LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Nevada will need 68,270 nurses by the year 2030, but a barrier remains in place as the Legislature failed to approve a change in licensing requirements.
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that Nevada is in a deep hole for hiring nurses — the third-largest deficit in the nation by percentage, according to information distributed Wednesday by the Nevada Hospital Association.
Assembly Bill 108 (AB108) is among the 239 bills and resolutions that died last week when lawmakers failed to vote them out of committee for further consideration. Union opposition to AB108 doomed the attempt to bring Nevada into the Nurse Licensure Compact, an agreement that makes it easier for licensed nurses to work in other states that have approved the compact.
Another bill that didn’t make it out of committee is Senate Bill 142 (SB142), the so-called Homeless Persons’ Bill of Rights, which would have established the same rights, privileges and benefits that any resident gets.
Among the other bills that died in committee this session:
Assembly
- AB30: Would have opened some peace officer jobs to non-U.S. citizens.
- AB31: Making Juneteenth an official state holiday.
- AB81: Allowing teachers with a permit to carry concealed weapons.
- AB87: Stricter enforcement of “service animal” provisions.
- AB88: Requirement to show identification before voting in an election.
- AB93: A bill that would have put red light cameras in school zones.
- AB176: A bill prohibiting housing discrimination on the basis of the source of income.
- AB186: Diners would have had to ask for water at a restaurant.
- AB230: Requiring mail ballots to be postmarked on or before the last day of the period for early voting.
- AB368: Allowed counties to abolish the elected office of public administrator.
- AB294: Outlawing tobacco products by 2030.
- AB374: Limiting participation in sports based on a person’s gender stated on their birth certificate.
Senate
- SB49: A bill directing Nevada to copy California laws on vehicle emissions.
- SB75: Would have made the position of registrar of voters an elected office in Clark and Washoe counties.
- SB93: Would have provided free ID cards for inmates as they were released from prison.
- SB108: Modified laws related to how brewpubs are allowed to transport, store and sell their own products.
- SB116: A “gas infrastructure modernization plan” changing how utilities charge ratepayers.
- SB128: Changes to laws governing fentanyl, setting levels for drug trafficking charges at 4 milligrams or more.
- SB187: Requirements to pay prison inmates minimum wage for work assignments.
- SB188: A companion bill to AB81, allowing school employees to carry concealed firearms with a permit.
- SB197: Additional modifications to laws and penalties surrounding fentanyl trafficking.
- SB198: Would have allowed a resident to trim a neighbor’s tree and bill the neighbor if they didn’t act themselves in a “reasonable” amount of time.
- SB230: A companion bill to AB88, requiring a voter to show identification.
- SB284: Removed provisions of law that kept DUI offenders out of the general prison population.
These are just a sample of the bills that failed to win approval. The deadlines that govern when bills must receive approval to stay alive serve to set priorities for the Assembly and Senate, which only meet every two years. Of course, that could change in the future — but not this time around, as Senate Joint Resolution 6 failed to pass at deadline. SJR6 would have amended the Nevada Constitution to allow the Legislature to meet every year.
Another deadline awaits on April 25, when bills that have not received the approval of the full Assembly or the full Senate will die as long as they do not qualify for an exemption.
