NC governor vetoes anti-DEI, transgender rights bills
With the anti-DEI bills — Senate Bill 227, Senate Bill 558 and House Bill 171 — the GOP-led state legislature sought to eliminate what it called 'discriminatory practices' in public education with threats to cut funding and to prevent local and state government agencies from promoting or maintaining DEI programs or policies.
Stein, in his veto messages, said the bills were 'riddled with vague definitions.'
'Our diversity is our strength. We should not whitewash history, ban books, or treat our teachers with distrust and disdain,' he wrote in one veto. 'Rather than fearing differing viewpoints and cracking down on free speech, we should ensure our students can learn from diverse perspectives and form their own opinions.'
In another, the first-term governor suggested the legislation would 'make it harder' for the state to provide high quality services to its residents.
'My administration is focused on building the strongest team possible by hiring and supporting the best employees. We cannot recruit and retain them without creating a welcoming work environment,' Stein wrote. 'We make our most effective decisions when there is a diverse set of perspectives around the table.'
The fourth bill, House Bill 805, included a provision to prevent state-funded gender affirming surgeries or hormone therapy for prisoners. It also includes language recognizing only two genders and would require the state to keep a transgender person's original birth certificate attached to any updated one.
The effort follows similar moves in conservative states and at the federal level. President Trump, upon his return to office, issued several executive orders that targeted federal DEI programs and diversity initiatives in public education as well as sweeping actions against transgender athletes and service members — though his moves have faced legal action.
The bills now head back to the North Carolina General Assembly, where Republicans need support from 60 percent of both chambers to override Stein's veto. The state House is one seat short of a veto-proof majority, and no Democrats voted for the anti-DEI bills, The Associated Press reported.
State Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger (R) vowed to continue fighting for the legislation in a post online, suggesting the governor 'chose to bow down to a radical ideology that harms women.'
'He's choosing to ignore the clear will of the people who are tired of politically correct nonsense,' Berger wrote on social platform X. 'I'm prepared to lead the Senate in overriding Gov. Stein's vetoes and stand up for the North Carolinians he claims to represent.'
State House Speaker Destin Hall (R) echoed the remarks, claiming he 'vetoed this bill and sided with radical activists over the overwhelming majority of North Carolinians.'
'We will keep fighting,' he posted on X.
The Associated Press contributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
27 minutes ago
- The Hill
Sunday shows preview: Trump signs ‘big, beautiful bill' into law; ‘No progress' made on Russia-Ukraine ceasefire
President Trump scored a significant legislative win this week by signing the 'big, beautiful bill,' a massive reconciliation package that will extend the 2017 tax cuts and features cuts to Medicaid, which will likely be the focus of this week's Sunday shows. The president signed the bill at the White House on the Fourth of July, right in time to meet the deadline Trump and his aides imposed months ago. 'We made promises, and it's really promises made, promises kept, and we've kept them. This is a triumph of democracy on the birthday of democracy. And I have to say, the people are happy,' Trump said on Friday. The legislation is loaded with the president's promises from the campaign trail, including getting rid of some taxes on some tips and Social Security. The bill also ups the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap. The package is allocating $150 billion to fund immigration enforcement, deportations and the border wall. The bill will also expand the production of coal, natural gas and oil, while slashing green energy incentives. The debt ceiling will go up by $5 billion. The measure also contains $150 billion for spending on the 'Golden Dome' missile defense project and building ships. Democrats have criticized the package, with the bill featuring a reduction for nutrition programs and leading to substantial cuts to Medicaid. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Thursday that by passing the 'big, beautiful bill, we are gonna make this country stronger, safer and more prosperous than ever before, and every American is going to benefit from that.' Johnson is scheduled to be on 'Fox News Sunday' where he will likely discuss the process behind passing the legislation through the House and the next priority for the lower chamber. The United States added 147,000 jobs in June, beating economic expectations. The unemployment rate remained at 4.1 percent. Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, saying he made 'no progress' in brokering a ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv. The president later on Thursday told reporters that he was 'very disappointed' with his call with the Russian leader, adding that he does not think that Putin is 'there. I'm just saying, I don't think he's looking to stop, and that's too bad.' The Pentagon paused some shipments of air defense missiles and munitions to Ukraine. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, is slated to be on 'Fox News' 'Sunday Morning Futures' where he will likely talk about the weapons halt. Here is the full list of Sunday shows below: NewsNation's 'The Hill Sunday': Ret. 4-star Navy Adm. William McRaven; Princeton University legal professor Robert P. George; the executive director of No One Left Behind Andrew Sullivan and the vice president of civic education at the National Constitution Center Julie Silverbrook. ABC's 'This Week': Dr. Rich Besser; former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and the Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers Stephen Miran. CNN's 'State of the Union': Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent; Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D). NBC's 'Meet The Press': Actor Olivia Munn; sports broadcaster Bob Costas; the founder of Khan Academy Sal Khan and poet Amanda Gorman. CBS' 'Face the Nation': Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) and director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett. 'Fox News Sunday': House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.); Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.); Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Bessent. 'Fox News' 'Sunday Morning Futures': House Ways and Means Commitee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.); U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.).
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
An isolated Iran looks to BRICS for allies, testing a new world order
Behind the scenes, divisions over how harshly BRICS should condemn the strikes have tested the alliance's ambitions to rebalance global power dynamics by offering a counterweight to the West. Advertisement 'There is no alignment whatsoever on Iran,' said Oliver Stuenkel, an expert on BRICS and an associate professor at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, a Brazilian university. 'So the solution was this very inoffensive position.' BRICS was founded in 2009 with the goal of increasing the influence of the world's biggest emerging economies. The group has since grown to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. Unlike NATO, where military cooperation is central, the group has focused on an economic and geopolitical agenda, though it has struggled to make significant strides on many of its concrete goals, serving so far as a mostly symbolic alliance. Advertisement Analysts expect Iran to use the upcoming summit as an opportunity to shore up more forceful support from the group, particularly in a communique expected to be issued at the end of the meeting. Iran has confirmed it will send a delegation to Brazil, though it is not yet clear who will represent the country or whether it will hold bilateral meetings with members such as Russia and China. 'The optics of being part of the BRICS is very important' for Iran right now, said Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House. But within the group, diverging views on the recent attacks on Iran have highlighted the challenges posed by the alliance's rapid expansion, adding members with competing visions of the bloc's role on the global stage. 'It does make consensus more difficult to have more countries around the table,' Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr., an economist and former vice president of the BRICS development bank. China and Russia see BRICS as a way to challenge the United States' influence on geopolitics and decision-making, and have pushed the group to grow in size. Russia called the US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites an 'unprovoked act of aggression,' while China urged 'restraint' and dialogue. Brazil, which is hosting the summit, condemned the attacks, while trying to avoid souring its relations with the United States, its second-biggest trading partner after China. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has resisted pressure from Russia and China to position BRICS as an anti-Western alliance, analysts said, instead casting the bloc as a way to give developing nations more say. Advertisement 'Brazil is not looking for trouble,' Stuenkel said. 'It is much closer to the United States than to Iran. It has no reason to buy into this fight.' India, another country with close ties to the United States, has also diverged on issues such as the Iran strike. South Africa and Ethiopia have been similarly cautious about alienating the West. This is not the first time that the group has experienced internal division in the face of conflict. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the alliance struggled to agree on a common stance, critiquing the West's imposition of sanctions on Moscow without addressing Russia's role in the war. President Vladimir Putin will not attend the gathering in Rio in person but will join virtually, Russia's state media reported. There is a warrant for his arrest related to the invasion of Ukraine that was issued by the International Criminal Court, to which Brazil is a signatory. In a first, China's leader, Xi Jinping, will also skip the summit, after meeting with Lula in Beijing in May and attending the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro last year. China's premier, Li Qiang, will travel to Brazil instead. Brazil holds the BRICS presidency, and Lula had hoped to cement his nation's image as a leader in pursuing an agenda focused on fairness in global governance and financial systems. But with the conflict involving Iran as a backdrop, analysts say the group will have a hard time forging a united front. 'I just hope we don't see the progress made last year being undone,' said Batista, the economist. Advertisement This article originally appeared in
Politico
an hour ago
- Politico
How Trump's Very MAGA Tax Cuts Break with GOP Tradition
For decades, Republicans have extolled the virtues of removing loopholes and carveouts from the tax code, arguing it would make the system fairer and more efficient, while allowing for lower overall tax rates. 'The tax code is littered with hundreds of preferences and subsidies that pick winners and losers and create complexity,' House Republicans led by then-Speaker Paul Ryan and then-Rep. Kevin Brady, said in their 2016 tax plan. 'Instead of free-market competition that rewards success, our tax code directs resources to politically favored interests, creating a drag on economic growth and job creation.' Fast forward to the present day, and one thing is for sure: President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill is not an exercise in tax simplification. Instead, it began with a push to extend the party's 2017 tax cuts — which despite some streamlining also introduced some complexity — and piled more on top, in line with a slew of presidential campaign promises. Add in a heavy dose of congressional politics, and the result was a sprawling and quirky piece of legislation that is distinctively Trumpy: lower taxes and a bigger pile of tax breaks. 'It's certainly a departure from what Republicans were trying to do in 2017 and broadly a departure from what Republicans have been arguing for decades about tax reform,' Kyle Pomerleau, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, told me. The question, though, is not just whether doing your taxes is complicated and annoying. It's whether that complexity serves a particular purpose. For example, a provision in the GOP bill allows businesses to deduct expenditures on machinery and equipment entirely from their taxes, which could both encourage investment and support Trump's reindustrialization goals. For other key parts of the bill, several economists I spoke with worried it is the worst of all combinations: increasing the debt to pay for tax breaks that lead to neither growth nor other economically useful outcomes. 'I don't want to say it's vote-buying because that's probably a normative statement that is outside of my wheelhouse, but … there's not a lot of pro-growth stuff,' said Kent Smetters, a University of Pennsylvania business professor who serves as the faculty director of the Penn Wharton Budget Model. Take, for example, Trump's popular campaign promises of no tax on tips and no tax on overtime. In some cases, those provisions simply reward people for their existing lifestyle. In others, it might lead businesses to restructure how they pay their employees. It's obviously great news either way for the employees who benefit. It's just unclear why the government is choosing to reward these particular subsets of workers over others. (It is presumably not an accident that Trump promised this tax perk to voters as he was pushing in the last election to win Nevada, a state where many hospitality and gaming industry workers rely on tipped income.) And cutting taxes without finding some way to offset the lost revenue — either by closing loopholes to broaden the scope of people and businesses that are taxed, like in 1986, or through some other method — leads to increased debt that can itself be a drag on growth. After all, investors are lending the money to the U.S. government rather than doing something else with it. And even after spending cuts, the new GOP tax law is still expected to add trillions to deficits over the next decade. 'The money has to come from somewhere,' said Alan Auerbach, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. In that sense, the tax cuts under President George W. Bush weren't the ideal way to structure policy either, as they mostly just lowered rates while increasing the debt. But this bill? 'It's worse than the Bush tax cuts because the scale is so much bigger, and there's a lot more weird stuff in it,' Auerbach said. The gargantuan scale and eccentricity of the tax package is a reflection, above all, of the president who propelled it into law, and it reveals how much the Republican Party has changed under his leadership. In the 2016 GOP policy document, under Ryan and Brady's direction, the party cited tax reform legislation passed in 1986 — which decreased the number of tax brackets, slashed deductions and lowered rates — as a guiding light, saying the party's goal was to 'replicate and build upon this achievement.' But this is now the party of Donald Trump, not Ronald Reagan. Trump, ina 1999 Wall Street Journal op-ed, referred to the bipartisan 1986 law as 'an offense against the working man,' decrying the removal of certain deductions as 'predictably disastrous.' Now the Trump administration needs to defend the law and all its peculiarities. Joe Lavorgna, who works at the Treasury Department as a counselor to Secretary Scott Bessent, said many critiques of the new law miss the point. A critical priority for Trump, he said, was avoiding the expiration of the 2017 tax cuts, which would have led to higher tax rates and therefore slower growth. He said language that allows people to deduct the interest they pay on auto loans for American-made cars, for example, will help boost the goal of having a 'vibrant, healthy' domestic car industry. Lavorgna also said the provision removing taxes on overtime will lead to more output. 'Anything that incentivizes people to work an extra hour because they're not going to be taxed on it or be taxed at the same rate' creates benefits for the economy, he said. 'It's not a giveaway. They're creating something.' As for no tax on tips? That will 'help people who have been under significant cost of living pressure,' he said. Ultimately, what's clear is that cutting taxes is still the centerpiece of the Republican Party — the rallying cry that could bring together a fractious governing coalition. But tax reform? That conservative dream seems to have died quietly.
