With the 82nd Legislative Session now approximately one-sixth of the way through, there was a complete standstill this week as snow and wind in Carson City and Reno forced Governor Joe Lombardo to close the Capitol for at least 3 days as well as shut down all state, county, and city government offices in most of Northern Nevada. Some legislators were already in Carson for the week and chose to stay, including Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager. The Democrat from Clark County posted on Twitter that he is continuing to read bills and his passion for running even in the snow saying “This morning’s run was a “snowventure” #optoutside.”
Meanwhile, Assemblyman Greg Koenig also stayed in Carson since the cancellations were last minute. He had hoped that with some warning, he could come home to Fallon and see a few patients in his eye clinic. He mentioned that the word in the capitol is that there will be night and weekend sessions to make up for the lost days.
One of Koenig’s bills, AB 92 which authorizes a county board of commissioners to create the office of county counsel, was scheduled for a hearing on Wednesday of this week but due to the snow closures, he believes it will be moved to next Tuesday. The bill is in the Committee on Government Affairs and has bipartisan support though strong disapproval from the District Attorneys of Nevada.
Koenig is also a co-sponsor of AB 188 which is the “right to try” bill chief sponsored by a Republican Assemblywoman and Democrat State Senator James Ohrenschall of Clark County. Las Vegas Assemblywoman Heidi Kasama of District 2 has proposed AB 188, expanding the 2015 “Right to Try” law. In 2015, the legislature gave Nevadans access to treatments in Phase I clinical trials if a patient is terminally ill and exhausted all treatments.
AB 188, as written, would expand the options for care for breakthroughs in clinical trials including targeted treatments for individual patients based on their genetics and DNA. All these treatments are already FDA-approved, Kasama said. “It’s still in federally approved and insured clinics. Of course, there’s so many safeguards. In all these bills, the patient must have consent. We are relieving the doctors, the clinics, and the hospitals of any liability because everybody understands that this is experimental, but it is saving lives.”
Koenig gave his approval as co-sponsor by saying: “If you are terminal, and nothing else could help, what do you have to lose?” Adding, “terminal but no other options...it’s at least giving a chance.” The bill has a slim chance of having a hearing with so much time lost and so many bills that are priorities for the majority party.
One other note from Koenig was that “it’s good to have a Republican governor for balance.” He referred to SB 124 which relates to the tax upon the net proceeds of minerals and royalties of mining operations, that passed out of a Senate committee on a party-line vote but when it came to the Assembly, to avoid a promised veto by Governor Lombardo, it required three amendments before it would pass with a 37-5 bi-partisan vote in the Assembly.
Comment
Comments