Week 1 is over - What have we Accomplished?

Unfortunately, the answer to the question “what have we accomplished” is: not much. As happened during the last regular session and during the special sessions this past summer, bills are trickling out rather than the bills that are ready being heard and processed. There is so much to be done and little apparent political will to do it.

I’m currently working with others to introduce legislation to address the Unemployment Insurance debacle, the COVID vaccine distribution issues, and reopening schools so that children can stop falling further behind. We need to address the immediate needs of our people, their long-term health, and particularly our children’s future. A lot of priorities changed last March, and too few are proposing realistic plans to deal with them. We simply can’t ask people to wait longer for help when they are starving.

But that’s not to say I’ve ignored the problems that existed before the pandemic. I proposed two new bill drafts to address longstanding constituent concerns regarding contractors who fail to do the work they contracted to do, and to improve traffic safety and efficiency on multi-lane freeways. There is a loophole that allows contractors in Nevada to sell long warrantees in an effort to get the work, only to have them ignore the warranty after four years because that’s when the regulations stop the Board from enforcing their contracts. And as our highways become more congested, tractor-trailers are increasingly occupying all travel lanes, slowing traffic that entices passenger car drivers to take exceptional risks in passing them. These aren’t barn-burners, but they have gone unaddressed long enough.

Hopefully, the legislative leadership will come to themselves and realize there is real work to be done. We need to open the building to the people who put us here. If we can fill planes to capacity and restaurants and retailers to some fraction of their occupancy limit, then certainly we can open schools and “ the people’s house” and get on to the business of fixing the mess we’ve made for ourselves.