Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Rosen stresses cooperation between parties in speech before state lawmakers

Rosen

John Locher / AP

In this June 14, 2016, file photo, congressional candidate Jacky Rosen attends an election night party in Las Vegas.

Bipartisanship was a major part of an address to Nevada lawmakers by U.S. Rep. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., on Wednesday night.

In her speech before a joint session of the Senate and Assembly, Rosen touched on topics including her disappointment in a lack of unanimous support for a bill that seeks to ban conversion therapy. Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas, introduced Senate Bill 201 on conversion therapy. The bill passed the Senate on April 4 by a 15-5 vote.

“I want to thank Sen. Parks for proposing that legislation, and for all those here who are standing up for our LGBTQ friends, neighbors, family members, and citizens of our great state,” Rosen said. “Although we’ve made accomplishments, we must also remember that we have a lot of work left to do.”

She expressed support for legislative efforts in green energy and protecting the state’s heritage, saying state lawmakers ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment this year was a major milestone.

Rosen quoted Gov. Brian Sandoval’s stance on Yucca Mountain in light of President Donald Trump’s proposed funding that would revive the project: “We fight.” She said she has been working with U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., to push against the project.

She said Washington could learn a lot from Nevada.

“On issues like health care, public lands, and our opposition to Yucca Mountain, many in our delegation have made it a point to work for common sense solutions rather than to follow the party line,” Rosen said.

As one of the members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers’ Caucus, a group focusing on issues such as infrastructure improvement, she said it’s important to work across party lines. The caucus is made up of half Republicans and half Democrats.

“In just the past few weeks, we’ve seen a terrible health care reform bill fail and the president’s misguided policies, including his tax reform plan,” she said. “All of that occurred before anyone picked up the phone and called anyone across the aisle.”

Rosen also addressed acts of hate against the Jewish community nationally. In Nevada, after a series of anti-Semitic acts including graffiti of swastikas in the Las Vegas Valley, Titus organized a meeting in early March with law enforcement officials and Jewish community leaders to encourage reporting any suspicious activity.

Rosen said she introduced separate pieces of legislation to more quickly fund Israel’s anti-missile defense systems and protect faith-based community centers, which faced hate crimes in recent months.

Another piece of legislation she introduced would “serve as a backstop for potential dysfunction in Washington” by maintaining pay for active duty military and federal law enforcement should Congress again fail to pass a budget. During the government shutdown in 2013, Sandoval said the state faced “catastrophic” consequences.

Facing federal cuts in Trump’s proposed budget, Rosen said programs such as the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act, Meals on Wheels, and grants that help law enforcement treat survivors of sex trafficking and domestic violence need to be protected. She said the land management act, more than 20 years old, brought the state $3 billion from land sale revenues that was used for over 1,200 projects.

“I am concerned, as many others are, about the size of our federal deficit and our national debt,” she said. “But we must strike a balance.”

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