In this week's update:

• Power Shifts
• Veto Override
• Supreme Court Recount
• Diversity Statements
• NCGA Adjournment Resolution Changes
• 2025 NASW-NC Legislative Agenda Survey
   

Power Shifts

The House and Senate passed a third phase of Hurricane Helene relief funding, totaling $227 million, but not without concerns from Democratic lawmakers about the process behind Senate Bill 382.  Only 12 and a half pages of the bill are related to disaster relief. 

This week, Republican leaders rolled out a bill advertised as disaster relief for those suffering the impacts of Hurricane Helene. But much of its 131 pages focus on taking power from Democrats newly elected as governor, attorney general and state schools superintendent.

This week’s power-shift move emerged after election results so far show Republicans losing their supermajority in the state House, which means the legislation might not survive incoming Democratic governor Josh Stein’s likely veto if it was put to vote next year. The maneuver of substituting the text into bills that were already voted on allowed them to insert the new legislation in what is known as a conference report, a proposed law that requires only a single yes-or-no vote in both chambers. It also includes another effort by legislators to remove the governor’s control over the State Board of Elections, by shifting it to a newly elected Republican state auditor.

House Democrats and the public had little time to review the gutted bills that could usher in more power shifts favoring the Republican majority in the North Carolina General Assembly. The legislation, which wasn’t released until an hour before the chamber took up the bill on Tuesday night. passed, but not a single Democrat voted in support and three Republicans in Helene-impacted counties voted against.

One of them told Blue Ridge Public Radio the legislation hardly resembled a hurricane relief bill.  

“Well, I didn’t see anything in there that really did a lot for Western North Carolina,” said Rep. Mark Pless, R-Haywood. “I’m not sure why it had disaster in the title, and even I asked that that be removed.” The bill cleared the Senate on Wednesday in a party-line vote. [Source]

Some bill specifics include: 

• Require the governor to fill judicial vacancies from a list of recommendations provided by the political party of the departing judge, including N.C. Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. That would prevent Stein from picking a Democrat to replace a Republican judge who resigns or dies in office. Rep. Marcia Morey, D-Durham, says the bill would also eliminate judicial positions held by judges who ruled against the legislature in previous cases.
• Create new restrictions on the attorney general’s power to participate in lawsuits, namely those where action by the legislature is being challenged in court; Democrat Jeff Jackson won that office to succeed Stein, who at times declined to defend actions by the legislature he considered to be unconstitutional.
• Strip the lieutenant governor of the power to chair committees on energy issues. It would eliminate the state’s Energy Policy Council, which has been chaired by the lieutenant governor. And it would prevent the position from chairing a legislative committee on “energy crisis management,” a committee that only forms during the declaration of an energy crisis. Democrat Rachel Hunt will take over an already weak position of lieutenant governor after the GOP held that office for three terms.
• Make the State Highway Patrol an independent agency separate from the Department of Public Safety, which is part of the governor’s administration. The governor would still appoint the agency’s leader for a five-year term, subject to confirmation by the legislature.
• Prevent the governor from appointing a majority on the N.C. Utilities Commission by giving one of the governor’s current appointments to the state treasurer. The commission regulates public utilities like Duke Energy, and water and sewer systems.
• As Democrat Mo Green takes over from Republican Catherine Truitt as superintendent of public instruction, the office would lose the power to appeal decisions made by the board overseeing charter schools, and oversight of the Center for Safer Schools would be transferred to the State Bureau of Investigation. [Source]

Veto Override

The Republican-dominated North Carolina legislature completed on Wednesday its override of Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of legislation that both approves more funds for private school scholarship grants for recipients of all incomes and directs local sheriffs to comply with federal immigration agents’ requests to detain certain inmates.

The Senate voted to enact the bill despite Cooper’s objections, one day after the House voted for a similar result. Republicans hold veto-proof majorities in each chamber.

The bill, which is now law, means that a large windfall of funding — about $463 million — will be provided to the Opportunity Scholarship program in part to eliminate a waitlist of families who otherwise qualified beginning in the fall for grants to attend private or religious K-12 schools.

Cooper vetoed the omnibus bill in September, with his veto message focusing mainly on the private school vouchers. He said the large amount of money now and in the foreseeable future for the program would damage public schools that they say aren’t funded enough as is. He and other Democrats have also criticized Republican legislators for pushing the override instead of solely focusing on passing another relief package for western North Carolinians dealing with Hurricane Helene’s impact.

“We cannot afford this,” Sen. Natasha Marcus, a Mecklenburg County Democrat, said during the short Senate debate. “This is a budget-busting expense that more than doubles the already significant voucher program in North Carolina.” Marcus also said the program lacks enough accountability and gives money to religious schools that discriminate based on a family’s beliefs.

The immigration provisions have been contained in bills since 2019 that Cooper vetoed while the GOP lacked a veto-proof majority. Such a supermajority was restored in April 2023, leading to more than two dozen overrides since then.

The legislation’s supporters have repeatedly said it will keep communities safer by forcing sheriffs in predominantly Democratic counties to adhere to detainers. One of the bill’s sponsors and the likely next House speaker, Rep. Destin Hall, also referenced voters’ choice to reelect President-elect Donald Trump — who made concerns about illegal immigration a mainstay of his campaign — as a seeming mandate to push the legislation.

But opponents to the bill, which include several Hispanic advocacy groups, said it will put immigrant communities in danger of being unfairly targeted by law enforcement. “We will be working in the weeks to come to inform and prepare our community to face any challenges this new law will bring,” North Carolina-based El Pueblo said after the final vote while expressing its disappointment. “And next year, we will continue to fight for the rights of our immigrant community.”

The voucher money transfer takes effect immediately, while formal cooperation by sheriffs with ICE agents starts Dec. 1. [Source]

Supreme Court Recount

The North Carolina Supreme Court race is headed to a recount after incumbent Justice Allison Riggs, a Democrat, pulled ahead of her challenger, Republican Jefferson Griffin, by 625 votes after outstanding ballots were counted. Though Griffin had initially led Riggs by about 10,000 votes after Election Night, the race eventually flipped as provisional ballots were counted — putting Riggs in the lead.

Griffin submitted his request for a recount to the State Board of Elections on Tuesday. Second-place candidates in statewide races are permitted to demand a recount if the difference between them and the winner is less than 10,000 votes.

The recount must be completed by Nov. 27, which is the day after the state certifies the election.

Griffin, joined by the North Carolina Republican Party, sued the State Board of Elections on Monday, alleging that it was not providing election data quickly enough for him to meet deadlines to file protests.

Several other races are headed for recounts, including a race for the state House that appears to have broken the GOP supermajority. Rep. Frank Sossamon, a Granville County Republican, called for a recount in his race against Democrat Bryan Cohn. With all ballots counted, Cohn held a 233-vote lead over Sossamon. If the current results stand, Republicans will hold a veto-proof supermajority in the Senate, but will be one vote shy of a supermajority in the House.

The closest legislative election is in the Senate race between Republican Ashlee Adams, who led on Election Night by 38 votes, and Democratic Rep. Terence Everitt, who took a 134-vote lead once Wake County finalized its results.

Two Mecklenburg County races will also have a recount, including Republican Rep. Tricia Cotham’s race to keep her seat after switching parties last year. Cotham leads her opponent, Democrat Nicole Sidman, by 216 votes. Republican Stacie McGinn is requesting a recount in her Senate race against Democrat Woodson Bradley — who won by 204 votes. [Source]

Diversity Statements

Two universities in the UNC System received approval last week to change their mission statements to remove references to diversity. The move comes after the system Board of Governors in May repealed the public university system’s diversity, equity and inclusion mandates and replaced them with a new policy that requires campuses to maintain “institutional neutrality,” meaning they cannot take stances on political or social issues. But only one of the universities is tying the change in its mission statement to the DEI repeal.

The Board of Governors approved the new mission statements for UNC Charlotte and UNC Wilmington at a meeting Thursday, doing so without discussion. A committee had previously approved the changes in a virtual Nov. 7 meeting.

At UNC Charlotte, the university’s mission statement will no longer state that the university “is a diverse and inclusive institution.”

At UNC Wilmington, that school’s mission statement will no longer include a line that said the university’s “culture” reflected key values that included “diversity.” The change to UNCW’s statement had been in the works for over a year, with the university’s Board of Trustees approving it in July 2023. UNCW spokesperson Sydney Bouchelle told The News & Observer in an email that university leaders began considering a change to the mission statement as far back as the fall of 2021, and that the statement “was reviewed as part of the university’s strategic planning process.”

Asked if the university’s removal of the word “diversity” from the mission statement was related to the UNC System’s DEI repeal, Bouchelle replied: “No.”

But that’s not the case at UNC Charlotte, where a spokesperson said the change was directly related to the repeal and the university’s larger efforts to comply with the new policy.

In a statement to The N&O, Christy Jackson, UNC Charlotte’s deputy chief communications officer, said the university is in the process of updating its strategic plan to align with the new UNC System policy. “In anticipation of those necessary changes, we updated our mission statement accordingly,” Jackson said. [Source]

NCGA Adjournment Resolution Changes

HJR1081, Adjournment Resolution Changes, submits changes to the Joint Adjournment Resolution that the General Assembly will adjourn Wednesday, November 20 and reconvene December 2 and to officially close out the 2024 Short Session, December 13.   
 

2025 NASW-NC Legislative Agenda Survey

The NASW-NC Legislative Committee is seeking input into NASW-NC's 2025 Legislative Agenda. This Legislative Agenda will guide the legislative and policy work of NASW-NC in the 2025 long legislative session. 

The Legislative Committee will review results and submit a draft Legislative Agenda to the NASW-NC Board of Directors. A final Legislative Agenda will be announced in January 2025.

Click here to take the brief survey! Please submit your responses by Friday, December 6th.

Questions? Contact Lauren Zingraff, Director of Advocacy & Policy at advocacy.naswnc@socialworkers.org or 919-828-9650. 

Thank you to the members of NASW-NC for supporting the advocacy work we do. We would not be able to advocate for the social work profession or social justice issues in North Carolina without a robust and engaged NASW membership. If you are a social worker and not a member, we ask that you join NASW today. Our voice is louder with your membership.

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