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Governance
Democrats on the newly created Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations (known as Gov Ops), which oversees state spending, have attempted to use the broader powers Republicans gave to the commission last year to investigate crisis pregnancy centers and private schools. The Gov Ops commission has the power to investigate entities that receive state money, including private companies and charities, and Democrats on the committee have sent requests to more than 100 religiously affiliated groups for details on their compliance with various regulations and information on how they have used government funding. Almost all groups contacted have declined to respond, with some questioning the ability of individual commission members to make requests, despite previous instances of individual Republican members making requests of other groups.
Voting Rights
A federal trial over North Carolina’s voter ID requirement began on Monday in Winston-Salem. The case began over five years ago when the North Carolina NAACP, along with several local NAACP chapters, sued over the state’s then-new voter ID law. Since then, the case has worked its way through the justice system, and the voter ID requirement went into effect last fall. U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs, the Obama-appointed judge presiding in this trial, has already ruled on the case multiple times, first issuing a preliminary injunction against the voter ID requirement and then deciding against allowing Republican leaders in the NCGA to join the suit as defendants (though both of these rulings were reversed by other courts).
Education Policy
On Monday Governor Cooper announced Democratic-sponsored legislation that would impose additional regulations on private schools and criticized Republican lawmakers for pouring more money into private school vouchers while public schools in North Carolina go underfunded. The proposed sister bills, HB 993 and SB 853, would require more thorough reporting from private schools, mandate private school compliance with laws that protect disabled students, and require students using vouchers to take state standardized tests. Cooper’s announcement comes after Republicans have pushed for a bill that would grant an additional $463 million to North Carolina’s private school voucher program.
Economic Policy
Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham County) has proposed using the state’s more than $1 billion budget surplus to send tax rebates to NC taxpayers. Using a budget surplus to send tax rebates was proposed in 2019 but didn’t pass, and Berger has indicated that he is only interested in pursuing the plan if it can be used to send “a significant amount.”
Environmental Policy
An omnibus transportation bill under consideration in the NC House would allow billboard owners to remove or prune trees in a wider area around billboards. HB 198 would also limit the ability of local governments to control billboard placement and tree cutting. Opponents of the bill argue that it will unnecessarily remove many trees, including ones that are not directly blocking billboards. An amendment proposed by Sen. Julie Mayfield (D-Buncombe) requiring that the fees paid by billboard owners to cut trees be used to plant shrubs and low-growing trees failed.
Justice
On Wednesday the House passed a bill in a 105-4 vote that would add a broad definition of antisemitism to state law. HB 942, called the Shalom Act, has drawn concerns from civil liberties advocates that it could conflict with constitutional free speech rights.
On Tuesday an NC Senate committee reviewed a bill that would allow some juveniles to be tried as adults. HB 834, passed by the NC House last year, would exclude minors charged with certain serious felonies from the “delinquent juvenile” definition. This change would roll back protection given to juveniles in recent years as part of North Carolina’s “Raise the Age” legislation.
On Tuesday an NC Senate committee considered legislation that would penalize protestors who wear masks or block traffic. The proposed amendment to HB 237 would require harsher sentencing for anyone who commits a crime while wearing a mask and would create a new crime of participating in a demonstration that blocks a street, which would either be the highest level of misdemeanor or a felony, with repeat offenders receiving felony charges.
Lawmakers in the NCGA are considering multiple bills that would regulate AI-generated content. A Republican-sponsored bill, HB 591, would create a new crime of sexual extortion, criminalizing the use of nude photos, including AI-generated nude photos, to force someone to do something against their will. A Democrat-sponsored bill, HB 880, would ban “deepfakes” in political advertising within 90 days of an election.
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