevada governor signs special session bills, including crime updates
Gov. Joe Lombardo signed the remaining five bills left on his desk following the week-long special legislative session in November, the Nevada Legislature’s online tracker showed Monday.
Though 13 bills made it to the Republican governor’s desk for approval after state lawmakers ended the session on Nov. 19, eight were signed by the governor in the final days and several after the session. The remaining legislation including his wide-sweeping proposals updating some criminal penalties, changes to traffic safety laws in school zones and a grant program to address health care provider shortages in the state.
A spokesperson for the governor did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday. The governor heralded the special session as a success in a statement after the final gavel drop.
The normally part-time Legislature meets for 120 days every other year, but special sessions can be called for specific business on “extraordinary occasions.” Lombardo officially called the body to Carson City on Nov. 13 for more than a dozen items on his proclamation, including a proposal to lure Hollywood development in Southern Nevada, changes to state cybersecurity, wage and labor laws, additional funding to various programs around Nevada and the creation of a state-run public assistance program.
Leaders of the Democratic-majority Legislature sought to address their own priorities for the session agenda by adding two bills while lawmaking was underway. One introduced late in the session made changes that will make it easier for first responders to receive compensation for lung disease claims — which they said fell under the scope of the agenda.
Another bill was added through a historic Legislature-led petition to amend the governor’s agenda, seeking to regulate corporate home ownership. It failed by one vote.
Senate Democrats also exerted their influence on the session’s agenda by amending a Lombardo-backed bill that made a number of changes to the state’s penal code. A version of the bill was introduced during the regular session and died before the adjournment deadline. It was widely viewed as a priority to pass this time around for the governor, a former Clark County sheriff.
Senators amended the legislation, Assembly Bill 4, to include language similar to a bill that Lombardo vetoed in the regular session.
“The purpose of the amendment is definitely to address some concerns we had about immigration enforcement here in Nevada,” state Sen. Melanie Scheible, D-Las Vegas, said after the vote.
One newly added section prevents school employees from allowing law enforcement officials onto school grounds or disclosing a student’s information without a warrant and requiring detention facilities. Another section requires detention facilities, and to make that information publicly available.
Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.
