Last week in the North Carolina General Assembly was devoted almost entirely to voting to override the Governor’s veto on some of the key bills that we had passed and voting on the redistricting maps for the U.S. Congress, the N.C. House and N.C. Senate. There were actually few bills on which to vote, but [...]
After more than a month away from regular business in Raleigh, this week it is time to return for scheduled votes in House floor sessions. The past two weeks have been taken up with “skeleton sessions” and no votes so that bills could be read in and sent to committee. The biggest issues have dealt [...]
The Senate committees working on the budget (House Bill 200) have completed their work and the budget on the calendar for floor action on Tuesday of this week. By Wednesday it may be finished in the Senate and sent back to the House for concurrence. The Senate version of the budget has been on the [...]
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 [...]
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 notable for the long debates on several bills. This started Monday night with House Bill 129 – Level Playing Field/Local Gov’t Competition. When a local town or county gets into the business of providing digital broadband as one of its services to their citizens, this bill provides that they have [...]
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. [...]
The budget was on everybody’s mind and their agenda last week. We received the Governor’s budget the previous Thursday, so every morning at 8:30; all six of the joint appropriations sub-committees were meeting to work on the House version of the budget. As a member of the House Appropriations Sub-committee on Transportation, we are slightly [...]
Each week at the General Assembly in February seems to be busier than the previous week. More bills are coming out of committee and to the House and Senate floor each day. Committees are meeting more frequently to get their work done. Last week began with Governor Perdue’s State of the State address on Monday [...]
The third week of the 2011 session in the General Assembly continued to be very busy. Appropriations sub-committees, all six of them, began meeting with their full memberships every morning, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. They are joint meetings with the Senate, so Senator Rabon and I are both in the Transportation meeting as vice-chairs of [...]
