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2-Minute Preview: Lawmakers discuss mental health and gun background checks, marijuana awareness campaign

Riley Snyder
Riley Snyder
Megan Messerly
Megan Messerly
Michelle Rindels
Michelle Rindels
Legislature
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Nevada lawmakers are picking up the pace as the Legislature enters its sixth week, scheduling hearings on a host of major criminal justice bills affecting everything from the definition of sexual assault to clearing records for marijuana offenses.

Legislators will also hear details of bills removing requirements to smog test cars built prior to 1996, creating historic neighborhoods and a wide-ranging bill on marijuana.

Rep. Dina Titus will be delivering a speech to lawmakers at 5 p.m. She’ll be the second member of Nevada’s congressional delegation to address the Legislature this session as part of an annual tradition, following U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen’s Monday address.

For more information on the status of bills working their way through the Legislature, check out The Nevada Independent’s bill tracker. And for the bills in committee today, check out the Legislature’s website for committee times and links to watch live committee meetings and floor sessions.

Here’s what to watch for on Tuesday at the Legislature:

AB192: Clearing criminal records for decriminalized offenses

The Assembly Judiciary Committee is considering AB192, which sets up a process for clearing someone’s criminal record when an offense they’ve been convicted of is decriminalized. It also specifies that any of the person’s civil rights that were taken away solely on the basis of the decriminalized offense are immediately restored.

The measure is sponsored by Democratic Assemblyman William McCurdy, who in 2017 sponsored legislation to expunge people’s records of marijuana offenses that were decriminalized when Nevada voters legalized recreational marijuana.

The bill will be heard at 8 a.m.

AB227: Redefining sexual assault

The Assembly Judiciary Committee will also hear AB227, a bill sponsored by Democratic Assemblywoman Connie Munk that would redefine sexual penetration as it relates to sexual assault. Nevada law currently defines sexual assault as when one person subjects another or forces another into sexual penetration “against the will of the victim or under conditions in which the perpetrator knows or should know that the victim is mentally or physically incapable of resisting or understanding the nature of his or her conduct.”

The bill further defines that portion of law by specifying that it means circumstances in which the sexual penetration “is accomplished against the will of the victim by means of force, violence, duress, menace or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the victim of another person” or in which the victim was unable to give consent or was prevented from resisting because of a mental disorder, being unconscious or being intoxicated or under the influence.

The bill will be heard at 8 a.m.

Public health budget accounts

The budget subcommittee on human services will hear several budget accounts from the Division of Public and Behavioral Health, including those relating to rural clinics and both the Southern and Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services agencies.

The budgets will be heard at 8 a.m.

SB97: Crimes following the disclosure or discovery of someone’s sexual orientation

This bill, sponsored on behalf of the Nevada Youth Legislature, proposes to make several changes relating to crimes based on the disclosure, knowledge or discovery of someone’s sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.

For one, it would prohibit such disclosure, knowledge or discovery from being considered “objectively reasonable” grounds for an alleged state of passion or alleged provocation of a defendant. It also states that a defendant does not suffer from a reduced mental capacity and is not justified in using force against another person based on such disclosure, knowledge or discovery.

The bill will be heard in Senate Judiciary at 8 a.m.

SB265: Mental health reporting for gun background checks

Proposed by Republican Sen. Heidi Gansert and backed by numerous Democratic and Republican lawmakers, SB265 would require courts and the state’s system for background checks on gun sales coordinate on the “timely” submission of court orders related to mental health.

Currently, Nevada law requires any court that issues an order finding an individual is incompetent or unable to stand trial due to a mental illness transmit that information to the state’s gun sale background check repository within five days. The bill requires the repository, which is housed in the state’s Department of Public Safety, to coordinate with courts and to issue an annual report identifying any instances of a record not being “timely” transferred.

The bill will be heard in the Senate Committee on Judiciary, which is scheduled to meet at 8 a.m.

AB230: Historic neighborhoods

A bill proposed by Democratic Assemblywoman Heidi Swank would allow any municipality or county to officially create and recognize a historic neighborhood.

The bill, AB230, would expand a law that currently only applies to Clark County allowing county governments to designate a neighborhood with at least 10 residential dwellings primarily constructed more than 40 years ago to be a “historic neighborhood.”

The bill will be heard in the Assembly Committee on Government Affairs at 9 a.m.

AB231: Automobile emissions

Proposed by Democratic Assembly members Richard Carrillo and Skip Daly, AB231 would allow the owners of cars built prior to 1996 to avoid smog emission testing.

The bill, which is scheduled to be heard in the Assembly Committee on Growth and Infrastructure, would also cap the number of existing smog emissions testing stations for automobiles at the current number as of Jan. 1, 2020, with the ability to increase the number of emissions if the number of cars in a certain county increases by more than 10 percent.

The bill also requires the State Environmental Commission — which conducts the smog emission tests — to use wireless testing devices, which connect to the onboard diagnostic equipment of an automobile for emissions testing.

The committee will meet at 1:30 p.m.

SB254: Carbon emissions reduction vote

Members of the Senate Committee on Growth and Infrastructure are set to vote on a measure that would identify ways for the state to reduce carbon emissions to zero or near-zero by 2050.

Sponsored by Democratic Sen. Chris Brooks, SB254 would require the state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources issue annual reports detailing greenhouse gas emissions in the state and identify policies to reduce carbon-based emissions over the next decades. The bill was introduced on March 7 and heard in committee last week.

The committee will meet at 1:30 p.m.

SB238: Marijuana public information campaign

Lawmakers on the Senate Revenue and Economic Development Committee will hear SB238, which would create the Responsible Use of Marijuana Public Education Committee and require that entity to partner with a marketing agency to launch a public information campaign about the responsible use of marijuana.

The bill is sponsored by Democratic Assemblywoman Yvanna Cancela.

The committee meets at 1:30 p.m.

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