The 82nd Nevada Legislature will adjourn for the session in less than two weeks, and things are compressing.
The Legislature's main goal is to pass the budget before June 5th.
SB90 died on Friday. It would have designated the wild mustang as the official state horse.
Assemblyman Bert Gurr says it would have sent the wrong message to the Federal government - because the Bureau of Land Management is already not allocating enough resources to managing Nevada's herd. He says they are a driving force behind environmental degradation.
"Instead of taking all the horses that need to come off, they only get bits and pieces. The state of Nevada has 60 plus percent maybe, 67 percent of the wild horses in the United States, also known as feral horses, and we've got 31% of the funding to remove the horses last funding cycle. You can't get it down,” said (R-Elko)
We reached out to the American Wild Horse Campaign for a response of the bills failure, and have not gotten back to us at the time of publication.
AB319 passed on Friday which extends free school lunches for all Nevada students including private and charter schools into the 2024-2025 school year.
“I think parents are still recovering from the COVID pandemic. There is still people who haven't gone back to work. They shouldn't be worrying about where food for their kids are going to come from, and if us as a state have the money to show where our priorities are, which includes helping our students succeed in education, we should do that so parents can focus their dollars on other things like keeping their roof over their head,” said bill sponsor (D-Las Vegas) Assembly Majority Leader Sandra Jauregui.
AB73 which now gives students greater agency over cultural graduation ceremony regalia - passed late Monday night.
"There was these multiple veins of student activism, that really came to this moment and were able to get this bill through with really a universal support from Republicans, Democrats, leadership, and the Governor, who I have got to give a special shout out to because the Governor understood this was a very timely bill where the graduation season started in earnest he was able to sign the bill, and allow our students this new right that they have,” said (D-Las Vegas) Assemblyman Reuben D’Silva.
SB427, A bill that was brought forward by the Nevada Environmental Justice Coalition to protect workers from extreme heat died last week in the legislature.
More than a dozen industry groups and trade associations spoke in opposition to the bill, arguing that the guideline were too prescriptive and overly broad, which would have made then untenable for workers in construction, culinary, trucking, etc.
The groups called for industry specific guidelines tailored specifically to the industries.
The Federal Government may pass extreme heat guidelines that the state will of course be mandated to adopt.
