There were already many reasons for Nevadans to be opposed to President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.” 

According to The Budget Lab at Yale, the bill expands the already growing national debt by $4.1 trillion. Interest payments on existing federal debt already consume more than 3 percent of our economy — a figure that will rise as the federal government continues to spend well beyond its means. Unchecked federal borrowing is already crowding out private investment, leading to higher interest rates for Nevadans.

The bill also seeks to cut federal funding for Medicaid in Nevada by 16 percent. This would cause an estimated 73,000 Nevadans to lose access to medical insurance and push already struggling rural hospitals toward fiscal collapse.

Those reasons, however, apply to all Americans. Nevadans had another issue with the bill.

Despite Nevada being one of only three states to successfully complete the bureaucratic gauntlet laid down by the 2021 Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program to deploy broadband to rural residents, the Trump administration unilaterally rescinded final approval of $416 million in grants to the state last month. The “Big Beautiful Bill” ensures we’ll never see another dime from the program.

Within the bill, as has been nationally reported, is a 10-year moratorium on states passing their own laws regulating artificial intelligence. The devil, however, is in the details. As currently written, the moratorium applies to artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems and automated decision systems.

What’s an automated decision system, you ask?

According to Section 40012 of the bill, an automated decision system is “any computational process derived from machine learning, statistical modeling, data analytics, or artificial intelligence that issues a simplified output, including a score, classification, or recommendation, to materially influence or replace human decision making.”

So, for example, a slot machine — it pays based on odds determined through statistical modeling, issues a simplified output (you either win or don’t) and most certainly doesn’t rely on human decision making before deciding if someone wins a jackpot or not. 

Or a keno or bingo machine. 

Or, for that matter, a sports betting app.

Since Nevada heavily regulates gaming machines — and since gaming machines are arguably “automated decision systems,” at least according to the definition of the term outlined in the bill — Nevada’s been violating the bill’s prohibition against enforcing laws and regulations against such matters since gaming was legalized in 1931.

Additionally, Republican lawmakers expressed concern that the moratorium may also limit the ability of state and local governments to govern data center projects. Nevada has a few of those under development, too. One such data center even uses end-of-life electric vehicle batteries that are repurposed by a Northern Nevada-based battery materials company to help provide power. 

That said, their continued construction has not been without controversy.

States that fail to live up to the moratorium don’t lose all access to federal funding — the “Big Beautiful Bill” isn’t that cartoonishly villainous — but they do lose access to the money set aside for them in the BEAD program for rural broadband. Since Nevada is unlikely to stop regulating its largest economic sector anytime soon, much less override local zoning ordinances, it’s safe to say that the state’s access to rural broadband access funding under the BEAD program has likely been ended.

Though I’m personally in favor of less unique zoning ordinances for data centers — I’d rather see them treated like any other form of light industrial development — I think Nevada’s autonomy and independence is worth somewhat more than $416 million, especially from an administration that’s already yanked federal funding without warning once already.

The version released by Senate Republicans late Friday, however, adds a new reason for Nevadans to oppose the measure.

In addition to ending various tax credits and subsidies for solar and wind energy — a debatably defensible policy change given the federal government’s ongoing structural deficit — the Senate added a new tax on solar and wind projects if they can’t prove to Congress’ satisfaction that their supply chains have been disentangled from China. Notably, the bill only requires energy production facilities regulated under section 45Y, such as solar and wind energy facilities, to meet and administer this new burden — traditional fossil fuel power generation facilities can apparently buy parts from China with the Senate’s blessing.

Not only will this lead to higher energy prices for Nevadans — a recent analysis published by CNN suggests our rates may increase by 12 percent — it will also strangle many of the new energy generation projects that are being built in this state. Since 2010, the Governor’s Office of Energy has approved 55 tax abatement applications for renewable projects, each of which bring at least 10 megawatts of generating capacity to Nevada’s homes and businesses. Last year, more than 90 percent of the new electric-generating capacity that came online nationwide was solar, wind and battery storage, such as the Gemini project near Las Vegas. 

Applying onerous administrative burdens and fees to renewable energy projects and renewable energy projects alone hurts our state’s economy. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Nevada consumes more than 11 times more energy than the state produces. Though a recent report published by the U.S. Geological Survey suggests there may be large amounts of oil and natural gas under Nevada’s public lands, there’s no guarantee that those fuels can be extracted profitably — certainly few have bothered in the past. 

Anyone who’s ever stepped outside in our state, however, can attest that the sun and our constant winds are plentiful and inexhaustible.

Having said all of that, there is one section of the bill Nevadans should cheer for.

The Senate’s version of the “Big Beautiful Bill” isn’t all bad. Section 100202 of the bill expands the scope of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which established a program to provide partial restitution to those who lived downwind of above-ground nuclear testing conducted in Nevada, to also include those who lived downwind from such testing in New Mexico. It also moves the filing deadline from 2024 to 2028 and increases the size of the payout.

Here’s hoping that’s not this administration paving the way for a resumption of nuclear testing.

David Colborne ran for public office twice. He is now an IT manager, the father of two sons, and a recurring opinion columnist for The Nevada Independent. You can follow him on Mastodon @[email protected], on Bluesky @davidcolborne.bsky.social, on Threads @davidcolbornenv or email him at [email protected]. You can also message him on Signal at dcolborne.64.