NC House moving toward April 28 session, April 30 COVID-19 votes
Video feeds of House working group meetings are promised for next week.
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In the House, at least, legislative committees will likely meet remotely to shepherd legislation through the process while avoiding mass gatherings, House budget writer Rep. Donny Lambeth, R-Forsyth, said Thursday.
Floor votes need to be in person, though, and Lambeth said those logistics are still being discussed. It's possible the House will use its upstairs gallery to space members out and hold votes open for hours so representatives can come in and out to cast their votes, much like Congress does.
"It's going to be difficult to have the number of people that you would ordinarily have in the chamber," Berger said, indicating proceedings would be streamed.
The expected schedule looks like this for now in the House:
- Working groups are meeting now. So far, only audio feeds are available to the public, along with limited seating at the statehouse. But House Speaker Tim Moore said Thursday that video feeds should go live Tuesday.
- Bill drafting is likely to draw up formal legislation between April 16 and April 23, though staff is ready to go and will be available to members this weekend, Lambeth said during a Thursday morning working group meeting.
- Session will start April 28, though many members likely won't attend, Lambeth said. The start date allows bills to be filed.
- Remote committee meetings – at least for the House's health and budget committees – are planned for April 29.
- On April 30, the House would take floor votes.
Lambeth laid out most of the details during a Thursday meeting on health issues. Moore's office confirmed the basics soon after.
Senate leadership hasn't released as much information, but spokesman Pat Ryan said Thursday that the chamber is working with the House to vote "as early as possible" on a COVID-19 package.
Ryan said the hope is that vote will be unanimous, signaling controversial issues will be avoided.
It's likely the session will be brief and focus only on COVID-19. Ryan said the Senate has "been focusing exclusively on COVID-19, and there's not been discussion of other items."
Rep. Jason Saine, R-Lincoln, who like Lambeth is a key budget writer, said earlier this week that the legislature may delay work on a new state budget until July or August, when it should know more about COVID-19's state revenue impacts.
Large funding requests are rolling in, and WRAL News has requested tracking documents to tally them. It's likely those requests will outstrip available state funding.
Lambeth, faced with a $125 million request Thursday just from the state's child care sector, told presenters that the state "will have limited resources" and asked them to lay out both immediate and long-term needs.
"We will be looking at this, I think, more than just the next few weeks," Lambeth said.
Moore's office put out a statement Thursday saying state funding for personal protective equipment for health workers, along with funding for COVID-19 tests, will be a budget priority.
Funding has not been the limiting factor on PPE, though. State Emergency Management Director Mike Sprayberry has said several times over the last week or so that the state has some $100 million in equipment orders out to private vendors, but very little of that has been filled because supplies are short.
April 28 has been the scheduled start date for the next legislative session since the General Assembly last adjourned. There was some talk of returning to session early, but it appears lawmakers will wait and come in at the end of the month.
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