Legislative Update from Rep. Iler — September 17, 2024
After a late summer break, the North Carolina General Assembly convened last week. The purposes for bringing us together included the passage of a mini-budget focused on education, as well as to override several bills the Governor had vetoed.
House Bill 10 – Require ICE Cooperation & Budget Adjustments had passed the House and Senate previously as a bill to require sheriffs to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when they ask local authorities to detain illegal alien lawbreakers in their custody. New provisions were added to fully fund public school and community college enrollment, and fund opportunity scholarships to aid school choice by students and parents. These were part of the original adjusted budget for 2024-2025 which stalled in negotiations and has not passed.
The ICE provision is a huge public safety issue. Most sheriffs detain and transfer illegal alien lawbreakers to federal ICE custody for federal enforcement and possible deportation. This would impact only a very few sheriffs out of 100 in N.C. who are not already enforcing ICE detainers. This can safeguard the officers and the illegal immigrants from dangerous situations, because they then have to be tracked down and re-arrested out in the public or in our neighborhoods.
House Bill 10 passed the House 67 – 43 with 3 Democrats joining all Republicans present and voting. Having already passed the Senate 27 – 17, it was presented to the Governor for his signature on Wednesday, Sept. 11th.
In addition to the mini-budget in House Bill 10, the House was able to override the Governor’s veto on Senate Bill 166 – 2024 Building Code Regulatory Reform. It is detailed, and it passed on a bi-partisan vote of 70 – 40 and became law. The Senate was active on veto overrides, also. On Monday, they successfully overrode his veto on three House Bills: HB 155 – Titles for Off-road Vehicles/Low Speed Vehicle Inspection; HB 556 – Tenancy in Common/E-Notary/Small Claims Changes; and HB 690 – No Central Bank Currency Payments to State. They passed by the required three-fifths vote and became law.
We expect to be home in our districts the next few weeks during the campaign season, but possibly have one-day sessions to override more vetoes.