A bill to force more K-12 schools to open in-person classes will come back before the North Carolina Senate after an effort narrowly failed Monday to pass the bill over Gov. Roy Cooper's objections.
Senate Bill 37 has been the most contentious measure of this young legislative session. Cooper vetoed it last week, and on Monday, Republicans backing the bill fell one vote short of what they needed to advance a veto override.
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Perhaps not coincidentally, the measure's lone Democratic co-sponsor, Sen. Ben Clark, D-Hoke, was absent. Had he attended session and voted for the bill, as he did when it first passed the General Assembly last month, the legislation would have lived, moving to the state House, which might have completed the override.
With Clark absent, and another of the bill's three Democratic supporters, Sen. Paul Lowe, D-Forsyth, reversing course to vote with the Democratic governor, the measure seemed dead.
But parliamentary procedure allows for reconsideration, and Republican leadership said Tuesday evening they'll do just that Wednesday. Reconsideration takes only majority support, and Republicans have enough for that without Democrats joining them.
From there, it's a waiting game. A second veto override attempt hasn't been calendered, but Republicans promised to give 24 hours' notice, as required by chamber rules.
"Sen. Clark will have the opportunity to provide the critical vote necessary to advance his bill over Gov. Roy Cooper's veto," Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger's office said in a news release.
Clark told the Associated Press Tuesday that he missed the Monday evening vote because of work. He declined to tell the news service how he would have voted had he been present.