Just when we thought the legislative calendar couldn’t be fuller, our leadership decided that we would finish the long session last week. So the calendar filled up with more than 200 bills and we stayed six days instead of the usual four with some sessions lasting until midnight. The Tuesday session was the first to [...]
It was interesting last week in the House not having the budget to deal with. The budget bill, House Bill 200 – Appropriations Act of 2011, was in the Senate last week. Even after it was voted out of the House, everyone still wanted to question, criticize, and second-guess the allocation of funds we had [...]
Last week could be called “Budget Week” in the North Carolina House of Representatives. With all six of the Appropriations Sub-Committees having voted their budgets out to the full House Appropriations Committee, it was time to prepare amendments to the full budget. So, on Wednesday, the full committee (all 88 of us) met from 8:30 [...]
Being in Raleigh last week was like being in the eye of a hurricane. Bills were blowing through committees, coming to the House floor for heated debate, and moving back and forth from the House to the Senate and back. All the while, the Governor was vetoing three of our key bills in four days. [...]
Last week in Raleigh was known as much for interesting committee hearings as for the historical legislation that came to the floor of the House. On Tuesday, the House Transportation Committee, which I was chairing, heard many speakers on House Bill 422 – No High-Speed Rail Money From Federal Gov’t – This bill would not [...]
Many interesting bills were in committees and on the House floor last week. Many bills of local and state-wide interest are still in committee, including the photo I.D. bill, the charter school bill, and the terminal groin bill. The Joint Appropriations Sub-committees are still meeting every morning on the budget, and the Appropriations Chairs are [...]
A good description of last week in the N.C. General Assembly would be “fast-paced activity.” Committees were meeting constantly. On Tuesday, my schedule was full from 8:30 to 6:00 with eight hours of committees and a floor session. The 2:00 P.M. Elections Law Committee lasted four hours. Previously, at Monday night’s floor session in the [...]
The big news last week revolved around the possible override of the Governor’s veto of House Bill 2 – Protect Health Care Freedom, the hearing in the House Education Committee on Senate Bill 8 – No Cap on Charter Schools, and the impending passage in the Senate of Senate Bill 110 – Permit Terminal Groins. [...]
