The Nevada Senate passed Senate Bill 3 on a unanimous roll call after adopting a committee amendment that removed specified appropriations. The bill establishes the Silver State General Assistance Program, a state mechanism to allow, in an extraordinary circumstance, collaboration between the governor's office and the Interim Finance Committee to use unrestricted general fund balance to provide immediate assistance to Nevada families.

Senator Cannizzaro, sponsor and floor proponent, framed the measure around recent federal interruptions to SNAP benefits and rising food insecurity. She said of the federal impasse, "an attempt to hold hostage kids who are hungry for political reasons" was "an unacceptable place for us to be," and urged a durable state-level response. Cannizzaro told colleagues the Department of Social Services cooperated on program design and that the mechanism would let the state direct funds "so that we can get immediate assistance" to families.

On second reading the Senate adopted Amendment No. 1, moved by the committee, which deletes the appropriations specified in sections 14 and 15 (committee amendment text was dispensed with on the floor). After the amendment was adopted, the bill was ordered reprinted, engrossed and placed on the general file. The Secretary opened and closed the roll; the yeas were 21 and the nays 0. The bill received the constitutional majority, was declared passed and ordered transmitted to the Assembly.

The bill’s text establishes the procedural partnership between the governor and the Interim Finance Committee for extraordinary circumstances; details about implementation, eligibility criteria, and which specific line items were removed by Amendment 1 were not specified on the floor and will be available in the engrossed bill and final enrolled copy.

The next procedural step is transmittal of the passed bill to the Assembly as ordered by the Senate.