16 June 2023
Once a bill is sent from the Legislature to the governor’s office, the clock starts ticking.
Gov. Joe Lombardo has only a certain number of days to sign a bill into law, and for measures passed by lawmakers in the final few days of the 2023 legislative session, the deadline is Friday, June 16.
During the legislative session, the governor has just five days to act on a bill — signing it or vetoing it — or else the legislation automatically passes into law. For bills transmitted to the governor in the final five days of the session or even after the session, the Nevada Constitution requires a signature within 10 days after the Legislature adjourns sine die.
The regular session ended June 5, and that timeline excludes Sundays, meaning June 16 is Lombardo’s deadline.
Already, as of Thursday, June 15, he has signed more than 400 bills and vetoed 32 others. Nearly 170 more await his decision.
Some of those bills awaiting action include AB404 (a deal between doctors and trial lawyers to raise the state’s cap on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits), AB524 (an electric utility planning bill aimed at promoting development of more in-state energy resources), SB35 (a bill that would raise penalties for fentanyl trafficking) and SB450 (a program to help relocate residents of the Windsor Park community in North Las Vegas).
Read below for a look at some high-profile measures Lombardo signed in recent days. Click here for a list and overview of every bill he has vetoed. These stories will be updated with additional details throughout Friday, as Lombardo acts on more bills.
For a complete list of bills from the 2023 legislative session, including those signed and vetoed and those that failed earlier in the year, click here.
Regulating solitary confinement
As part of a long-term push led by Sen. Pat Spearman (D-North Las Vegas) to reform the use of solitary confinement as a punishment for prisoners, lawmakers this year passed SB307, a bill that caps the use of solitary confinement at 15 days, unless correctional officers deem it necessary to keep the person in confinement for the safety of themselves or others.
The bill also requires the director of the Nevada Department of Corrections to adopt regulations governing the use of solitary confinement providing that it “may only be used as a last resort, in the least restrictive manner and for the shortest period of time safely possible.”
Under existing law, inmates can be sentenced to solitary for a predetermined length — anywhere from 10 to 365 days depending on the offense.
Lombardo signed the bill Thursday, and the new limitations on solitary confinement take effect at the start of 2024.
Changes to prohibited possession prosecutions
On Thursday, Lombardo signed SB367, a bill that clarifies that for the purposes of prosecuting someone for prohibited possession of a firearm, each firearm they own constitutes a separate violation.
Provisions similar to those in SB367 also appeared in the original version of Lombardo’s omnibus crime bill, SB412, which sought to roll back various Democrat-backed criminal justice reforms passed in recent sessions.
Lombardo’s bill, however, was also cut down significantly, from 68 pages to just nine, and passed out on the final day of the legislative session.
Lombardo signed that amended version of SB412 — which changes the definition of strangulation in the context of domestic violence, allocates funding to improve drug testing including testing of amounts of fentanyl in drug mixtures and prohibits early discharge from probation for those convicted of home invasion — on June 12.
The post Lombardo’s latest signings: Limits on solitary confinement, changes to firearm prosecution appeared first on The Nevada Independent.