About Last Week: Sandoval urges CHIP funding reauthorization, Laxalt celebrates possible cut to natural gas rate

Election 2018 Energy Health Care

Editor's note: Seven days. Never enough hours.

Stacks of paperwork at the office and piles of laundry at home. It's a never-ending cycle, which makes it difficult to stay on top of the endless news nuggets flowing from the White House, state capital, local government and business community. We get it — and we're in the news business.

Enter "About Last Week." This is our way of bringing news-hungry but time-strapped readers up to speed on happenings that may have flown under the radar. Our promise: We'll keep it brief. Our hope: You'll read (or skim) and keep checking back every Monday.

So, without further ado, here are some noteworthy things that happened in Nevada last week.

Laxalt touts possible cuts in natural gas rate following FERC letter

Nearly two weeks after signing onto a letter asking federal energy regulators to ensure the recently passed tax legislation is reflected in utility rates, Attorney General Adam Laxalt is celebrating a possible cut in natural gas rates for Northern Nevadans.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday sent letters to several natural gas pipeline developers asking them to adjust their proposed rates on consumers in light of the corporate tax cut passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump in November. One of the developers receiving a letter was the Paiute Pipeline Company, which is constructing an 8.5 mile natural gas pipeline in Northern Nevada.

Laxalt, who signed on to the letter with 17 other states and Nevada Consumer Advocate Ernest Figueroa, said he was pleased that regulators were requiring utilities to "ensure the benefits" of the tax bill were passed on to consumers.

"I am delighted to see that the bipartisan efforts helped prompt quick action by FERC," he said in a statement. "We encourage federal regulators to continue to look at opportunities for additional pass through savings for consumers throughout the entire State."

Nevada's Public Utilities Chairman Joe Reynolds said last week that the attorney general went around his office in contacting FERC, and said that the PUC has "clear leadership authority" in any state communication with the federal entity. A handful of entities, including NV Energy, asked the PUC last week to reconsider its recently passed general rate case to take another crack at determining the possible reduction in energy prices following passage of the tax bill.

— Riley Snyder

Democrats target Heller in ads over shutdown

The federal government may be shut down, but Democratic-leaning groups and candidates are working overtime to lay the blame on Republican Sen. Dean Heller.

Though the vast majority of congressional Democrats voted against a continuing resolution that would have funded the government for four weeks and funded a teetering program giving low-income children health insurance, the party is nonetheless blaming Republicans for the shutdown after Republicans refused to cede to some sort of long-term solution for a shuttered program that protected young undocumented immigrants from deportation.

Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen, challenging Heller in 2018, published a short digital ad Friday with video of Heller from August 2017 saying that it would be "no else's fault but the Republican Party if this government does shut down." (Heller was responding to a question about President Donald Trump's threat to shut down the government if funding for a border wall with Mexico is withheld.)

American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic Super PAC, also released a new social media ad on Saturday on "Dean Heller's Government Shutdown," focusing on possible delays in veteran care if the shutdown continues.

Like most other Republicans, Heller has laid the blame of the shutdown on Democrats, saying on the Senate floor Saturday that the minority party had "engineered a government shutdown at the expense of our troops and their families, our veterans and our nation's children's health care."

"While the majority have been working to restore normal budgeting practices, I'm disappointed that my colleagues across the aisle have spent their time doing everything they can to avoid deadlines and chose the route of not working on appropriations bills and shutting down the government," he said.

— Riley Snyder

Sandoval repeats calls to reauthorize Children's Health Insurance Program

Gov. Brian Sandoval again called on Congress this week to reauthorize funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program as part of a stopgap spending measure as the state slowly runs out of money to continue the program.

Sandoval, who was the first Republican governor to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, said in a statement that 40,000 low-income families are "desperately waiting" for CHIP reauthorization but that Nevada's ability to provide health care to children who receive health insurance under the program is coming to a "preventable end." His statement came hours before the Senate failed to pass the spending measure, shutting down the federal government and leaving the CHIP program again hanging in the balance.

Sandoval, in a nod to Democrats who said they wouldn't vote for the bill because it didn't include protections for DREAMERs, said he supports preserving the protections created by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, but urged Congress to pass the bill nonetheless.

"I firmly believe pitting one group of children in need against another group of children in need doesn't serve either," Sandoval said.

State officials have said they have enough money to keep the program in Nevada running until the end of February, though they are monitoring funding levels on a week by week basis. The Department of Health and Human Services plans to ask lawmakers to allow them to temporarily use so-called intergovernmental transfer funds to cover the gap in federal funding on a short-term basis at the meeting of the Interim Finance Committee next month.

— Megan Messerly

INDY REWIND

From campaign visits with gubernatorial candidate Dan Schwartz to squalid living conditions for the mentally ill, here's what Nevada Independent reporters wrote about last week:

The Indy Explains: The federal court system and the Republican quest to reshape the judiciary

Republican Stavros Anthony drops out of race for Kihuen's House seat; Cresent Hardy says he'll decide soon whether to jump in

Indy Q&A: When machines control the streets, with CEO of Siemens Intelligent Traffic Systems

What does a highly regulated pot industry mean in Nevada? No marijuana vending machines, strict lab tests

Nevada earns last-place finish for second straight year on national education ranking

Correctional officer overtime is busting state budget; 'It would be naive to think the system is not being gamed'

Follow the Money: Who raised the most last year and where are they getting it from?

Trump tax bill could lead to another cut in electric rates for Nevadans

Nevada ignored squalid living conditions for mentally ill, audit finds

Assemblyman launches website criticizing brothel-owner primary opponent for helping women auction their virginity

Ally of mayor appointed North Las Vegas city manager following contentious departure of predecessor

PUC says Laxalt ignored law, went around regulators in filing letter with federal energy agency