Nevada Current: As governor, lawmakers mull special session agenda, child advocacy groups have some ideas

Nevada’s child care crisis should warrant a special session rather than efforts to give public subsidies to film studies, advocacy groups say. 

“We don’t think this is the time where we need to be giving tax incentives to billionaires,” said Denise Tanata with The Children’s Cabinet. Instead of “giving money away, we should be creating new revenue sources to fund things like child care, pre-K and a wide array of other programs.”

MomsRising, an advocacy group pushing for local and federal legislation expanding paid leave and affordable child care, hosted a virtual town hall Wednesday to discuss the state of those priorities, along with food insecurity pressing issues.

Democratic Assemblymembers Natha Anderson and Duy Nguyen, along with the Children’s Cabinet and the Children’s Advocacy Alliance, weighed in on the state of food insecurity intensified by the government shutdown, as well as child care affordability issues. 

The Trump administration announced last month it would refuse to pay SNAP benefits for the month of November. A federal ruling forced his hand to administer the funds and approximately $29 million in food assistance benefits was added to the EBT cards of over 196,000 Nevada households.

Nevada Senate Democrats plan to introduce legislation to establish an emergency cash assistance program to help the nearly 500,000 Nevadans whose food stamp benefits have lapsed. 

Last month, Gov. Joe Lombardo issued a statement saying there would be a special session, and that the ”goal will be to finish what the Legislature left unfinished — plain and simple.”

He was alluding to his proposed crime bill, which died in the final moments of the session after being rushed through, and a Democratic-led bill to give the largest public subsidy in state history to the film industry.  

Lawmakers are expected to reconsider failed legislation from the regular legislative session earlier this year that sought to allocate $1.4 billion in transferable tax credits over 15 years to support a film studio in Las Vegas.

“The Children’s Cabinet has signed onto a letter opposing the film tax credit bill,” Tanata said. 

Proponents of the legislation have argued the legislation could create thousands of jobs, a claim that has been met with skepticism from both sides of the aisle.   

And the proposals critics contend Nevada’s workforce would be better and more immediately served by the state addressing other priorities, such as a lack of accessible and affordable child care in Nevada that has long been cited as a barrier to people entering the workforce. 

“A lot of the programs and services we do have are not serving close to the number of families who need the services,” Tanata said. 

The Trump administration announced over the summer it would be withholding millions of dollars of federal funding streams for education programs, including after school programs. After ample bipartisan backlash, Trump released the funds. 

The last few months have underscored the state has a “very heavy reliance on federal funding,” Tanata said. It’s uncertain if that funding model will continue to be sustainable. 

“A big piece of what we’re looking at moving forward is identifying how our states can make investments in our own families and not just rely on federal funding,” she added.

There hasn’t been any mention from state officials about addressing the uncertainty of federal funding streams supporting child care and education programs during the special session. 

Child advocacy groups and allied lawmakers are instead looking toward the next time state legislators convene in a regular session, in 2027. 

As lawmakers attempt to attract industries to Nevada, there needs to be more effort to address the needs of children, said Carissa Pearce with the Children’s Advocacy Alliance.

“Our children can’t wait,” Pearce said. ”We certainly want to see child care be a priority.” 

Groups plan to revive legislation Lombardo killed – among the record breaking 87 bills vetoed this session – including a bill designed to make child care more accessible, and a measure to expand access to paid leave.

Also on the list is Assembly Bill 185, which sought to prevent most homeowners associations from prohibiting licensed home-based childcare operations within their communities. 

Anderson, who sponsored the bill, said the issue was “low hanging fruit” and an attempt to address the fact that across the state in “every single area, we are severely understaffed.” 

In his veto message he wrote the legislation “disrupts that balance by stripping HOAs of a key element of their regulatory authority.”

Lee on shutdown outlook

Democratic U.S. Rep. Susie Lee also spoke during the virtual town hall to answer questions about the federal shutdown, now the longest in history. 

A continuing resolution passed the Republican-controlled House in September has not been able to secure enough votes in the Republican-controlled Senate. 

Democrats have pushed that any resolution to fund the government to also reverse cuts to Medicaid and restore subsidies to the Affordable Care Act health insurance premiums — actions Republicans took while passing Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Republicans have insisted they will negotiate with Democrats on health care subsidies after Democrats vote to reopen the government. But Democrats, skeptical that Trump can be trusted, are demanding that Trump negotiate the ACA issue with them first before they vote for a budget resolution.

Some Democrats are reportedly in talks about voting for the Republican budget resolution in exchange for getting a vote on extending ACA subsidies.

“Many in my caucus are saying do not give in until we get the result we want,” Lee said. 

Some “Democrats feel that if we vote to reopen the government and you take a vote on the ACA tax subsidies there will not be enough votes. Maybe there will be,” Lee said. 

Republicans in the House represent people who also rely on health care subsidies, Lee said.  

“These ACA tax subsidies are more important in many red states than states like ours that expanded Medicaid,” she said.

While she thinks there would be enough Republicans in the House who would support extending the ACA premium subsidies, she was less certain about the Senate. 

Since the vote that started the shutdown Oct. 1, Nevada Democratic U.S Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, along with Democratic U.S. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with the Democrats, have all repeatedly voted for the Republican spending resolution. Through multiple votes on that resolution over the ensuing weeks, no other Democratic senator has joined them.