Nevada’s 2025 legislative session concluded in June with hundreds of proposals becoming law and 87 more vetoed by Gov. Joe Lombardo.

The Nevada Independent has been tracking key legislation and policy debates through our Nevada Policy Tracker, presenting a concise summary of what observers see as the most significant actions lawmakers and the governor took in major policy areas. 

Scroll through the subject matter areas below for the most intriguing storylines in the Legislature this year and the state of play in different policy areas.

This page was last updated on 06/22/2025

• K-12 Education
• Health care 
• Housing 
• Guns 
• Criminal justice
• Elections
• Economic issues
• Environment and energy 
• Gaming and tourism
• Immigrant communities
• Cannabis
• State government

K-12 Education

K-12 education funding saw a more modest increase this session compared with the 2023 session. The statewide base per-pupil funding for the upcoming school year is $9,416, a $2 increase from the 2024-25 school year. It will go up to $9,486 the following year. 

The total funding for public schools is estimated to average $13,889 per pupil for 2025-26 school year, a $521 increase from the previous school year, and $13,963 for the 2026-2027 school year. It’s still lower than the national average of $17,467.  

Democrats and Republicans came together to increase school accountability by establishing a system to track school district performance and new interventions for schools and districts that don’t perform well under Democratic Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro’s (D-Las Vegas) omnibus education bill, SB460. The bill also included $19 million in funding for pre-K programming and facilities, but it wasn’t enough to provide universal pre-K as Cannizzaro had initially pushed for. 

Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s idea to make it easier for students from low-performing schools to attend a school outside their zone and a $7 million appropriation to provide them transportation were grafted onto Cannizzaro’s bill and a bill by Assm. Selena Torres-Fossett (D-Las Vegas) to expand open enrollment statewide (AB533) was signed into law.  

Lawmakers also renewed funding for public educator pay raises and appropriated $38 million to extend those raises to charter schools (AB398), a priority for Republicans, including Lombardo. The bill from Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) also allocated $90 million to provide additional compensation for certain hard-to-fill teacher positions — a measure pushed for by the Clark County Education Association. 

Another successful bill supported by the union (SB161) will speed teacher contract negotiation in the arbitration process, but a provision creating a pathway for legal school strikes — which are currently outlawed — was amended out. 

This session also included a major victory for the White Pine County School District, which has long asked the Legislature for help to replace two aging schools. AB224 provides financing for school construction for rural schools that don’t have the means to fund it with their tax base. 

But an effort to reform Nevada’s property tax system (AJR1), which could have resulted in substantial additional funding for K-12 education, died in the Senate after passing out of the Assembly. 

Several education-related bills were among those vetoed by Lombardo. They included two bills (AB416 and AB445) and that would added have protections for librarians and books being challenged, often by conservative groups; a bill that made sex education instruction available to students unless their parents opt out (AB205); and a bill (AB441) that would have implemented new guardrails and deadlines to the state’s Opportunity Scholarship program that helps low-income students attend private schools. 

— Rocio Hernandez

Health care 

Gov. Joe Lombardo had two main health care priorities entering the session — and he went one for two.

The Legislature unanimously approved the Lombardo-backed proposal to split the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services into two, creating the Nevada Health Authority that would oversee Medicaid, Medicaid, the state’s health insurance exchange, the Public Employee Benefits Program and other services. State officials have said a consolidated health insurance agency could give the state more leverage when negotiating with insurers.

But his marquee health care policy proposal died on the last day of session. SB495 included provisions to speed up prior authorization processes and establish an alternative licensing path for dental hygienists. A controversial provision added to the measure at the last minute to prohibit new freestanding emergency centers being licensed within a 5-mile radius of an existing one or a hospital with an emergency department led to the bill’s demise.

One aspect of the bill — expanding residency training and postdoctoral fellowships in the state’s graduate medical education program — made its way into another successful proposal (SB262) sponsored by Sen. Julie Pazina (D-Las Vegas).

Nevadans under private insurance will also no longer pay more than $35 monthly for insulin because of a bill proposed by Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) in the final weeks of the session that was signed into law. Another health care bill that passed was AB176, which would generally ban the state or any of its agencies from limiting access to contraception. 

But other prominent health care bills were vetoed by Lombardo. Those include:

• SB217, which would have required most private insurers and public insurers, including Medicaid, cover in vitro fertilization treatment and protected providers of the care from criminal or civil liability.
• ​​AB282, which would have required providers to refund a patient within 60 days if there was a billing overpayment.
• AB259, which proposed adopting prescription drug prices negotiated by Medicare, a bill that mirrored one from 2023 that Lombardo also vetoed.
• SB182, which would have mandated nurse-to-patient ratios in Washoe and Clark counties.
• SB128, which would have banned insurers from solely relying on artificial intelligence (AI) to deny or modify a prior authorization request.

There were also prominent bills that died on their own accord, including a program designed to support projects that address critical shortages of health care providers (SB434), a proposal that would establish certain transparency rules for pharmacy benefit managers (SB316) and a pilot program to treat people using psychedelics (AB378). The long-running effort to legalize medical aid-in-dying also failed to pass again, as did one that would have repealed the criminalization of self-managed abortions (SB139) — something that exists in Nevada but no other states.

And proposals for Nevada to join interstate licensure compacts for nurses (SB34), occupational therapists (AB106), dentists and dental hygienists (AB143), cosmetologists (AB371) and school psychologists (SB227) also failed. However, Lombardo approved licensure compacts for audiologists and speech language pathologists (AB230), physical therapists and counselors (AB163). 

— Eric Neugeboren

Housing 

Lawmakers from both parties united to pass Lombardo’s major housing proposal, AB540, which  will funnel more than $130 million in state funds toward “attainable” housing projects — a new tier more expensive than traditional affordable housing.

That number was a notable decrease from the bill’s initial call of $250 million toward housing. Despite compromise on that bill, the governor was more hesitant to approve other Democrat-backed proposals, many of which were repeats of bills he vetoed last session. 

Lombardo rejected AB280 from Assm. Sandra Jauregui (D-Las Vegas), which would have capped annual rent increases for senior citizens at no more than 5 percent for an approximately yearlong pilot program, as well as required landlords to break down the rationale for housing fees. 

He also vetoed a rental transparency measure (AB223) from Assm. Venicia Considine (D-Las Vegas) that would have allowed tenants to reduce or withhold rent if their landlord doesn't do repairs to keep the home in habitable condition.

Perhaps most significantly, Lombardo again vetoed repealing the state’s unique summary eviction process, which stipulates that tenants must make the first filing in an eviction case instead of a landlord. AB283, brought by Assm. Max Carter (D-Las Vegas), would have made it so landlords have to make the first filing and set up a pathway for automatically sealing certain summary eviction cases.

Other measures, such as AJR10, which supported releasing more federal land to address the state’s housing shortage, met quieter deaths. SB193, from Sen. Fabian Doñate (D-Las Vegas), would have established a pilot program to help certain families buy down interest rates on mortgage loans but never received a second floor vote. 

— Isabella Aldrete

Guns 

Lombardo’s veto pen curbed Democrats' efforts to put stricter guardrails around gun use. 

Two of those rejected measures came from Assm. Sandra Jauregui (D-Las Vegas), a survivor of the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting in Las Vegas. AB245 would have banned Nevadans younger than 21 years old from possessing semiautomatic rifles or shotguns, with exceptions for veterans or for hunting. 

Meanwhile, another one of Jauregui’s proposals, AB105, would have prohibited use of a firearm within 100 feet of an election site. Both passed along party-line votes in the Assembly and Senate before it was vetoed. 

Lombardo also vetoed SB89 from Sen. Julie Pazina (D-Las Vegas), which would have prohibited individuals who committed a hate crime in the past 10 years from owning a gun. He vetoed the idea last session, too. 

But some measures were signed into law, such as SB347 from Sen. Melanie Scheible (D-Las Vegas). That bill authorizes a law enforcement officer to immediately confiscate a firearm in the custody, control, or immediate vicinity of a person placed on a mental health crisis hold. Upon release from treatment, officers would have to make the firearm available for return.

AB451 from Jauregui — billed as a suicide prevention measure — was also signed into law. That bill will let firearm dealers and local law enforcement hold firearms at the owner’s request for at least 21 days and grant immunity to those who hold it from civil liability.

— Isabella Aldrete

Criminal justice

Gov. Joe Lombardo’s (SB457) omnibus crime bill — the most consequential piece of criminal justice legislation this session — met a particularly messy demise. 

In its finalized form, that bill would have barred individuals who committed crimes in designated tourism corridors in Clark County, such as the Strip, from those areas, and also would have established hospitality workers as a protected class, enacting harsher penalties for crimes against them. Many of the bill’s most stringent suggestions, however, such as lowering the felony theft threshold, making it easier to be considered a habitual criminal, and stiffening penalties for fentanyl possession, were amended out. 

Although Lombardo’s crime bill passed out of the Senate and Assembly on the final day of the session with heavy bipartisan support, it failed to get final approval before time ran out.   

Lombardo also vetoed several criminal justice measures, including lengthening the pre-execution waiting period (SB350) and a mandate for law enforcement officers to record and retain traffic stop data permanently (SB85). 

But some measures did survive. AB25, sponsored by the Assembly Judiciary Committee, requires that pelvic exams and mammograms for incarcerated women align with national guidelines. It also repeals regimental discipline programs, such as boot camps, that have been used as an alternative to incarceration. 

Lawmakers also approved more than $44 million in supplemental appropriations to the Nevada Department of Corrections as it faces a more than $53 million budget shortfall driven by officers’ heavy use of overtime. 

Here’s the status of other notable proposals:

• Passed: 
  • AB381, also known as Reba’s Law, would extend prison time for people convicted of animal cruelty.
  • AB193 gives domestic violence survivors the right to obtain a free, complete and unaltered copy of law enforcement reports upon written request. 
  • AB467 allows courts to involuntarily admit defendants to mental health facilities if they are deemed a danger to themselves or society and need treatment to attain competence for trial.
• Died: 
  • AB16 would have appropriated $10 million in state funds to build a new Mineral County jail but didn’t receive any floor votes. 
  • AB487, dubbed “Cindy Lou’s Law,” would have in its initial form prohibited pet stores from selling dogs and cats, only allowing adoption events with shelters and rescues. It died on the last day of the session.
  • SB415, which would have greenlit automated red light traffic enforcement, failed to make it out of committee.  

— Isabella Aldrete

Elections

Multiple last-minute proposals could have significantly upended Nevada’s election system, but Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed both.

Those were proposals to begin voter ID in 2026 (AB499) and allow nonpartisans to vote in non-presidential party primaries (AB597), but the governor did not agree with certain provisions. 

Read more about his veto of the voter ID bill here. 

These rejections were among the more than 10 election bills that Lombardo vetoed, which also included:

• AB534, an omnibus bill that would have changed the deadline to verify initiative petitions’ eligibility for the ballot and confirmed that mail ballots should start being counted 15 days before Election Day.
  • It also would have created a grant program in the secretary of state’s office to provide resources to local election officials — part of Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar’s plans to beef up election staffing to expedite ballot processing.
• AB79, which would have allowed candidates and officials to use unspent campaign contributions for expenses related to their duties, as well as changed the process for adjudicating campaign finance reporting violations.
• SB102, which would have criminalized fake elector schemes.
• SB100, which would have required regulations ensuring that election officials perform their duties in a timely manner.
• SB422, which would have allowed voters to use IDs from any U.S. state or their tribes to register to vote in person during early voting or on Election Day.
• SB428, which would have required an elected official to reside in their district for their entire term.

Another bill that didn’t pass was SB74, from the secretary of state’s office, which would have changed candidate filing procedures, clarified when mail ballots can be counted and allocated $200,000 for county election official training courses. It fell by the wayside in the final minutes of the session after Senate Republicans prevented any last-minute bill passages.

There were also several attempts from Republicans to crack down on mail ballot timelines that were dead on arrival in the Democrat-controlled Legislature. That included a bill (SB103) to require all ballots mailed to an election clerk to be postmarked by the end of early voting, and received before polls close on Election Day, as well as an effort (AB178) to decrease the window for voters to fix signatures on mail ballots.

But not everything failed. Lombardo signed several election bills, including one that will change the deadline for voters to receive mail ballots (AB148), another to require the disclosure of AI use in campaign materials (AB73) and a third to mandate a $1,000 filing fee when candidates declare for the presidential primary (SB225).

— Eric Neugeboren

Economic issues

Some of the most prominent bills related to Nevada’s economy are not becoming law, including the two proposals to expand the state’s film tax credit program — currently offering $10 million a year — by eightfold. 

AB238, sponsored by Assm. Sandra Jauregui (D-Las Vegas) and backed by Sony and Warner Bros., passed out of the Assembly with three days left in the session, but it never received a vote in the Senate. Meanwhile, SB220, sponsored by Sen. Roberta Lange (D-Las Vegas), never received a full chamber vote, marking an anticlimactic end to one of the most prominent topics of the legislative session.

Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed some progressive proposals that sought to address cost-of-living issues. This included AB388, brought by Assm. Selena La Rue Hatch (D-Reno), which would have significantly expanded paid family leave in the public and private sectors, and Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford’s AB44, which would have cracked down on the deceptive price fixing of essential goods, such as food, medication and housing.

Another bill that stalled was Lombardo’s economic development bill (SB461), which would have doled out up to $12 million in annual tax credits for child care facilities, as well as provide greater incentives for businesses related to clean energy, advanced manufacturing and defense. However, it stalled out without ever receiving a committee vote after lawmakers cast doubt on the entirety of the proposal during a bill hearing.

Another bill to die was AB500, from Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas), which would have created a new type of payments bank in an effort to cut down on the middlemen in financial transactions. But it failed twice on the Assembly floor, with several Democrats voting against the bill.

However, some economic bills that became law are SB69, which mandates that large-scale projects seeking tax abatements will offset certain public costs, and SB451, which extends a 20 cent property tax rate in Clark County that goes toward police funding.

— Eric Neugeboren

Environment and energy 

Championed by Sen. Julie Pazina (D-Las Vegas) and signed into law by Gov. Joe Lombardo, SB19 allows the state to enter into the Great Plains Wildland Fire Protection Compact and the Northwest Wildland Fire Protection Agreement, allowing Nevada to more easily transfer resources across state lines during emergencies. 

Passed on mostly party lines, AB458, sponsored by Assm. Howard Watts (D-Las Vegas), enables property owners to install rooftop solar on affordable housing properties with five or more units, expanding net metering access — a process that allows homes with solar panels to offset or transfer excess power back to the electricity grid — to low-income renters. 

Two years ago, Lombardo vetoed a bill that would have required local governments to address extreme heat; the following summer, more than 500 people died in Clark County from heat-related illness. This year he signed AB96, requiring Washoe and Clark counties to create formal heat plans. 

After lawmakers failed to pass a 2023 bill to buy back and retire water rights in some of the state’s most over-appropriated basins, they unanimously passed two bills this session addressing the matter — SB36 and AB104. 

Sponsored by Assm. Tracy Brown-May (D-Las Vegas), AB452 directs state energy regulators to investigate how fuel and purchased power costs are passed on to ratepayers and to potentially adopt what’s called fuel cost sharing, a move that could lead to NV Energy bearing some of the financial risk when natural gas price spikes. The bill, signed into law, also gives state energy regulators more time to scrutinize utility rate hike requests and guarantees full refunds for overcharged customers. 

SB442, a bill requiring public utility companies such as NV Energy to publish quarterly data broken down by ZIP codes on the number of customers it disconnects each month due to nonpayment, squeaked through with just hours left in the session. The bill’s passage coincides with an ongoing investigation into how NV Energy overcharged tens of thousands of customers, resulting in disconnections for some of those who were overbilled. 

SB260, championed by Sen. Edgar Flores (D-Las Vegas), tackled the issue of protections for outdoor workers when air quality is poor because of wildfire smoke. A series of amendments shifted the bill to establishing protections through regulation.

Introduced by Assm. Venicia Considine (D-Las Vegas), AB244, which would have phased out Styrofoam, which is not recycled in Nevada, was vetoed by Lombardo.

And SB173, a wide-ranging environmental and health bill sponsored by Sen. Dina Neal (D-North Las Vegas) that addressed a variety of issues including the selling of certain products containing perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS or “forever chemicals”), failed to receive a final vote.

— Amy Alonzo

Gaming and tourism

A bill to curtail illegal gambling in Nevada, SB256, unanimously passed both houses and was signed by Gov. Joe Lombardo. The legislation from Sen. Rochelle Nguyen (D-Las Vegas) allows Nevada courts to impose stiffer fines beyond the existing $50,000 maximum fine for violating the state’s online gaming laws.

Another gaming bill, SB459, changed the structure of private gaming salons inside casinos. It passed both houses unanimously and was signed by Lombardo. Sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas) and backed by the Nevada Resort Association, the legislation removed a $500 minimum wager requirement on slot machines inside the salons and allows casinos to set minimum wagers with approval from the Gaming Control Board. 

Meanwhile, in the session’s final hours, SCR7, a resolution to study room cleaning and other hotel housekeeping operations, was approved as a deal between the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, gaming and legislative leaders. 

In April, a daily hotel room-cleaning mandate bill (SB360) didn’t receive a hearing or committee vote after it was introduced by Sen. Lori Rogich (R-Las Vegas). Lombardo signaled he would veto the bill.

Other gaming measures that passed and were signed by Lombardo include SB371, which stiffens penalties for trespassing at a casino, and SB46, which allows the control board to investigate whether a license holder previously found unsuitable had divested their ownership in a gaming operation. Also, Lombardo signed AB58, which allows the control board to administratively approve new casino games without additional approval from the Nevada Gaming Commission.

SB431, which proposed to assess the live entertainment tax on certain resales and revised the distribution of the taxes, died.

A proposed constitutional amendment to implement a Nevada lottery, AJR5, also died because of concerns about economic uncertainty, implementation costs and a small amount of projected revenue, according to Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas). 

— Howard Stutz

Immigrant communities

Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed some of the most prominent bills affecting immigrant communities this session,  such as AB217, sponsored by Assm. Cecelia González (D-Las Vegas), would have prohibited school officials from allowing federal agents to enforce immigration laws on campus. 

Under that bill, school officials would also not be allowed to provide information about students or families to federal immigration officials. However, AJR9, which urges Congress to enact legislation to prohibit ICE officers from entering sensitive locations, did pass. As a resolution, it does not need the governor’s approval.  

A street vending measure (SB295) sponsored by Sen. Fabian Doñate (D-Las Vegas) was another closely watched measure that was vetoed. That bill would have exempted certain sidewalk vendors selling items from a narrow list of foods, such as chips or cookies, from certain health district regulations. It passed out of both chambers with bipartisan support. 

Lombardo also vetoed a proposal (AB98) to create a state observance for celebrated labor leader Dolores Huerta.

Another one of Doñate’s measures, heavily praised by immigrant groups, did survive. SB124 would allow foreign health care workers who have held a license abroad and graduated from qualified foreign medical schools to practice in Nevada with supervision. It would also create a pathway to an unrestricted license after two years of full-time supervised practice.

Proposals to establish an agricultural worker bill of rights (SB172) and give additional funding to localities for language access plans (AB127) also died after failing to meet legislative deadlines. 

— Isabella Aldrete

Cannabis

The Cannabis Compliance Board (CCB) — the oversight body for Nevada’s cannabis industry — will now have expanded investigatory and enforcement powers with the passage of AB76, sponsored by the Assembly Committee on Judiciary. 

The bill, which comes as legal cannabis sales have dropped amid competition from illicit sellers, authorizes the CCB to issue summonses and subpoenas in investigations of unlicensed cannabis activity. It also tweaks the ways such investigations are initiated, with the executive director instead of the board now initiating the investigation, and appointing hearing officers to oversee disciplinary proceedings.

AB76 also authorizes the CCB to order cannabis establishments to immediately cease operations if they are found to present a substantial hazard to the public health, such as the outbreak of a foodborne illness. It passed out of both chambers with unanimous support. 

Most of the other heavy-hitting measures died, including AB307 from Assm. Danielle Gallant (R-Las Vegas) which would have eliminated cannabis excise taxes and in its place increase the cannabis retail tax.

Here some other cannabis-related measures that were signed into law: 

• SB157 requires the CCB to establish specific regulations for testing cannabis products, including sampling and testing cannabis lots.
• SB41 requires anyone licensed by the CCB to obtain a separate cannabis tax permit for each place of business.
• AB504 adds deceptive trade practices provisions for individuals who sell hemp products intended for human consumption but do not hold a cannabis establishment license.

— Isabella Aldrete

State government 

Lawmakers approved funding for state employees’ collective bargaining agreements, though it was less than what certain unions had bargained for. AB596 will fund $1,000 annual retention bonuses and a 1 percent annual cost of living increase for all unionized state workers, in addition to bankrolling existing union benefits. Some unions had negotiated 3 percent annual raises, but that funding was left out of the bill because of the state’s precarious economic outlook.

Entering the session, there were big plans to reform the state’s boards that oversee occupational licensing requirements, but no such bills passed, despite several attempts. 

The most prominent one was SB78, proposed by the Department of Business and Industry (B&I, the agency that oversees the boards), which would have merged and consolidated many of the boards and provided much more oversight. However, it stalled without ever receiving a floor vote amid significant opposition from the boards and associations representing various professions that would have been affected. Several other bills aimed at reforming boards and commissions also fell through.

Gov. Joe Lombardo also vetoed multiple bills that would have affected the state government, including SB160, from Sen. Dina Neal (D-North Las Vegas), which would move the Nevada Equal Rights Commission to the attorney general’s office from the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. He also rejected proposals that would codify in Nevada law that members of the Assembly be referred to as “Assemblymember” rather than “Assemblyman” and “Assemblywoman” (AB588) and decrease the number of bill draft requests allocated to elected officials (AB585).

And some other bills died on their own. This included the constitutional amendment (AJR7) to establish a civilian commission to determine legislator and constitutional officer pay (it passed the Assembly but failed in the Senate), and a proposal (AB33) from the controller’s office to create an Office of the Inspector General to audit any recipient of state funding — the fifth straight session that such a bill failed to pass.

Assm. Heidi Kasama (R-Las Vegas) also proposed multiple constitutional amendments that would have subjected the Legislature itself to the open meeting law (AJR5) and public records requests (AJR3), but those never received a hearing.

— Eric Neugeboren