KVIG Informative

Nevada bars former lawmakers from lobbying the Legislature for a year after they leave office. The law says nothing about lobbying everyone else.

Nevada law bars a former legislator from receiving compensation to act as a lobbyist from the day they leave the Legislature until the end of the next regular session in which they’re no longer a member, under NRS 218H.950. For most lawmakers, that cooling-off period runs close to a year, since Nevada’s Legislature meets every two years.

The restriction applies narrowly. It covers lobbying activity that occurs at the physical State House in Carson City — meaning a former legislator who leaves office and immediately begins advising a company or industry group on Nevada policy, negotiating with executive branch agencies, or shaping legislation behind the scenes faces no cooling-off requirement at all, as long as the activity doesn’t occur inside the Legislature building itself.

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The law also carves out an exception even for activity that would otherwise be covered. A former legislator can lobby immediately, without waiting, if doing so is a required part of their full-time employment, they don’t lobby for any other client, and lobbying isn’t the primary duty of their job — a standard that leaves room for interpretation about what counts as a “primary” duty.

Separately, former public officers or employees who served on a state board or commission are barred for one year from accepting employment from a business or industry regulated by that same board or commission, under state ethics law.

Nevada’s current cooling-off period traces to Assembly Bill 273, passed in 2015. A later effort to extend the waiting period to two years for both legislators and executive branch employees, through companion bills Senate Bill 641 and Assembly Bill 574, did not become law.

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States vary widely on how they define and restrict the revolving door. A little over half of all states set a waiting period before a former official can register as a lobbyist, typically ranging from six months to two years — and some states, unlike Nevada, apply that restriction to lobbying activity broadly rather than narrowing it to one physical location.

Nevada has a revolving-door law. It just doesn’t cover most of the door. A former lawmaker who wants to go straight from writing policy to getting paid to influence it doesn’t need to wait a year — they just need to make the call from somewhere other than the Legislature building.