Lawmakers expect to be in and out of session quickly when North Carolina's legislature reconvenes Tuesday, perhaps meeting for as little as a day.

Just what they'll get up to hasn't been hashed out in full, but legislative leaders said not to expect many bills to move. Senate Republicans hope to override Gov. Roy Cooper's budget veto, but there's no public indication they've got the votes to do it.

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The legislature plans to fill a budget hole in a state scholarship program for the children of veterans, and there may be a finance bill to address changes in federal tax law. But other business may wait until the General Assembly returns for a full session this spring.

Speaker of the House Tim Moore's spokesman said the House will likely "take up a few bills" and should be done Tuesday.

"One day in and out," said Rep. Donny Lambeth, R-Forsyth, one of three senior chairs for the House budget committee.

Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger's spokeswoman, Lauren Horsch, said Wednesday that final decisions haven't been made on just what bills to consider, but the plan "is to be here for as short of a time frame as possible."

"We’re looking at one or two days," she said in an email.

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Horsch said Senate Democrats "will have the opportunity to decide if they want to provide raises to teachers [and] support additional capital funding for school construction."

That vote has been ripe since September, when the House overrode Cooper's veto, but Senate Republicans haven't called it because they haven't been able to pull the one Democratic senator they need to make a super-majority and pass the budget over Cooper's objections.

Senate rules require 24 hours' notice before that vote, and they posted Monday that a budget veto override would be on Tuesday's calendar.

Democrats said that they're confident they still have the votes to sustain Cooper's veto, but there is some hope among Republicans that last month's end to the state's campaign filing period will make it easier for a Democrat to jump ship.

With that filing period over, it's too late for someone to mount a primary challenge against a senator in retaliation for voting against the governor. All 170 General Assembly seats are up for election this year.

Sen. Don Davis, D-Pitt, has been considered a potential candidate to flip, but he said Monday that he’s planning to vote to uphold the veto.

"Right now, I’m holding tight to try to allow more conversations around the budget. I think that’s best for the residents of this state," Davis said.

The session is slated to start at noon Tuesday, and it's a continuation of last year's long session, not the start to this year's short session. The plan, Horsch said, is to adjourn this session until the spring, when the short session will begin. That start date hasn't been set.

Short sessions are held in even years, long sessions in odd ones, but they're connected. Bills that move forward in the long session can be finalized in the short one.

The January session will be bound by the rules laid out in an adjournment resolution the two chambers agreed to last year, which says only certain matters can be considered:

  • Veto overrides
    • Appointments
      • Bills responding to lawsuits
        • Conference reports on bills that have passed both the House and Senate, but in different forms, requiring negotiation
          • Department of Transportation funding and oversight bills
            • Health care bills
              • Budget bills
                • A new adjournment resolution laying out when the legislature will again return to Raleigh

                  Cooper said this week that he'd like to see something worked out this month on school funding, which is one of several major sticking points on spending between him and the Republican majority. The disagreement has delayed raises for teachers and others who work in K-12 schools.

                  "Let's come in and find a middle ground on teacher pay, on non-certified school personnel, on university [and] community college pay, on state retirees," the governor said Tuesday. "The money is clearly there. Let's just separate that and try to pound that out over the next couple of days and then, as we go into May, we can try to continue the efforts to negotiate an overall budget."

                  Berger has said, repeatedly, that the education budget encompasses too much of the full budget to negotiate on its own. Negotiations on the full state budget broke down last year in large part because Republican leadership, particularly in the Senate, declined to expand Medicaid, one of the governor's top priorities.

                  Without a full budget in place, the state is running on last year's budget, plus a series of mini-budgets the legislature passed and Cooper signed in the fall to address a wide range of issues.