Nevada Legislature 2025

2-Minute Preview: Major firearm bills, prevailing wage rollback up at Legislature

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Nevada Legislature building

Major bills affecting firearm ownership and rolling back a 2015 Republican measure lowering prevailing wages for school construction projects are on deck as lawmakers kick off their ninth week of the 120-day session.

Legislators also are scheduled to hold hearings on bills that would create a Nevada Stem Cell Center, vote on a contentious bill to decriminilize abortion and hear details of a bill that would allow for the removal of an elected official based on sexual harassment.

Also scheduled for Monday, Gov. Steve Sisolak is slated to sign an executive order "relating to the 2020 census and to ensure every Nevadan is counted."

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 Monday at the Legislature:

AB136: Prevailing wage rollback

A bill sponsored by Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson would roll back Republican-led changes made in 2015 to the state's prevailing wage laws on school construction.

The measure, AB136, would remove requirements that school construction for K-12 and higher education facilities pay 90 percent of the prevailing wage, a sort of median "minimum wage" assessed by the state Labor Commissioner based on wages for similar jobs in the same geographic area.

The measure also removes prevailing wage exemptions for charter schools and lowers the threshold at which prevailing wage kicks in from $250,000 for a project to $100,000. The bill wouldn't apply to any construction projects awarded prior to July 1, 2019.

It's scheduled for a hearing a 8 a.m. in the Assembly Ways and Means committee.

AB291 + AB153: Firearm restrictions

Two proposed bills seeking to add restrictions on firearms are scheduled for a high-profile joint Assembly and Senate Judiciary committee.

One of the proposals is an omnibus gun safety bill proposed by Democratic Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui, who attended and survived the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in October 2017. The bill makes several changes to firearm policy, including:

  • Prohibiting possession and sale of bump-stock devices, which mimic the fire of a fully automatic firearm
  • Reducing the blood alcohol content limit for firearm possession from 0.1 to 0.08
  • Prohibiting concealed carry of a firearm in a public building if a local government has approved an ordinance
  • Repealing a section of law giving the Legislature full jurisdiction over most firearm laws

A fiscal note from the state Department of Corrections estimated the bill would cost less than $10,000 in future budget cycles, approximating that it would result in about four additional inmates per year.

Lawmakers will also hear details of Democratic Assemblyman Ozzie Fumo's AB153, which would make it a misdemeanor for people to negligently store or leave out a firearm when they know there is a "substantial risk" a child could obtain the weapon.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro said in a brief interview on Thursday that she has no plans to fast-track the bills, as lawmakers did with a gun background check bill signed into law the second week of session.

The bills are scheduled to be heard at 8 a.m.

SB443: Meals on Wheels funding

If approved, this bill would allocate $1.5 million to the state's Meals on Wheels program, which provides free meals to food-insecure people over the age of 60.

It's scheduled to be heard in the Senate Finance Committee at 8 a.m.

AB397: Removal from office for sexual harassment

Inspired in part by sexual misconduct allegations against Storey County Sheriff Gerald Antinoro, AB397 would allow the state Equal Rights Commission to recommend certain public officials be impeached or removed from office over sexual harassment.

Proposed by Democratic Assemblywoman Teresa Benitez-Thompson and Speaker Jason Frierson, AB397 authorizes the Equal Rights Commission to recommend impeachment to the Assembly for certain elected officials, but only after the commission first holds a hearing and determines that any findings from the accusation are "significantly severe" enough to warrant removal from office.

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

SB453: Millenium Scholarship changes

Proposed by the Senate Committee on Education, this bill would raise the required grade-point average required to receive the Millenium Scholarship, a state scholarship for Nevada high school students who attend in-state colleges.

The bill would raise the required GPA from a 2.6 for the first year in college to 2.75 and remove the ability of students to regain the scholarship if they fall below the 2.75 GPA for any two semesters during their enrollment.

It'll be heard in the Senate Committee on Education at 1 p.m.

SB490: Study on discrimination in contracts

This bill, proposed by Democratic Sen. Dallas Harris, would require the state Commission on Minority Affairs to conduct a study to determine whether and to what extent discrimination on race or gender exists in the awarding of contracts by a state or local government.

It's scheduled to be heard in the Senate Government Affairs Committee at 1 p.m.

SB464: North Las Vegas government changes

Introduced by the Senate Committee on Government Affairs on behalf of the city of North Las Vegas, this bill would give the mayor of the city new administrative powers, including the ability to sign contracts, resolutions and ordinances approved by the City Council.

The bill would also change the procedure wherein city ordinances are introduced and remove language related to procedures for the removal of the city manager and instead prescribe removal terms in the manager's employment contract.

It also amends the duty of the city manager, removing requirements that he or she attend every meeting, supervise and coordinate administrative and clerical work and serve as the custodian of official election records.

The bill is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Government Affairs Committee at 1 p.m.

AB47, AB76 + AB85: Work sessions on regional behavioral health policy board bills

Three bills proposed by three of the four regional behavioral health policy boards will be up for a vote in the Assembly Health and Human Services Committee.

The bills would create a pilot program to transport individuals experiencing a mental health crisis in rural Nevada, revise the process for putting an involuntary legal hold on someone experiencing a mental health crisis (known as a Legal 2000), and make changes to the regional policy boards.

The fourth regional behavioral policy board bill, AB66, was just heard by the committee on Friday and is not yet scheduled for a vote.

The three other bills will be voted on during the committee's 1:30 p.m. hearing.

SB94 + SB179: Work sessions on bills to support family planning, decriminalize abortion

Lawmakers on the Senate Health and Human Services Committee will vote on whether to advance a bill, SB94, that would allocate $6 million in state general fund dollars for family planning services and separate legislation, SB179, that would decriminalize abortion and make changes to the state's abortion informed consent law.

The committee meets at 4 p.m.

SB363: Nevada Stem Cell Center

This bill, sponsored by state Sen. Joyce Woodhouse, proposes to establish the Nevada Stem Cell Center as an independent, nonprofit corporation formed to provide stem cell treatments to patients, perform stem cell research and educate the public about stem cells.

It also creates a Nevada Stem Cell Account in the state general fund, though it does not appropriate any money to it.

The bill will be heard by the Senate Health and Human Services Committee at 4 p.m.

SB370: Screening for fetal alcohol spectrum disorders

The Senate Health and Human Services Committee will hear a bill that would require Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program to pay the non-federal share of expenditures to screen and treat fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Such treatment would include behavioral therapy or medically necessary habilitative, rehabilitative, prescription, psychiatric, psychological or therapeutic care.

The bill will be heard at 4 p.m.

Updated 4/1/19 at 8:53 a.m. to remove two Affordable Care Act stabilization bills being taken off the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee's agenda.

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