In the News

Rep. Susie Lee held a roundtable Thursday to determine the best way forward to advance LGBTQ rights. Among the topics discussed were health issues, sensitivity training and President Donald Trump's transgender ban in the military.

Sensitivity training was mentioned as a need by several participants in the roundtable, and Lee said she was receptive."I think it's important for them to know they have a fighter in me in Washington," Lee said.

Teacher Brian Rippet waved a chemistry book in the air Monday morning.

The nearly 20-year-old textbook is older than most students at Whittell High School in Douglas County, where Rippet teaches. It doesn't contain 10 percent of the world's known chemical elements, he said, because scientists have discovered new ones in the last two decades. The acknowledgment drew gasps from the crowd gathered outside the Grant Sawyer building in downtown Las Vegas.

Congress passed a spending package last week avoiding another government shutdown, but President Donald Trump also set up a showdown with lawmakers with an emergency declaration to fund his border wall.

Those machinations came as Nevada's congressional Democrats received a classified briefing from the Department of Energy on the secret shipment of plutonium the agency sent to the state.

The Senate approved the spending measure 83 to 16 before the bill went to the House, where it passed 300 to 128.

The debate over funding for President Trump's proposed border wall came to a head today in Washington.

Many of Nevada's legislators spoke out against the emergency declarations, including Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto criticizing Trump for a rejection of bipartisanship and undermining of Congress.Trump declared a national emergency to appropriate the funding from his proposed wall, triggering rebuke from the left and likely setting up a protracted legal fight.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Susie Lee of Nevada has joined a bipartisan group of House lawmakers that seeks common ground to break political gridlock and produce legislative results.

The group, the House problem solvers caucus, is dedicated to finding bipartisan solutions on issues that both Democrats and Republicans can accept. The group, which has approximately 50 members equally divided between the parties, announced its leadership and members, including Lee, a Democrat, this week.

The day after delivering his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump weighed in on why he believed former Sen. Dean Heller lost his re-election bid, and the Senate took up a public lands bill that would permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).

Each member of Congress gets at least one ticket for a guest to the president's State of the Union address, and Nevada lawmakers are eager to leverage their plus-ones to send a political message.

From federal workers affected by the shutdown to Nevadans with pre-existing conditions and immigration advocates, Nevada Democrats are leaning into the symbolism.

LAS VEGAS (FOX5) -- Democrats from Nevada have chosen their guests to the State of the Union on Tuesday.

Sen. Jacky Rosen has invited Tanya Flanagan of North Las Vegas, a three-time cancer survivor who works for Clark County as a Public Information Administrator. Because of her pre-existing condition, Flanagan would be at risk of being denied access to affordable health care if the Affordable Care Act were repealed or struck down in federal court, according to a news release from Rosen's office.