Nevada’s regular 2025 legislative session ends. Voter ID is among the key bills to pass
Jun 3, 2025, 10:21 AM
FILE - Blue skies sit above the Nevada Legislature building in Carson City, Nev., Tuesday, May 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Tom R. Smedes, File)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Tom R. Smedes, File)
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Nevada lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled Legislature ended their 2025 regular session early Tuesday after a flurry of final day action.
Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo is expected to take action through next week on the hundreds of bills that passed. The first-term governor vetoed a record 75 bills in 2023. Nevada lawmakers meet every other year in odd years.
Ahead of the session, Lombardo had urged the Legislature to put politics aside and come together to find solutions for such issues as affordable housing and education. Some of his major bills failed, including a wide-ranging bill that would have created stiffer penalties for certain crimes, but he won in other areas including elections and education.
Here is a look at some of the notable bills that passed and failed during this year’s 120-day session in Carson City.
VOTER ID AND MORE BALLOT BOXES: Signaling a major compromise, lawmakers passed a bill on the final day of the session that revived Democrats’ vetoed effort to add more mail ballot drop boxes around the state ahead of an election in exchange for new voter ID requirements that Lombardo supports.
It marks a significant shift for Nevada Democrats, who have long opposed GOP-led efforts to require photo identification from voters at the polls and comes on the heels of voters in November passing a voter ID ballot measure. It would have to pass again in 2026 in order to amend the state constitution.
PRIMARY ELECTIONS FOR NONPARTISAN VOTERS: A week before the session ended, Democratic Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager introduced registered as nonpartisan outnumber both major parties in the swing state. The bill is different from the effort voters rejected in November that would have implemented open primaries and ranked choice voting for all voters.
TEACHER RAISES: Lawmakers in both chambers overwhelmingly approved a bill that includes pay raises for teachers at charters schools. Lombardo had said he would not approve the state’s education budget if it left out raises for charter school teachers, which Yeager then added to the bill.
SCHOOL POLICE USE OF FORCE: The proposal approved by lawmakers would require the Clark County School District’s police department to make public its data on officer use of force, including the use of stun guns, batons and pepper spray. The school district is the fifth-largest in the nation and has its own police department.
“ATTAINABLE” HOUSING: Lombardo’s bill aimed at expanding affordable housing, one of his top priorities this session, would allocate $133 million in state funds for housing projects for what he calls the “missing middle” who can’t afford to buy a home but don’t currently qualify for affordable housing. It passed.
RENTER PROTECTIONS: A handful of bills aimed at expanding protections for renters passed on party lines. They include a proposal that would create a pilot program capping rent prices for seniors for a year, and another that would allow tenants to quickly file legal complaints against landlords for unsafe living conditions like broken air conditioning or broken locks.
CRIMINAL PENALTIES: The governor, who was a longtime police officer and the former elected sheriff in Las Vegas, had vowed ahead of the session to crack down on crime. But his crime bill failed after last-minute changes were added and lawmakers ran out of time Monday night. It would have created stiffer penalties for certain crimes, including “smash-and-grab” retail thefts and violent crimes against hospitality workers, a newly designated protected class under the proposal.
FILM TAX CREDITS: similar bill failed in 2023.
DEFINING ANTISEMITISM: Lawmakers approved a bill that creates a definition of antisemitism for state-led investigations into discrimination in housing, employment and other accommodations. It passed, but sparked a debate because some thought the definition was too broad and could limit free speech criticizing Israel.
STATE LOTTERY: The proposal, backed by the powerful Culinary Workers Union that represents 60,000 hotel and casino workers, would have ended Nevada’s longstanding ban on lotteries. It failed after the Legislature’s first major deadline in April.
