Sponsors
Introduced March 12, 2025 by Catherine Marie Cortez Masto · Last progress March 12, 2025
The bill shifts substantial land and management authority to tribes and local governments and expands conservation and recreation protections—providing local project opportunities and clearer administration—while creating trade-offs over tribal water rights, limits on tribal economic options, displaced federal revenue, potential habitat impacts from relaxed project rules, and new costs or planning uncertainties for local and federal governments.
Indigenous-tribal-communities (Moapa Band and Las Vegas Paiute): large parcels of federal and tribal fee land are taken into trust and added to reservations and tribes receive reserved payments for existing transmission rights-of-way, expanding tribal land base, governance authority, and a revenue stream.
Local governments (Clark County, Boulder City, Mesquite, North Las Vegas, Moapa Valley, Henderson): receive conveyed lands for parks, public safety, water/watershed projects, municipal uses and a Job Creation Zone, enabling local projects without upfront purchase costs and more flexibility to meet community needs.
Residents and rural communities: millions of acres receive wilderness and Special Management Area designations and expanded conservation boundaries, preserving recreation, scenery, and habitat and clarifying federal management responsibilities.
Indigenous-tribal-communities and state water users: the bill disclaims or does not affirm federal reserved water rights for Moapa and Las Vegas Paiute lands, creating long-term uncertainty and potential limits on tribal water security and federal protection.
Indigenous-tribal-communities: the prohibition on class II and III gaming and conditioning land transfers on rapid utility ROW grants limits tribes' economic development options and reduces negotiating leverage for compensation.
Taxpayers and local governments: conveying federal land without consideration and selling parcels (even at fair market value) forfeits potential federal revenue and shifts survey, remediation, and ongoing management costs onto local governments or taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 16 sections of legislative text.
Conveys federal and tribal lands into trust for Nevada tribes, adds wilderness and OHV areas, and authorizes municipal land conveyances and updated land‑management rules in southern Nevada.
Transfers thousands of acres of federal and tribal fee lands in southern Nevada into trust for the Moapa Band of Paiutes and the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, with conditions that bar class II/III gaming and preserve certain rights‑of‑way and state water claims. Expands and revises federal land management across Clark County by changing Red Rock Canyon boundaries and definitions, adding multiple wilderness areas, creating four BLM off‑highway vehicle (OHV) recreation areas, and authorizing conveyances of specific federal parcels to Boulder City, Mesquite, and Henderson under updated terms. The bill also updates management authorities and disposal rules under existing Southern Nevada public‑lands statutes and requires surveys, management plans, and coordination with tribal, state, and local governments.