NC Legislative Update
By Cady Thomas
Activity Updates
NCGA Schedule
The NC General Assembly took their July 4th break starting July 1 and returned July 13. As such, very few committee meetings or floor votes have been held since our last update.
Through the end of July we expect the session to be a bit slow as there are many legislative conferences happening that the leadership of both the House and Senate will attend.
Bills and Legislation
State Budget
During the July 4th break the House budget writers continued to work on their response to the Senate’s Budget passed June 25. When asked about the timeline for seeing the House’s budget, Speaker Tim Moore said “I’m hoping by the end of the month, but it might be the first week of August.”
SB 105 included funds for the Be Pro Be Proud program to begin in North Carolina. All indications from the House are they will also include those funds.
In a session that ended in the early morning hours of July 15, the House passed HB951 which will change energy policy in NC for the next decade and beyond. The specifics of the bill are laid out in the Summary prepared by the NCGA staff. However, the part of the bill considered most controversial centers around the natural gas mandates.
COVID
Numbers
Numbers as of July 11:
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1,020,833 total cases
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13,512 deaths
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487 currently hospitalized
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5.5% percentage of positive tests each day
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56% of adult population fully vaccinated
Delta Variant
As our number of positive tests are increasing, NC officials are keeping a close eye on the Delta variant. More information in this article.
Other Important Items
Another change is coming to Governor Cooper’s Cabinet. Secretary of the Department of Public Safety Erik Hooks has announced his retirement as of August 1, 2021. No replacement has been named yet.
