LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The state Senate Wednesday unanimously passed a bill aimed at lowering the price of eggs in Nevada, moving the bill through the legislative process with remarkable speed.
The bill is now on its way to Gov. Joe Lombardo for a signature.
Assembly Bill 171 would allow state officials temporarily to suspend a Nevada law passed in 2021 that requires all eggs sold in the state to come from hens not kept in cages.
The bill is designed to increase egg supply and lower prices by allowing stores to stock conventional eggs, locally grown eggs and even Grade B eggs. Not only have prices risen, but eggs have become more scarce. Some stores even limit the number of eggs people can buy.
▶ Watch Lawmakers consider suspending Nevada's cage-free egg law to meet the demand
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the price of eggs rose 15.2% between December and January.
In 2021, state lawmakers sought to address animal cruelty by passing the cage-free law. The measure passed on a party-line vote in the Assembly but earned a bipartisan majority in the state Senate.
But after the price of eggs became a campaign issue in the 2024 presidential race, Nevada lawmakers began looking for ways to reduce prices and give relief to consumers.
Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager and Assemblyman Howard Watts, both D-Clark County, introduced AB 171 to allow for the 2021 law to be temporarily suspended for periods of 120 days during times of crisis. Only two suspensions would be allowed per calendar year.
Watts was chairman of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee in 2021 and oversaw the passage of the original cage-free egg bill.
The bill sailed through the Assembly Natural Resources committee and passed the floor quickly as lawmakers moved to suspend the rules and declare the bill an emergency measure. A similar process took place on Tuesday, with quick Senate committee approval and a truncated process on the floor today.
▶ Watch Nevada Assembly fast-tracks bill aimed at lowering egg prices to State Senate
The votes were unanimous, with both Republicans and Democrats approving the bill.
But politics weren't totally absent from the discussion. A news release issued shortly after the Senate floor vote declared "legislative Democrats" had passed the measure and criticizing the Trump administration for the economy. (The release made no mention of Republican support for the bill.)
Then the Nevada State Democratic Party issued a news release of its own, calling on Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo to sign the measure into law, something it appears he is prepared to do in any circumstance.
Meanwhile, state Sen. Dr. Robin Titus, R-Lyon County, the Republican minority leader, said after the vote that the Legislature spends too much time passing laws to correct the unintended consequences of other laws.
"This body, this body, has too many times forced to return to legislation to cure problems that we caused by legislation," Titus said. "Time and time again, we have seen these laws passed with good intentions only again to find that there's second order effects [that] create new problems."
Titus was in the Assembly in 2021 and voted no on the original cage-free egg bill.
But Democrats, including Watts, have said higher egg prices are caused by the avian flu, which has caused millions of egg-laying birds to be euthanized. That, and supply chain problems, are more to blame for high prices and shortages than the cage-free requirements in state law, they say.
That's what state Sen. Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro cited in a response to Titus's comments Wednesday.
"And I don't think that because we sometimes have to be adaptive to that, or to address concerns that may not have existed the day before, the year before, the two years before or four years before, means that this body is not doing its job," Cannizzaro said.
The bill will go into effect immediately after it's signed by Lombardo.
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