Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo signed Executive Order 2026-003 on Monday, launching a fresh review of the state's regulatory framework aimed at cutting red tape for businesses. The order directs every executive branch agency, department, board, and commission with regulatory authority to comb through the rules under its control and look for ways to repeal, streamline, or clarify them.
According to KLAS 8 News Now, Lombardo said the goal is to ensure government protects the public without creating unnecessary barriers for the state's families and businesses. “Nevada should be one of the best places in the country to start, operate, and grow a business,” he said, according to the station's report. The order sets a hard deadline: each entity must hold at least one publicly noticed stakeholder meeting by October 29, 2026, before submitting final recommendations to the Governor's Office by December 31, 2026.
Second Wave Builds on a 900-Rule Rollback
This is not Lombardo's first swing at Nevada's regulatory books. Executive Order 2026-003 explicitly builds on Executive Order 2023-003, which the governor signed in January 2023 and which froze new state regulations while agencies combed through existing ones, according to the same account. That earlier freeze, per the governor's office, resulted in more than 900 approved regulatory changes that eliminated what officials described as outdated and burdensome rules while maintaining important protections for Nevadans.
The 2023 freeze did not lift immediately. As reported by the Nevada Legislature, Lombardo signed Executive Order 2023-008 on June 30, 2023, officially ending the freeze so agencies could begin processing the repeals and revisions that had piled up. Around the same time, the governor issued a companion order, Executive Order 2023-004, requiring occupational and professional licensing boards to halt new restrictive rules and find pathways for license reciprocity, according to the Cato Institute.
Why Officials Cited a Tight Labor Market
State officials pointed to workforce shortages as part of the rationale for easing licensing and regulatory requirements. Early 2023 executive records showed Nevada had 1.7 job openings for every unemployed worker searching for employment, according to the Nevada Governor's Office. That gap fed directly into the push to lower barriers to entering licensed professions and starting businesses.
Any changes agencies propose still have to clear a formal process. Administrative rulemaking in Nevada runs through Chapter 233B of the Nevada Revised Statutes, which requires public workshops, small business impact statements, and review by the Nevada Legislative Commission before new rules take effect, per the Nevada Legislature. That statutory framework explains why the new executive order builds in months of public meetings before recommendations even reach the Governor's Office.
A Concrete Example: Rules the PUC Already Scrapped
The prior review has already produced tangible results at individual agencies. The Public Utilities Commission of Nevada approved amendments in December 2024 repealing outdated administrative rules covering pay phones, printed telephone directories, and expired renewable energy programs, according to a filing reviewed by Citizen Portal. It's the kind of narrow, agency-level cleanup the governor's office says it wants replicated across state government under the new order.
Under Executive Order 2026-003, the Governor's Office will evaluate the recommendations that come in from agencies, boards, and commissions and determine appropriate regulatory actions beginning in 2027. Lombardo took office as Nevada's 31st governor in January 2023 after serving as Sheriff of Clark County from 2015 to 2023, according to Wikipedia.
Regulatory Push Meets Re-election Season
The timing lands squarely in Lombardo's re-election campaign. He formally launched his 2026 re-election bid last September, and regulatory reduction alongside business growth has been a signature theme of his platform. Which specific sectors or regulations agencies will target during the fall stakeholder meetings remains unclear, and how legislative leadership will respond once proposed changes reach the Nevada Legislative Commission in 2027 is also an open question, per the Nevada Legislature's rulemaking filings and EIN Presswire's coverage of the order's rollout.
