On Wednesday, Nevada lawmakers made state history by adding a bill cracking down on corporate housing to a special session agenda otherwise set by the governor. 

Hours later, the legislation died by a single vote.

SB10 sought to put limits on the number of housing units that corporations can buy in a single year, and passed out of the Senate earlier Wednesday on a unanimous vote from the 18 members who were present. 

The bill was not included in Gov. Joe Lombardo’s initial special session proclamation, but legislative Democrats and two Republican lawmakers signed a petition adding it to the special session agenda — the first time lawmakers had done so in state history.

The bill needed a two-thirds majority vote to pass because it would create a revenue source, which is required under the state Constitution. But Democrats, who are one seat short of a two-thirds majority in the Assembly, did not receive the necessary Republican vote, and the bill died on an 27-10 vote on Wednesday evening.

Assm. Alexis Hansen (R-Sparks), who had signed the petition to add it to the special session, cast a ‘no’ vote that killed the bill. She did not explain her decision from the Assembly floor and was not available at the end of the special session.

The idea behind SB10 had long been championed by Sen. Dina Neal (D-North Las Vegas) who pushed similar legislation in 2023 and 2025. The measure died in 2023 after it was vetoed by Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) and failed in 2025 when it failed to receive a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate.

Sen. Ira Hansen (R-Sparks), who is married to Alexis Hansen, had supported the legislation in 2023 and expressed support for it again in 2025, but he said he ended up voting against the measure on the floor at the request of the governor.

He would later call the vote one of his biggest regrets of the 2025 session and signed the petition to add it back to the special session agenda. Hansen co-presented the bill with Neal on Wednesday, and both emphasized that it was critical to lowering the competition for buying a home and hindering companies’ ability to charge sky-high rental prices to potential homebuyers locked out of the market.

Democrats had hailed the legislation as a way to address the state’s housing affordability crisis.

Specifically, SB10 would have capped the number of homes that corporations can purchase annually to 1,000, an increase from the 100-unit cap proposed earlier this year. It also would have created a data registry of the number of homes corporations keep. 

The new bill would also have exempted property sold by credit unions or ones that the state’s top housing official considers “in the public interest.”

Neal said in an interview after the news that the bill failed to pass, that she thought Ira Hansen might have been more upset about the death of the legislation than she was.

“We moved the bill, we did a historical petition to amend the governor's proclamation, and we had a substantial hearing where the community came out and expressed how this is a consistent issue,” Neal said. “I think I've been on the right side of history now for three sessions, two regulars and one special. So to me, I'm winning because I keep lifting this issue because it is a problem.”

She added that there were some good amendments that were offered that may make their way into future sessions, but she’s not done bringing up the topic.

Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas) said the death of the corporate housing legislation was a “complete disservice to Nevada,” and she strongly urged the Legislature to bring the bill back in a future session.

“What we saw today was a historic event where the Legislature really exercised its authority, again as a separate and equal branch of government, to say that this is a crisis,” Cannizaro said. 

Ira Hansen was not available for an interview.