Next up for NC General Assembly: Votes next week on election, environmental bills
North Carolina lawmakers hope to override vetoes on five bills Tuesday, a move that — if successful — would pass into law a pair of election bills, another bill rolling back business regulations, one sapping power from the governor’s office and another bill on energy policy.
Speaker of the House Tim Moore laid out the timetable Thursday, saying he expects the legislature’s Republican supermajority to make quick work of the overrides. The votes would resolve much of the legislature’s outstanding business for the year, though a handful of bills are still being negotiated and may be ready to move on Tuesday, Moore said.
The General Assembly also plans to redraw legislative and congressional election maps this year. Moore, R-Cleveland, said map drafts could be ready for public release late next week. Key Republican lawmakers have been in Raleigh this week drawing those maps behind closed doors, and the maps that emerge likely will be used in next year’s General Assembly and U.S. House of Representatives races.
Once the new maps are approved, the legislature may be done voting until next spring, Moore said, though the new maps and election bills are expected to spark lawsuits that could require the General Assembly to take further action. Moore said the body will likely to stay in session to handle those issues, even if it doesn’t regularly conduct business.
The vetoed bills lawmakers plan to take up Tuesday are:
- Senate Bill 747, a collection of election law changes, including an end for the current three-day grace period for mail-in ballots to arrive after Election Day. Ballots would have to arrive at local boards of election by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day to count.
- Senate Bill 749, which overhauls the State Board of Elections as well as county boards of elections. Instead of bodies appointed by the governor, and on which the governor’s political party holds a one-seat majority, the bill creates boards appointed by the General Assembly, with an even split of Republicans and Democrats. Republicans say the bipartisanship is only fair, but Democrats fear the boards will deadlock, kicking key decisions about elections up to the General Assembly, which Republicans control.
- Senate Bill 512, which reworks appointments to several key state boards, generally taking appointments from the governor as part of a long legislative push to strip the Democratic governor of power.
- Senate Bill 678, which incentivizes nuclear power by rewriting state laws promoting “renewable energy” to say “clean energy” instead.
- House Bill 600, which is 46 pages of changes to various business and environmental regulations.
The Republican majority has overturned every veto Cooper has issued this session. So far that’s 14 bills. The five they’ll deal with next week would make it 19.
Republicans hold veto-proof supermajorities in both legislative chambers, due in part to a surprise party switch earlier this year.
Correction: This post has been updated to correct the total number of vetos this session. It's 19.
