For the first time in state history, Nevada lawmakers have added a bill to a special session agenda called by a governor.

A bipartisan group of Nevada lawmakers signed a petition submitted Tuesday evening that added legislation to limit the purchasing power of corporate housing buyers to Gov. Joe Lombardo’s special session agenda.

Under the Nevada Constitution, the Legislature may call itself into a special session without action by the governor if two-thirds of the members of each house sign a petition. Democrats are one seat short of a two-thirds majority in both the Assembly and Senate. 

The petition met the two-thirds requirement with the signatures of Assm. Alexis Hansen (R-Sparks) and Sen. Ira Hansen (R-Sparks), who are married to each other. Ira Hansen had expressed support for corporate buying crackdown legislation in the 2025 session, which would have capped the number of homes a corporation could buy to 100 per year and establish a registry of such purchases. But he said he ended up voting against the measure on the floor at the request of the governor. 

He later told The Nevada Independent that his “no” vote on the bill was one of his only regrets that session.

The proclamation noted that the legislation would consider “limits on the aggregate number of units of residential real property in this state that may be purchased annually” and the registration and reporting of entities that purchase housing units en masse.

Ira Hansen told reporters in his office Tuesday evening that the legislation added to the special session agenda is expected to conceptually align with SB391, a bill Sen. Dina Neal (D-North Las Vegas) brought in the 2025 legislative session, with amendments negotiated by Democrats and Republicans.

“We have a bipartisan bill that will limit the ability of hedge funds and foreign corporations to compete with people like yourself in the residential housing market,” Hansen said, noting that he worked on the legislation with the governor’s staff and Democratic lawmakers.

Neal’s bill needed a two-thirds majority vote because it established a corporate housing registry that charges fees, which constitutes a revenue source. With Democrats one vote shy of a two-thirds majority in each chamber of the Legislature, they needed at least one Republican in each chamber to support it. The bill did not receive the necessary support.

Hansen said he worked with Neal to get the bill into shape, and staff in the governor’s office have offered amendments that are being drafted by the Legislative Counsel Bureau. He noted that the amendments represent “reasonable changes,” and Neal accepted most of them. 

In a Senate floor speech Wednesday, Neal said any changes to her past legislation will be “minimal.” She added that she wanted to set the record straight and would not allow “revisionist history in order to gain access to the pen in the mansion,” referring to her efforts to get this type of legislation across in the 2023 and 2025 legislative session, and successful efforts to halt it by the governor’s office.

Neal later wrote in a statement that the addition of limitations on corporate home buyers is part of a broader goal to put homeownership within the reach of working people.

“Corporate greed has hollowed out our communities, putting the American dream out of reach for everyday Nevadans,” Neal wrote.  “This historic moment is a victory for every Nevadan who has been outbid by an all-cash corporate offer or priced out of their own neighborhoods.”

The legislation is needed, Hansen said, because of the prevalence of hedge funds in the housing market, citing statistics showing that 15 percent of the houses in Clark County are owned by corporations.

“Salt to the wound, the young people that get outbid by the corporations’ hedge funds have to rent from those people, and now they’re gouging them on the rent,” he said. “It is a huge problem. It is huge, and it’s growing. We have a housing crisis for younger people in the state, so the bill is trying to address that.”

Neal and Hansen are expected to co-present the bill, and Hansen said he believes that lawmakers will be able to speedily process the legislation, so it shouldn’t add extra days to the session.

It appears the last time a special session proclamation was changed was in 2010, under then-Gov. Jim Gibbons (R), and the amendment added bills to the session.

“Everybody thinks it is a good idea. Nobody is against the idea of protecting Nevada citizens from unfair competition,” Ira Hansen said.