The North Carolina General Assembly is back in session, and less than two months in, lawmakers have filed over 500 bills. The deadline to file public bills this session is March 6, and with a divided government, many bills will not survive the lengthy process to become law.
This time, Republican lawmakers may be stifled in their attempts to override Democratic Governor Josh Stein’s vetoes. As a result of the 2024 election, the GOP lost their supermajority by one seat.
Among the bills filed, some may make it past the finish line and to the governor’s desk. Last week, the NC House unanimously passed another Hurricane Helene relief bill, hoping to send $500 million in aid to the mountains. On the Senate side, three bills have made it out of the gatekeeping Senate Rules Committee and head to the Senate floor:
- Senate Bill 55, requiring schools to ban the use of cellphones during class.
- Senate Bill 58, stripping Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s ability to challenge presidential executive orders.
- Senate Bill 153, ordering state law enforcement agencies to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Last week, the House Oversight Committee kicked off their probe into the state’s bureaucracy, echoing Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency at the federal level. In their first meeting, lawmakers grilled NC Division of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Wayne Goodwin over the division’s failures.
On this episode, we check in on the status of several bills and examine what to expect as the legislative process unfolds in Raleigh.
GUESTS
Bryan Anderson, Anderson Alerts Substack Newsletter author and freelance journalist covering North Carolina politics
Colin Campbell, capitol bureau chief and political reporter for WUNC
Lucille Sherman, reporter at Axios Raleigh
