Governor signs popular COVID aid bill

CARSON CITY — After an intentionally slow start to the 2021 lawmaking session, the Legislature proved to at least have a pulse in its second week.

Gov. Steve Sisolak on Friday signed the first non-procedural legislation of the session when he signed Assembly Bill 106 into law. The bill doubles current funding for the state’s Pandemic Emergency Technical Support, or PETS, grant program to the tune of an additional $50 million. Typical grants of $10,000 have thus far benefited roughly 4,600 businesses, and state officials expect another 4,600 or so to benefit from the new funding.

The bill was fast-tracked after being introduced Tuesday, with lawmakers declaring it an emergency measure. It was unanimously approved in both legislative chambers, and widely praised by lawmakers of both parties.

As in the first week, lawmakers conducted most of their business virtually and online as opposed to in committee rooms.

Disappointingly, Nevada lawmakers managed to avoid becoming their own cat-filter meme. Maybe Assemblyman Howard Watts, D-Las Vegas, can bring back the cat face mask that he donned during the 2020 special session at the very least.

New bills, same as the old bills

Two of the more notable bills that the Legislature introduced last week are rehashes of bills that failed to pass in previous sessions.

Assembly Bill 116, introduced by Assemblywoman Rochelle Nguyen, D-Las Vegas, would decriminalize most minor traffic offenses. The legislation is a clone of a bill that Assemblyman Steve Yeager, D-Las Vegas, pushed for in 2019 but failed to get passed after significant pushback from the municipal courts. (The concept is even older than that; then-Assemblywoman Michele Fiore carried a version of the idea when she served in the 2015 session. It was amended to create a study of the issue and passed the Assembly, but it died in the Senate Judiciary Committee.)

Nguyen, in an interview last week after the bill was introduced, said she expects some of the bill’s details to change, but expects the overall intent to remain.

“I don’t think people realize that you can serve up to six months in custody on a traffic matter,” Nguyen said.

“We don’t want to use our judicial system to collect what could be civil infractions. We have bigger, more important things to do in the criminal justice system than clog it up with traffic matters,” she added.

And Senate Bill 111, sponsored by Sen. Ben Kieckhefer, R-Reno, resurrects an idea he pushed for in both 2019 and 2017 that would shake up the school boards in Clark and Washoe counties by making the majority of trustees appointed by local governments instead of the current all-elected model.

Neither of the former iterations of Kieckhefer’s bill received a hearing nor a vote.

Another bill likely to stir debate among in the education sphere this session is Assembly Bill 109, which would require all teachers at charter schools to be licensed. Under the current law, 70 percent of charter school teachers are required to be licensed.

AB 109 was introduced by the Assembly Education Committee. A hearing has not yet been scheduled for the bill.

What’s on deck next week

Monday

At 1 p.m., the Senate Education Committee will hear presentations from the UNLV and UNR schools of medicine on their respective responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

At 3:30 p.m., state officials from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Governor’s Office of Energy will present the State Climate Strategy to the Senate Committee on Growth and Infrastructure.

Tuesday

At 8 a.m., the Assembly Judiciary will hold hearings on Assembly Bill 59, which proposes to raise the minimum age to buy tobacco products in Nevada from 18 to 21, and Assembly Bill 60, which would void settlement agreements that impose gag orders in cases of sexual harassment or criminal behavior.

At 4 p.m. Assembly Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections will hear Assembly Bill 110, which requires lobbyists to register with the Legislature even though they are not allowed inside the legislative building due to COVID-19 concerns.

Wednesday

At 1 p.m., the Senate Judiciary will take up Senate Bill 50, which would put stricter parameters as to when a judge could issue a no-knock warrant.

Carson City Journal is a weekly feature that summarizes the major events happening in the capital during the 2021 legislative session and provides a look at what’s coming next.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.