“I think everybody is just kind of laughing up their sleeve about it,” said Assemblyman Pete Goicoechea, a Republican from rural Eureka. “I can promise you there’s not any kind of a movement to bring a bill forward.”

State Sen. Sheila Leslie, a Reno Democrat, said she didn’t see prostitution coming on the legislature’s radar: “We are consumed by the the budget and its implications for our state,” she said.

Legislators of both parties generally see legal prostitution in Nevada, the only state that permits it, as a settled issue of local control by the rural counties where it is allowed. Many voiced surprise that Reid brought it up.

Goicoechea, a rancher, joked: “You know, they say sheepherding is the second-oldest profession. Is he going to try to do away with us too?”