Legislative Update from Rep. Iler February 1, 2021

Last week in the North Carolina General Assembly was the first week the members could file bills for this session.  We also got the final word on the committees to which we were assigned.

On Monday, the 25th, Speaker of the House Tim Moore published the list of House standing committees to which each member was assigned.  My committees and chairmanships include the following:

  • Chair – Transportation;
  • Chair – Appropriations on Transportation;
  • Vice Chair – Appropriations;
  • Vice Chair – Environment;
  • Member – Commerce; 
  • Member – Education K-12; 
  • Member – Election Law & Campaign Finance Reform; 
  • Member – Marine Resources & Aquaculture

Several members also began creating caucuses, less formal groups of members with common interests.  Our own Brunswick County member, Charlie Miller, is organizing the Law Enforcement Caucus, which I am joining.  I also notified the organizers of the Freedom Caucus and the Wine and Grape Caucus that I wanted to join their caucuses.  Why the Wine and Grape Caucus, one may ask? We have the Silver Coast Winery in our district just north of Ocean Isle Beach.

Several dozen bills are being filed, mostly local bills, some of which I will be cosponsoring.  One in particular would change the 20 week limitation on legal abortions to a limitation once a heartbeat of the baby is detected, which is normally before the 20 week term.  Another bill will appropriate funds from the federal CARES Act, which is coming for COVID relief.  I am working on several potential bills I want to introduce.

We will be starting committee work this week and starting floor votes on some of the time-sensitive bills.  February and March will see a flurry of activity as we get into the biennial state budget, and later, as we get into the drawing of new districts for the state House and Senate and the members of Congress.