‘It's a long time coming’: Nevada Assembly switches to gender-neutral titles
In today’s edition:
- A kerfuffle over how to refer to members of the Assembly
- Senate Republicans want shorter window for mail voting
- How LGBTQ+ advocates want to counter Trump
From the Capital Bureau Chief:
Congratulations on surviving the first day of Camp Carson, I mean, the first day of the legislative session. Only 119 days to go.
Team Indy is dedicated to covering every aspect of the Legislature, so three reporters and one photojournalist will be based in Northern Nevada and in the building most days.
Our legislative team consists of:
- Eric Neugeboren is a politics and data reporter who joined The Indy in June 2023 as an intern. This session, Eric is focusing on election-related legislation alongside economic and business development, while dabbling in energy and environmental coverage. In his scarce free time, he enjoys hiking, trivia, rooting for the Commanders (gross) and digging through campaign finance reports.
- Isabella Aldrete is a Report for America corps member who joined our team this summer. She will be focused on criminal justice, cannabis and immigrant communities. Along with painting, Isabella likes to read books and is obsessed with Elena Ferrante’s The Neapolitan Quartet. She said half the reason she moved to Las Vegas is because of The Goldfinch.
- Photojournalist David Calvert has covered the Legislature for The Indy since 2017.
This is my third legislative session and I’ll be focusing on a smorgasboard of topics including health care, housing and film tax credits, while guiding our legislative coverage.
What’s in a name?
New session, new building exterior and a new naming structure.
Members of the Assembly who were sworn in on Monday no longer carry the title assemblyman or assemblywoman — all 42 are now referred to as assemblymembers.
Here’s why the change was made, and why Republicans opposed it:
- Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) told The Indy that he has been mulling the change since 2019, when women in the Legislature introduced legislation to create a specialty license plate commemorating 100 years of women’s suffrage. Adding a male sponsor would change the list of bill sponsors to assemblymen.
- “I remember wanting to sign on to that bill, and they said, ‘No, it can only be women, because we want it to say Assemblywomen,’” Yeager said. “It just seems silly to me that we're sort of using that convention in the year 2025, so assemblymembers is a much easier way to do it.”
- Context: Nevada in 2019 became the first state to have a female-majority Legislature.
- “You're going to see that change on the website, you're going to see that change in our rules. You're going to see that change on the bills,” Yeager said. “I just think it's a long time coming to modernize it, and especially given that we had the first female majority Legislature, and we're still one of the only ones in the country [to refer to legislators with gendered terms].”
- Other state legislatures, including Wisconsin and Arkansas, refer to members of the lower house as representatives. California uses the term assemblymember.
- Yeager said referring to members of the Assembly as representatives would have violated the Nevada Constitution.
- Not everyone is on board. Assm. Jill Dickman (R-Sparks) placed pink tape covering “Assemblymember” on her door, with the words “Assembly Woman” written on top.
- “We worked extremely hard for many, many, many years to be assemblywomen, to become the first majority-female Legislature, and now they want us all to be the same? No,” Dickman said in an interview. “I’m allowed to do my pronouns that I prefer, so why can’t I be assemblywoman?”
- Yeager said the official record will use assemblymembers.
- “I'm keenly aware that change is hard for everybody, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't make the change,” Yeager said. “If it's the appropriate time and the right thing to do, then we should do it.”
- Republican legislators voted against a resolution to change the naming structure, among other procedural matters, during a voice vote. The measure still passed.
- “In our society we now allow men to call themselves women, but in this very building we’re not going to allow women to call themselves women,” Sen. Ira Hansen (R-Sparks) said about his ‘no’ vote.
— Tabitha Mueller
What we’re reading and writing
Nevada Latino lawmakers announce priorities against backdrop of mass deportations by Isabella Aldrete
The caucus is backing bills to ensure services for children whose parents face deportation.
Lombardo praised Nevada’s new finance system. The switch has been plagued by glitches. By Eric Neugeboren
The state has at times been unable to distribute child support, pension and health savings account payments, but officials said many of the issues are fixed.
10 issues to watch during Nevada’s 2025 legislative session by The Nevada Independent Staff
The Indy’s Nevada Policy Tracker is a guide to the storylines expected to make the biggest splash in the coming months.
Senate Republicans lay out session priorities
Senate Republicans, who hold eight of 21 seats in the chamber, held a press conference Monday morning.
Here’s the gist:
- Top caucus priorities: school choice, loosening occupational licensing requirements, stricter penalties for child sex trafficking and changing the state’s mail ballot rules
- It largely aligns with the priorities of Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican.
- Sen. Carrie Buck (R-Henderson) said her education legislation will seek to “grow the charter school movement” and increase accountability of low-performing schools.
- Freshman priorities: Sen. Lori Rogich (R-Las Vegas) wants to increase funding for special education programs and Sen. John Steinbeck (R-Las Vegas) is focusing on decreasing drug overdoses and DUIs.
- Sen. Lisa Krasner (R-Reno) has sponsored SB103, which would require mail ballots to be postmarked by the end of the early voting period, instead of by Election Day.
- This is likely to be dead on arrival for Democrats.
- Asked about data that shows few ballots are received after Election Day, Senate Minority Leader Robin Titus (R-Wellington) said it shouldn’t make a difference “whether it's 10 ballots or 1,000 ballots” and that “we were the laughing stock of the nation” with ballots allowed to be received up to four days post-Election Day.
- Democrats have majorities in both chambers, meaning they have full control over which bills will move forward in the Legislature.
- Titus told reporters that she and Democratic leadership have a “good relationship,” but also “ask me that question in 120 days.”
— Eric Neugeboren
Advocates call for LGBTQ+ youth protections
Progressives hope that legislators will strengthen protections for the LGBTQ+ population, especially with President Donald Trump back in office. Here are some highlights from their Monday press conference at the Legislature:
- Silver State Equality, Nevada’s statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, is pushing for legislation to protect incarcerated transgender people in jail, prohibit book bans in libraries and public schools, and safeguard the licenses of providers of gender-affirming health care services.
- Though Gov. Joe Lombardo signed two bills addressing transgender rights into law in 2023, he vetoed another bill that would have protected health care providers giving gender-affirming care from losing their medical license and prohibited the state’s executive branch from helping another state investigate a Nevada provider for offering gender-affirming care.
- Jessica Munger, program manager for Silver State Equality, says bodily autonomy is an issue that affects everyone.
- “When we start to come for people’s ability to make medical decisions about their own body, it’s not just going to affect trans folks or queer folks, it’s going to affect our own ability to make decisions about all of our health care,” Munger said.
— Lizzie Ramirez
Keeping Tabs
📽️ TikTok has lobbyists in the building — TikTok has hired four lobbyists this session, including Edward Ableser, the son-in-law of former U.S. Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV). TikTok has faced scrutiny for its ties to China, where the platform was created. It had no registered lobbyists last session.
- Context: Last December, Heller published an op-ed saying that banning TikTok would “undermine the state’s constitutional principles.”
✅New poll shows Lombardo has double-digit favorability and job approval — Lombardo has a +12 approval rating and a +13 favorability rating, according to a January poll from Noble Predictive Insights. Forty-eight percent of voters say that they approve of Lombardo versus 37 percent who disapprove. The majority, however, say they trust the Democrat-controlled Legislature over Lombardo on several issues, such as education and health care, while Lombardo has an edge on crime and the economy. The poll surveyed 813 registered voters across the Silver State with a ± 3.44 percent margin of error.
🚗 Keep an eye on Uber during session, progressive group warns — Empower Nevadans Now, a nonprofit led by trial attorneys, said last week that people should “be very suspicious” of the activities of Uber during this year’s legislative session after the ride-sharing company suffered a major legal defeat last week. The Nevada Supreme Court blocked a ballot question financially supported by Uber that would place a cap on attorney contingency fees, a move that opponents said was an effort to stymie sexual misconduct lawsuits.
✍️ Americans for Prosperity releases legislative priorities — The Koch brothers-founded group released a list of priorities on Monday — check them out here.
— Isabella Aldrete, Eric Neugeboren and Tabitha Mueller
Looking Ahead
Happy syllabus week! There’s not much going on, but we did want to flag these events and hearings.
- Wednesday, Feb. 5: During a joint money committee meeting, the governor’s office is presenting the (yet to be publicly released) amendments to its proposed budget that had a $335 million deficit.
- Tuesday, Feb. 11, at 6 p.m.: IndyTalks with Gov. Joe Lombardo at the National Automobile Museum Event Center in Reno.
Days until:
- Last day for bill introductions: 49
- First house passage deadline: 78
- Sine die: 119
And to get you going into the week, a few social media posts that caught our eye:
- Happy first day of the session, and happy birthday to Elmo!
- Is this a sign of things to come?
- And overheard at the Legislature makes a comeback.
We’ll see you Thursday.