Nevada’s congressional delegation, environmental groups, tribes and local officials see the late-night amendment to House Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill as a threat to the state’s water resources, tribal sovereignty and public engagement.

By Wyatt Myskow for Inside Climate News

For years, Nevada’s congressional delegation and leading Las Vegas officials have been pushing Congress to pass the Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act, which would allow tens of thousands of acres of public lands currently managed by the federal government to be sold at auction to cities and developers looking for space to expand.

So Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee might have expected some applause when the committee passed a late-night amendment to the budget reconciliation bill that would do just that.

But the amendment, intended to help the federal government afford the Trump administration’s tax cuts, had none of the existing bill’s stipulations to benefit Nevadans and conserve other areas. Instead of accolades, it has drawn the ire of nearly every group backing the Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act. They have called the amendment a “land giveaway” to developers.

Reps. Mark Amodei (R-NV) and Celeste Maloy (R-UT) added amendments to the budget reconciliation bill just before midnight last Tuesday that would sell more than half a million acres of public land in Nevada and Utah for housing development in the two states. Opponents say the amendments would fuel unsustainable growth across Nevada and southern Utah that would not provide affordable housing, but would threaten tribal sovereignty by disposing of public lands bordering the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation, take more water out of the already declining Colorado River and set a path for the federal government to begin the sell-off of public lands across the country.

The amendment for Nevada would pave the way for the development of thousands of acres up to the boundaries of national monuments Avi Kwa Ame and Gold Butte, in addition to the Pyramid Lake Reservation.

“Our two states are the test case,” said Mathilda Miller, the government relations director for Native Voters Alliance Nevada. “If this land grab goes through quietly, they’ll use the same exact playbook somewhere else. The amendment was dropped at midnight. It was dropped in a massive budget bill. And it was rushed through without meaningful public input. If they can do that near Avi Kwa Ame, Gold Butte and the boundaries of Pyramid Lake, then they can and they will do it to somebody else’s homelands.”

Amodei and Maloy, the amendment sponsors, did not respond to requests for comment.

Amodei told the Nevada Independent that he felt adding the amendment to the budget reconciliation bill was the only way to achieve the goals of the various Nevada lands bills, and that the House committee was excited about making money off sales of public lands.

“Not all federal lands have the same value,” Maloy said during the committee meeting before the bill advanced. “Some should not be available for disposal. We all agree on that. However, in both Democratic and Republican administrations, for decades, we’ve been disposing of appropriate lands in a manner that’s consistent with what I propose to do here.”

It’s the latest in attempts by some Republicans to transfer control of public lands managed by the federal government to states, a highly divisive political stance in the West, where most of those lands are located. Attempts to privatize public lands or give them to states date back decades, with the movements gaining momentum in the 1970s and 80s during the so-called “sagebrush rebellion.” The Trump administration and some Republicans in Congress have touted public-lands sales as a solution to the country’s housing shortage, but experts have disputed that claim. Even some Republican members of Congress have pushed back on recent attempts to sell off federal lands.

“We are not dealing with the same type of sagebrush rebel that we were dealing with in the 1970s,” said Kyle Roerink, the executive director of the Great Basin Water Network, a grassroots group that works in Nevada and Utah on freshwater issues and has opposed previous land bills. “The sagebrush rebels of today don’t drive cattle. They drive Porsches and Mercedes.”

“This continuous growth that we see year after year, day after day, decade after decade, does nothing to help preserve our souls, preserve our feelings and preserve the culture,” said Steven Wadsworth, chairman of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, during a press conference.

The proposed sell-off in Utah has drawn less scrutiny than the disposal of public lands in Nevada has, though environmental groups also oppose sales there. The bill would allow public lands to be sold for development in southern Utah, primarily for the fast-growing city of St. George.

But that land follows the pathway of the planned Lake Powell pipeline, a decades-long and highly controversial attempt by Utah to pipe water from the dwindling Colorado River’s second-largest reservoir, which is roughly 33 percent full, to fuel growth in the state. Attempts to build the pipeline in the past have drawn intense scrutiny from both environmentalists and other states that depend on Colorado River water.

“It’s just another signifier that nobody actually wants to respect the signs that Mother Nature is sending to us, and that’s that our snowfalls are changing, our precipitation patterns are changing, our runoffs are changing,” Roerink said. “But we have people who want to continue doing business like it’s 1999 and everything’s peachy, and the reservoirs are full.”

The bill will be considered by the full House of Representatives in the coming weeks.

Public lands are managed by the federal government for the benefit of all Americans, allowing for the creation of national parks and wilderness areas, and for extraction of resources by logging, mining and energy companies. But in some cases, they can be disposed of—meaning sold—typically to developers for housing or extraction projects.

Related | Rural populations near federal lands worry job cuts will hurt their communities

Growth in Las Vegas, for example, has long relied on bills that dispose of public lands to expand, as the federal government owns roughly 85 percent of the land within the state’s borders, far more than in any other state. But those bills had conservation requirements, and the funds generated by the land sales were earmarked for conservation and local schools. The latest Clark County lands bill—the Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act—would also give land back to the Moapa Band of Paiutes and provide further protection for other public lands in Nevada.

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LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Assembly Bill 398, a bill that seeks to include charter school teacher pay raises and increase compensation for hard-to-fill public school positions, passed in the assembly on Friday night.

The bill would appropriate more than $19 million to the State Public Charter School Authority for charter school teacher pay raises.

This move comes after Gov. Joe Lombardo threatened to veto any education budget that does not include charter school teacher pay raises.

“Governor Lombardo made it very clear; charter school teacher pay raises were nonnegotiable, and I am honored to have worked with Speaker Yeager to get it done,” said Minority Leader Gregory Hafen. “One of my top priorities this session has been to ensure we get the Governor’s priorities passed. I believe we will be immensely successful at accomplishing that goal,” Hafen said.

Speaker Steve Yeager and Minority Leader Hafen both sponsored the bipartisan bill.

The bill will now go to the Senate and will need to be passed before June 2.

A Friday deadline in the Nevada Legislature was the last one on the calendar of the 120-day session until June 2, but there is still plenty for lawmakers to consider in Carson City before the 2025 session adjourns.

About 60 bills have been considered by both chambers and are on their way to the governor’s desk as of 6 p.m. Friday. Hundreds more must be considered in the next 10 days or face failure.

Bills without exemptions needed to pass through their second house, either the Assembly or state Senate, before they could receive Gov. Joe Lombardo’s consideration. But they weren’t the only measures considered; leaders also pushed through some of their recent proposals to cap insulin costs — and sailed through four out of five major budget bills in late-night votes.

Here are some highlights from Friday’s second house passage deadline in the Legislature.

Bills that survived

A bill criminalizing wrong-way driving will head to the governor’s desk. Assembly Bill 111 — dubbed “Jaya’s Law” — passed unanimously in the Senate on Friday. The bill was named after 3-year-old Jaya Brooks, who was killed in a wrong-way crash on U.S. 95 near the Durango Drive off-ramp in December 2023.

“I am thrilled both the Assembly and Senate understood the importance of this bill, and I look forward to the Governor signing it into law,” bill sponsor Brian Hibbetts, R-Las Vegas, said in a statement.

A proposal to allow workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement to use sick time to take care of family members advanced through Friday’s deadline. Assembly Bill 112 removed an exemption for employees under collective bargaining, making the use more widely available.

AB 112 passed the Senate 15-6. Two Las Vegas Republicans joining the Democrats: John Steinbeck and Lori Rogich. The bill was returned to the Assembly, where they still must vote to agree on new amendments.

Gun possession policies that Lombardo vetoed last year passed the Assembly on party-line votes Friday, with Democrats in support. Senate Bill 89, sponsored by Sen. Julie Pazina, D-Las Vegas, would prevent someone convicted of a misdemeanor hate crime from owning or purchasing a firearm for 10 years.

The bill heads to the governor’s desk, where it may face another veto.

Other actions in the Legislature

Lawmakers also advanced a key last-minute proposal from Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager. The chamber unanimously approved Assembly Bill 555, which would cap insulin at $35 for a 30-day supply for private insurance users. The legislation, introduced on May 8 and not subject to Friday’s deadline, follows the federal government’s price cap for insulin costs for people on Medicare.

“I think most of us here campaigned in 2024, and I’m sure that your voters made clear to you that their No. 1 concern was rising costs,” the Las Vegas Democrat said during the bill’s hour-long hearing on Wednesday. “This answer is a partial answer to that to so many Nevadans.”

AB 555 now goes to the Senate for consideration.

Lawmakers also saved legislation that could have failed Friday’s deadline. Senate Bill 179, defining “antisemitism” for Nevada Equal Rights Commission investigations, was exempted from deadlines on Friday.

Jewish advocacy groups asked for it to be amended to include the widely adopted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition, which includes contemporary examples, during a May 13 hearing. The Government Affairs committee recommended it as amended on the previous deadline day, May 16. The exemption gives the bill more time for a floor vote from the Assembly.

State budget moves along

Lawmakers moved four of the five major budget bills this week. The bills allocate funding to K-12 schools, state employees, capital improvement projects, state departments and authorize the use of federal funds and other fees generated by the state. They are typically among the last bills considered, but only the capital improvement projects bill, Senate Bill 502, needs the Assembly’s approval to head to the governor.

On Friday afternoon, senators appeared ready to send two of the bills — Assembly Bills 591 and 592, appropriating funds for state agencies and state employees salaries, respectively — to the governor’s desk. They voted on the bills before rescinding them when they realized the Assembly had not yet acted on the education budget (Senate Bill 500), which is constitutionally required to be approved first.

Late Friday night, the Assembly uanimously approved SB 500 allowing the others to be voted on, as well.

Contact McKenna Ross at
mross@reviewjournal.com.
Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.