The biannual Nevada Legislature convenes the first Monday of February in odd-numbered years, with sessions limited to 120 calendar days. In the 2025 session, Democrats held majorities in both chambers, although they did not have a veto-proof majority over Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican.
Lombardo vetoed 87 bills in 2025, breaking his previous record of 75 vetoes in 2023. He signed 531 bills into law in 2025.
Here’s how some of them affect the price of insulin, veterans who were discharged under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t” policy, and other aspects of life in our state.
New LGBTQ+ protections became law; other measures vetoed
Nevada already has some of the strongest LGBTQ+ protections in the nation, and the state added several new protections to the lawbooks during the 2025 legislative session.
The Silver State explicitly bans discrimination—in private and public employment, housing and public accommodations—based on sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression. In 2022, Nevada voters approved a state Equality of Rights Amendment that prohibits denial of equality under the law based on sexual orientation. and gender identity or expression.
New protections passed in 2025 include a law dubbed LGBTQ+ Veterans Support(Senate Bill 117), which requires the state Department of Veterans Services to develop and expand outreach and resources to help veterans upgrade less-than-honorable discharges resulting from the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which was in effect from 1994 through 2011.
More than 13,000 service members were discharged under the policy. Those men and women lost their careers and sometimes were barred from receiving veteran benefits. The new law is aimed at helping veterans navigate the federal process needed to change those discharges.
Nevada lawmakers also passed, and the governor signed, Assembly Bill 235, allowing reproductive and gender-affirming care providers and their families to shield their personal information in records that would otherwise be public.
Gov. Lombardo vetoed several other LGBTQ+ protection bills that made it through the session, including two major transgender-protection bills. Those were SB 171, called the Gender-Affirming Care Shield Law, which would have protected licensed health-care providers offering gender-affirming care, as well as patients traveling from out of state to receive it. The governor also vetoed Senate Bill 141, the Incarcerated Transgender Protections law, which would have established specific policies and training in local jails to secure safety and protections for incarcerated transgender individuals.
Lombardo, who has said he will urge the next Legislature to pass a law prohibiting “biological men” in women’s sports, also vetoed SB 352, the Non-Discrimination in the Nevada Affordable Care Act Exchange bill. It would have prohibited public and private health insurance providers, including Medicaid, from discriminating against any person on the basis of actual or perceived race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability, as well as sexual orientation, and gender identity and expression.
AB 416, Prohibition of Public School and Public Library Book Bans, also fell to Lombardo’s veto. That bill would have prohibited limiting students’ access to library materials through the “removal, moving, labeling, or defacing of library materials” from circulation. It also would have protected library and school staff who displayed or circulated library materials in accordance with the law.
Democratic lawmakers and lobbyists pledged to reintroduce various LGBTQ+ protection bills during the 2027 legislative session.
Health care: Law caps insulin costs; Medicare RX prices bill scrapped
Nevadans covered by private insurance will pay no more than $35 for insulin (for a 30-day supply) under a law passed in 2025, and the state is now forbidden to limit access to contraception.
The cap on the cost of insulin (AB 555) will affect about 70,000 Nevadans diagnosed with diabetes and who receive their medications through private insurance. Statewide, an estimated 304,000 Nevada adults (12.2%) have been diagnosed with the condition, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The contraception bill, AB 176, now law, explicitly prohibits state and local governments from restricting access to contraception and family-planning services. The statute allows Nevadans to sue if those rights are violated.
Gov. Lombardo vetoed several other health-care bills, including AB 282, which would have required providers to refund any overpayments in billing to patients within 60 days. He also vetoed AB 259, which would have allowed the state to adopt prescription-drug prices negotiated by Medicare. Lombardo vetoed a similar bill passed by the 2023 Legislature.
Other health-care bills vetoed by Lombardo included SB 182, which would have set limits for nurse-to-patient ratios in health care facilities in Washoe and Clark counties; a measure (SB 128) that would have prohibited insurers from solely relying on artificial intelligence to deny or modify a prior authorization request; SB 217, which would have required most private insurers and public insurers, including Medicaid, to cover in vitro fertilization; and AB 388, aimed atvastly expanding paid family and medical leave requirements across Nevada for both public employers and private employers with 50 or more workers.
In addition, Lombardo vetoed AB 205, a measure proponents said would have made it easier for Nevada’s children to gain protective health information during sex-education classes. Under existing Nevada law, parents must sign a permission slip to allow their child into sex-education courses. AB 205 would have changed the process into an opt-out system, where students would be automatically enrolled unless parents signed a form refusing authorization.
The Clark County Bar Association noted that the 2025 session “marked a significant shift in housing policy,” with lawmakers advancing bills aimed at increasing transparency, expanding development opportunities, protecting tenants from excessive fees, and improving housing access in Nevada.
Other bills died before being passed by both chambers, including a bill that would have legalized medical aid in dying. That bill, AB 346, passed the Assembly but failed to advance in the Senate. When Lombardo vetoed a similar bill in 2023, he said: “Fortunately, expansions in palliative care services and continued improvement in advanced pain management make the end-of-life provisions … unnecessary.” A poll released in 2023 by the advocacy group Compassion and Choices indicated 82% of Nevadans supported medical-aid-in-dying legislation.
Another other measure (AB 378) that would have created a pilot program to provide supervised psychedelic-assisted therapy for military veterans and first responders died in committee.
Housing: New laws address affordability, tenants’ rights
The Legislature in 2025 passed—and the governor signed—four prominent bills aimed at addressing Nevada’s housing-affordability crisis and advancing tenant protections.
The Clark County Bar Association noted that the 2025 session “marked a significant shift in housing policy,” with lawmakers advancing bills aimed at increasing transparency, expanding development opportunities, protecting tenants from excessive fees, and improving housing access in Nevada. Those four new laws are:
AB 121, which requires landlords tolist the amount of rent due as one figure—including the rent and all mandatory fees, such as utilities or trash collection. Landlords must also refund application fees for prospective tenants if they rent to someone else and did not conduct the background screening activity for which the fee was collected. Landlords also must make at least one method available for a tenant to pay the rent without racking up an associated fee.
AB 241mandates thatlocal governments adopt an ordinance to authorize development of multifamily and mixed-use developments on property zoned for commercial use. The law is aimed at streamlining the transition of some commercial properties—such as vacant strip malls—into residential or mixed-use spaces.
AB 540, called the Nevada Housing Access and Attainability Act, will infuse $133 million to increase housing development, land acquisition, essential-worker home purchase assistance, and local government incentives. The law is aimed at assisting the “missing middle” of prospective home buyers, defined as households earning up to 150% of the area median income. That group that includes teachers, nurses, police officers and other middle-income workers who don’t qualify for help under existing affordability programs.
SB 114requires landlords with developments containing more than 50 units in Clark County and Washoe County, and more than 30 units in all other counties, to conduct criminal background checks on all employees with access to keys to any dwelling unit. The bill was dubbed “Miya’s Law,” after 19-year-old Miya Marcano, who was murdered in Florida by a maintenance worker with unauthorized master-key access.
Gov. Lombardo vetoed several other housing bills, many for the second time, including AB 280, which would have established a temporary pilot program capping rent increases at 5% for “vulnerable tenants”—defined as people 62 or older, or those relying on Social Security.
The governor also vetoed AB 283, which would have brought Nevada’s eviction process in line with those of other states. Nevada uses a unique “summary” eviction process requiring tenants to file a court challenge to contest an eviction notice—before a landlord is required to file anything with the court. AB 283 would have required landlords to file a formal complaint and summons with the court before posting an eviction notice on a tenant’s door.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Nevada is the only state with such an expedient and landlord-friendly eviction system. It’s the only jurisdiction where tenants must take the first legal action to avoid eviction.
Education laws address funding, charter schools, K-12 accountability
Lawmakers in 2025 passed a suite of bills related to school funding, charter schools, K-12 accountability and policy overhauls.
SB 460, an omnibus K-12 education-reform package, created the Commission on Recruitment and Retention, in an effort to address teacher shortages. It also established the Education Service Center, revised provisions for pre-kindergarten programs and charter schools, and restructured various teacher and administrator evaluation and differential pay guidelines.
AB 533, the Open Enrollment and Transportation Bill, standardized the open-enrollment process across the state’s school districts. It directed districts to prioritize transfer applications for students moving out of one- or two-star-rated schools into three-star or better schools. It is backed by $7 million in transportation funding.
SB 81 directed the Department of Education to conduct public school-employee surveys, updated reporting requirements, and streamlined some scholarship and grant programs into block grants.
Another education bill, SB 252, would have created an Education Savings Account program allowing public funds to cover private school or homeschooling expenses, but the measure failed to pass out of committee.