Fact check: Did the Nevada State Assembly vote on a “700-page bill” the same day that bill was introduced?
Lawmakers in Nevada voted overwhelmingly in favor of a legislative package providing $335 million in tax breaks and other incentives to an electric car company during a special session of the state legislature in December 2015. In exchange, the company, Faraday Future, agreed to build a manufacturing plant in North Las Vegas.[1]
It was a “fantastic deal for many reasons,” first-term Assemblyman Chris Edwards, who voted for the incentive package, recently told his home-district newspaper, the Moapa Valley Progress. Edwards said the deal would benefit his constituents in Assembly District 19, which is east of Las Vegas. “It offers young people who want to stay in these communities a chance to have a good job and live in the communities where they want to be.”[2]
Connie Foust, who is running against Edwards in the June 14 Republican primary, told the Progress she doesn’t have an objection to the package of benefits for Faraday Future, but she did object to how the legislation was passed. Foust claims that members of the Assembly could not have made an informed decision on the legislation because they didn’t have enough time to review it.
“[The Assembly] got the 700 page bill on the morning that they were voting,” Foust said.[2]
Is Foust correct? Was there a 700-page bill presented to the Assembly, and did members vote on it on the same day they received it?
Ballotpedia examined the texts of the legislation passed in the December 2015 special session and the official records for the state Senate and Assembly to determine the validity of Foust’s claims. There was no 700-page bill. The legislative package was made up of four bills, the longest of which was 54 pages. But Foust is mostly correct about how quickly the Assembly voted on and passed those bills. Three of the four bills were passed by the Assembly on the same day they were introduced.
Background: the Faraday deal
Faraday Future is an electric car company that was founded in California in 2014.[3] On November 5, 2015, the company announced plans to build its first manufacturing plant. According to a company press release, Faraday was considering sites in California, Georgia, Louisiana, and Nevada for the plant.[4]
On December 10, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval announced that he had reached a deal with Faraday executives to build their plant in North Las Vegas.[5] The state would provide the company with $335 million in tax breaks and other incentives, such as infrastructure improvements.[6] In return, the company pledged to spend $1 billion on the plant over the course of 10 years and said the plant would create 4,500 jobs on site and thousands more indirect jobs across the state.[7]
The Nevada legislature had finished its regular 2015 session before the governor announced the deal with Faraday, so on December 15, Sandoval issued a proclamation for a special session to begin at 5 p.m. on December 16 to consider the tax breaks and other incentives that had been promised to Faraday.[8]
The Assembly during the 2015 special session of the Nevada legislature
The Senate was called to order to begin the special session at 5:34 p.m. on Wednesday, December 16, and the Assembly convened an hour later.[9][10] The special session ended late on the afternoon of Saturday, December 19, when both chambers adjourned.[11][12] Only four bills were considered during the session. The bills created the $335 million in tax breaks and incentives that had been promised to Faraday. All four bills passed and were signed into law by the governor.
Most of the necessary changes to state law were included in Senate Bill 1. Following passage in the Senate, the 54-page bill was introduced in the Assembly on Saturday morning. The Assembly voted to pass SB 1 that afternoon. The vote was 37 to 4.[13]
Two other Senate bills, SB 2 and SB 3 (three pages and two pages, respectively), were also introduced on Saturday morning and voted on that afternoon. Both passed by the same margin as SB 1.[14][15]
The sole bill to originate in the Assembly during the special session was Assembly Bill 1 (17 pages), which changed certain procedures in the state Office of Economic Development.[16] AB 1 was introduced during an Assembly session that began at 6:54 p.m. on December 16.[10] The bill was approved by a vote of 37 to 4 in the Assembly at 5:31 p.m. on December 18.[17]
Foust referred to a “700-page bill” when speaking to the Progress, but all four bills together have only 76 pages of text.
Conclusion
Connie Foust, who is challenging Assemblyman Chris Edwards in the June 14 GOP primary, told the Moapa Valley Progress that she doesn’t approve of how the Assembly passed a package of tax breaks and other incentives for an electric car manufacturer during the 2015 special session.
“[The Assembly] got the 700-page bill on the morning that they were voting,” Foust claimed. Foust was wrong about the total number of pages in the legislative package, which was made up of four bills. There was a total of 76 pages of text in those bills, not 700 pages. Also, only three of the bills were passed by the Assembly on the same day they were introduced in that chamber. The fourth bill was passed approximately 48 hours after it was introduced in the Assembly.
See also
Launched in October 2015 and active through October 2018, Fact Check by Ballotpedia examined claims made by elected officials, political appointees, and political candidates at the federal, state, and local levels. We evaluated claims made by politicians of all backgrounds and affiliations, subjecting them to the same objective and neutral examination process. As of 2026, Ballotpedia staff periodically review these articles to revaluate and reaffirm our conclusions. Please email us with questions, comments, or concerns about these articles. To learn more about fact-checking, click here.
Sources and Notes
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, “Nevada lawmakers OK $335-million deal to lure Faraday Future electric carmaker,” December 20, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Moapa Valley Progress, “Republicans Face Off in Primary Race for Assembly District 19,” May 25, 2016
- ↑ Fortune, “A Mysterious Electric Carmaker has its Sights on Tesla,” November 5, 2015
- ↑ Faraday Future, “Faraday Future to invest $1 billion in U.S. Production Facility,” November 5, 2015
- ↑ My News 4, “Governor Sandoval unveils $335 million for Faraday Future near Vegas,” December 10, 2015
- ↑ Reno Gazette-Journal, “Five things to know about the Faraday deal,” December 14, 2015
- ↑ Faraday Future, “Faraday Future to Select North Las Vegas, Nevada, as Site of $1 Billion Production Facility,” December 10, 2015
- ↑ Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, “A proclamation by Governor Brian Sandoval to convene a special session of the Nevada State Legislature,” December 15, 2015
- ↑ Senate Daily Journal, “Twenty-ninth Special Session, 2015. The First Day,” accessed June 9, 2016
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Journal of the Assembly of the State of Nevada, “Twenty-ninth Special Session, 2015. The First Day,” accessed June 9, 2016
- ↑ Senate Daily Journal, “Twenty-ninth Special Session, 2015. The Fourth Day,” accessed June 9, 2016
- ↑ Journal of the Assembly of the State of Nevada, “Twenty-ninth Special Session, 2015. The Fourth Day,” accessed June 9, 2016
- ↑ Nevada Legislature, “SB 1,” accessed June 9, 2015
- ↑ Nevada Legislature, “SB 2,” accessed June 9, 2016
- ↑ Nevada Legislature, “SB 3,” accessed June 9, 2016
- ↑ Nevada Legislature, “AB 1,” accessed June 9, 2016
- ↑ Journal of the Assembly of the State of Nevada, “Twenty-ninth Special Session, 2015. The Third Day,” accessed June 9, 2016
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