Nevada Needs an Expiration Date for Its Regulations
This was first published by Nevada Policy Institute
In 2019, Idaho let their entire regulatory code expire.
After going through a thorough review, they cut or simplified 95% of their regulations. The administrative code shrunk from 8,553 pages to 5,318 pages—a reduction of over 3,200 pages. They now rank as the least regulated state in the nation and have held that title for six years.
Since then, they’ve been one of the fastest growing states for total non-farm employment, outpacing Nevada. How did they do this? Sunset laws.
Barriers from the Past
Here’s a problem most of us never think about: once a regulation goes on the books, it basically lives forever. Nobody gets re-elected for reviewing thousands of pages of existing rules. So every year, new rules get added and almost nothing gets removed.
Worse are the rules that made sense once but don’t anymore. Rules that were supposed to protect consumers but actually protect businesses from competition.
Once a rule exists, it stays until someone proves it shouldn’t. And that’s hard, because the people who benefit from the rule tend to be organized and loud. They have money to spend to keep the rules the same. The default becomes maintaining the status quo.
What We’re Actually Talking About
When you hear “regulation,” that could mean two different things in Nevada.
Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) are laws our elected representatives pass. These go through the full legislative process. They’re visibly debated in committees. They get voted on. And require the governor’s signature.
Nevada Administrative Code (NAC) is different. These are the detailed rules that agencies write to put in place those laws. When an NRS law says “the Department of Health shall establish food safety standards,” the department then writes the specifics. They’re written by agency staff with minimal public visibility.
Most Nevadans have no idea what’s in the Nevada Administrative Code. Most legislators don’t either. And who can blame them. As of 2019, The Mercatus Center found out that the NAC contained over 4.9M words. It would take over 7 weeks of straight reading to read them all.
And that’s where the problem lives. Administrative rules multiply quietly.
The Solution: Flip the Default
One viable solution to this never-ending growth of administrative rules are sunset laws.
Sunset laws are simple. They make it so regulations come with an expiration date. After a set amount of years, the rule automatically disappears unless elected officials vote to keep it.
No vote? No rule.
Here’s how it works. When a regulation is written, sunset laws would require it to include an set in stone expiration date. As that date approaches, the regulation comes up for review. The agency that created the rule must submit justification for keeping it. They would have to answer questions like: What problem does this solve? Is it still the best solution? What evidence shows it’s working?
Elected officials then decide: renew it as written, renew it with modifications, or let it expire.
The key difference from how things currently work: the burden of proof shifts.
Instead of reformers having to build a case for why a rule should be removed, defenders must build a case for why it should continue. Instead of regulations living forever unless someone proves they’re harmful, regulations expire unless someone proves they’re still necessary.
This changes the question from “Why should we remove this?” to “Why should we keep this?”
That’s a powerful reframing.
Without sunset review, the conversation is: “This regulation might be outdated.” “But what if removing it causes problems?” “We don’t know for sure.” Result: keep the regulation.
With sunset review, the conversation is: “This regulation is about to expire.” “Why should we keep it?” “Well… we’ve always had it.” Result: not good enough. Justify it or it disappears.
Nevada Already Knows This Is a Problem
In 2023, Governor Joe Lombardo issued Executive Order 2023-003. This directed state agencies to identify and remove outdated regulations. The goal was to repeal unnecessary barriers to business.
It made progress. For example, The Department of Public and Behavioral Health removed regulations requiring emergency medical dispatchers to complete Nevada-specific training on top of national certification. The state hadn’t even issued a dispatcher certification in five years. This regulation was collecting dust.
That’s exactly the kind of regulatory deadwood that sunset review would catch routinely.
But here’s the issue: Executive orders depend on whoever happens to be governor.
Nevada needs to codify this practice into law. This means it would not depend on executive action.
Sunset laws would make this review process permanent. Left alone, rules accumulate and the cost and complexity of doing business grows.
Nevada Has Work To Do
While the Governor’s Executive Order was a step in the right direction, Nevada has work to do. CNBC ranked Nevada 30th for business friendliness in 2024. It fell to 42nd in 2025. Area Development doesn’t include Nevada in its top twenty best states to do business.
The hidden costs are adding up, yet fixing the problem is hard. Small groups that benefit from regulations fight to keep them. Large groups that pay the costs don’t realize they’re paying.
During the 2025 legislative session, efforts to reform boards and commissions failed despite broad agreement they needed fixing.
Sunset laws change this dynamic by forcing defenders to make their case publicly, repeatedly.
A Practical Path
Nevada’s legislature meets every two years for 120 days. Sunset review has to work with that reality.
Start with the Nevada Administrative Code:
The legislature should pass a statute requiring:
All new NAC regulations include automatic 5-year sunsets (2 full legislative cycles plus one review year)
Adopt a standard of reviewing ~20% of rules annually, similar to Idaho
Legislative oversight of reauthorization. Agencies would must justify continuation to elected officials, not review themselves
Once NAC sunsets clear outdated rules and creates accountability, the legislature could expand this to the NRS as well.
Idaho showed what’s possible. Governor Lombardo showed that regulatory review works. Now the legislature needs to make it permanent.
Nevada can lead on this. The question is whether the legislature has the courage to apply expiration dates to the regulations created in its name.