Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025 | 3:26 p.m.
CARSON CITY — Gov. Joe Lombardo signed legislation today authorizing the Nevada Department of Agriculture to temporarily suspend the state’s ban on caged eggs when supply is strained by animal diseases.
Lombardo said he was pleased to sign the bill to “lower the cost of eggs and directly benefit Nevada families. This bipartisan legislation represents how effective the Legislature can be when they work together.”
Lombardo urged the Legislature to permanently repeal the ban on caged eggs “so that we can permanently lower these costs and remove harmful, California-inspired legislation once and for all.”
Assembly Bill 171 — put forward by Speaker Steve Yeager, D-Las Vegas, and Howard Watts III, D-Las Vegas — was designed to combat the rising cost of eggs caused by the bird flu, which has hit some of the country’s largest egg producers.
Egg prices rose by 64% to $4.15 a dozen in 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. More recently, Nevadans have been met with empty shelves or notices that supply is being limited to a few cartons per customer.
Las Vegas grocery stores can only sell eggs that did not come from chickens housed in tightly confined spaces, which makes up the majority of the United States’ egg supply. The suspension of that rule can last for a maximum of 120 days and is only able to be triggered twice a year.
“Ultimately, when our supply chain is working well, we’re going to have affordable and high quality eggs for everybody. But when we’re facing this severe supply chain issue, we want to make sure that we take every action that we can,” Watts said.
The bill raced through the Legislature this week, with the Assembly and Senate suspending rules to get AB 171 to Lombardo. Both floor votes were unanimous.
Speaking to the Assembly Natural Resources Committee earlier this week, Nevada Agriculture Director J.J. Goicoechea said the state has a “long ways to go” until the bird flu subsides.
Southern Nevada cows were also hit with the avian flu variant impacting the rest of the country in December. But a new variant, D1.1, was detected in Churchill County last month.
Goicoechea told the committee the variant “has never been seen before in dairy cattle anywhere.”
“I will not sit here and lie to you. We will be in this for months,” he said. “My goal … is to put this in a corner and see if (we can) let it burn out.”
About 14,000 cows in Northern Nevada have been placed under quarantine, on top of the 22,000 quarantined from the December wave, the director said.
Rising after the bill had already been passed, Senate Minority Leader Robin Titus, R-Wellington, said the caged egg ban is an example of a problem “all too familiar” for the Nevada Legislature: unintended consequences.
“This has, on more than a few occasions, forced us to return to the drawing board, making revisions, passing amendments and in some cases, like today, creating entirely new laws … to correct problems that were created by laws that would solve them in the first place,” Titus said.
She said “most problems in our society” can’t be solved from Carson City, saying AB 171 was a reminder to the Senate to be conscious of legislation’s long-term impacts.
“Nobody has a crystal ball and knows what the future will hold when we create a bill,” Sen. Lisa Krasner, R-Carson City, responded later. “We do it thoughtfully, (but) … it’s not shameful to overrule ourselves. It’s not shameful to amend a bill.”