Latest news with #NCGA
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NC Senators spar over rewrite of bill intended to prevent the sexual exploitation of women, minors
Senator Sydney Batch (seated far left) questions the proposed committee substitute for HB 805. (Screengrab of NCGA videostream) House Bill 805 started as a bipartisan bill to fight human trafficking and provide women with an avenue to remove nonconsensual content and images from the internet. House members on both sides of the aisle felt so strongly about the issue, they passed the bill 113-0 last month. But when the bill ('Prevent the Sexual Exploitation of Women and Minors Act') moved to the upper chamber, Senator Buck Newton (R- Greene, Wayne, Wilson) saw an opportunity to rework the legislation. Newton's proposed committee substitute for HB 805, spells out there are only two sexes – male and female – and that gender identity shall not be treated as legally equivalent to biological sex. 'This section ensures that our state follows federal policy and aligns with President Trump's executive order,' Newton told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday. 'This ensures our state maintains eligibility for any and all federal funding.' Newton's proposal would ban the use of state funds for transgender surgeries for any prisoner incarcerated in the state prison system. The final section of Newton's PCS would require that when a person changes their sex on a birth certificate, the State Registrar must attach the new certificate to the original certificate of birth on file, preserving both copies. The state would also forward a copy of the new certificate to the register of deeds in the county of birth where both would be kept on file. 'What problem are we really trying to solve in terms of efficiency or cost savings?' asked Senator Sophia Chitlik (D-Durham). 'Well, there seems to be a great deal of confusion among our society about the fluidity of sex,' replied Newton. 'And it is time that we clarify, once and for all, what most people recognize would be obvious, which is that there are only two sexes.' 'I actually don't understand why this chamber is so obsessed with genitalia, but here we are,' said Sen. Sydney Batch (D-Wake) noting the new PCS does not allow for a definition that's based in science. Batch said the original House bill intended to safeguard women and children from exploitation by the pornography industry was a 'fantastic bill' and that Newton's proposal should be a standalone bill judged on its own merits. Senator Mujtaba Mohammed (D-Mecklenburg) questioned why the bill which once enjoyed unanimous support seeks to bar gender affirming care in the prison system. 'We reached out to our state agencies, and they confirmed that they've never authorized sexual procedures, there's never been gender affirming care, there's never been any authorized gender affirming surgeries,' Mohammed said. 'As a Republican, supporting limited government, why are we coming up with unnecessary laws?' Newton acknowledged while such medical surgeries had not happened yet using North Carolina funds, he believes taxpayers would appreciate that state funds will not be spent in this manner. 'We draw the line now, before anybody attempts to do such a thing.' Sen. Lisa Grafstein (D-Wake) said Newton's proposal reminded her of the hurricane Helene recovery bill – a clean bill that passed the House only to be muddied and politicized when it moved to the Senate. 'The idea that we're going to put into law that you cannot be transgendered, or that you cannot be all the things that you are railing against is a fool's errand,' said Grafstein. Reighlah Collins, Policy Counsel for the ACLU of North Carolina, said the PCS enforces rigid definitions of sex and gender, while forcibly outing people who change their sex on their birth certificate. 'These attempts are part of a larger strategy to push transgender people out of public life,' said Collins. Sen. Batch said she'd like to see the Judiciary Committee vote on the original House bill, setting aside Newton's additions. Rep. Laura Budd (D-Mecklenburg), a primary sponsor of the bill in the House, appealed to the Senate Judiciary Committee to remember the original intent of the bipartisan legislation. 'If you are the victim of human trafficking and there are images or videos of you online there is no remedy in the state of North Carolina to have those images or videos removed from the internet, which means that you're stuck,' said Budd. Budd said House Bill 805 was a long time coming and is an important tool to help women who've been taken advantage of to have these images removed and the videos taken down. Budd requested that Newton remove his proposal and find another avenue to advance his PCS. 'When we take this bill and we layer it with those things [in the PCS] we're not doing good for people with Carolina. We are imposing onto the bill things that are going to make it become the political football,' said Budd. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee adjourned Tuesday before voting on the matter. The bill is back on the agenda for Wednesday afternoon.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rep. Julie von Haefen on why both competing state budget proposals at the legislature come up short
State Rep. Julie von Haefen (Photo: NCGA) Well summer is here and with its arrival, the end of the state fiscal year will soon follow, and that means North Carolina legislators are under some pressure to pass a new state budget. Right now, however, despite complete Republican control of both the Senate and House, the two chambers remain far apart and that could portend a long hot summer at the Legislative Building. So, what's at the heart of the dispute and where do both budget proposals come up short? Recently to get a handle on these issues, how lawmakers got in this fix, and why the state might be better off if they listened for a change to some different voices, Newsline's Rob Schofield caught up with a Wake County lawmaker who's spent the better part of seven years trying to get her colleagues to open their minds to some new ideas, State Rep. Julie von Haefen. Click here to listen to the full interview with Rep. Julie von Haefen.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NC Senate panel endorses van der Vaart for Utilities Commission slot
Donald van der Vaart addresses Senators during his confirmation hearing on May 14, 2025. (Photo: NCGA screengrab) The North Carolina Senate Agriculture, Energy, and Environment Committee voted Wednesday morning to confirm Donald van der Vaart as a member of the North Carolina Utilities Commission, forwarding the resolution to the Senate Select Committee on Nominations. Appointed by Republican Treasurer Brad Briner, van der Vaart previously served as North Carolina's environment secretary. He's a climate skeptic who was considered for EPA administrator during the first Trump administration. Van der Vaart began his state government career with two decades in the state's Division of Air Quality. Republican Gov. Pat McCrory promoted him to secretary of the Department of Environmental Quality in 2015, NC Newsline previously reported. His term on the Utilities Commission, if confirmed, would start July 1 of this year and expire on June 30, 2031. The Utilities Commission is an agency responsible for regulating the rates and services of all investor-owned public utilities in North Carolina. It's the oldest regulatory body in state government, according to its website. At Wednesday's meeting van der Vaart was asked a handful of mostly friendly questions. 'What specific strategies do you think you'll employ to ensure your decisions remain impartial, evidence-driven, and resistant to any undue influence from any of the stakeholder groups?' Sen. Buck Newton (R-Greene, Wayne, Wilson) asked. Van der Vaart said he would rely on the structure that's currently in place, which includes a 'capable' staff that works independently. 'I'm very much interested in using the transparency to the public to provide a forum where free discussions can be not only had, but also viewed,' he said. He's faced criticism in the past due to a potential conflict of interest with his wife's work. Van der Vaart served as the chief administrative judge on a DEQ dispute over the regulation of a toxic chemical in September. His wife Sandra is chair of the North Carolina Chamber Legal Institute, a prominent lobbying group opposed to PFAS regulation, the Port City Daily reported. Newton also asked Van der Vaart to share his thoughts on Senate Bill 261, which would eliminate the interim goal for Duke Energy to cut its carbon emissions by 2030. 'A lot of times, goals and mandates get conflated. Do you see this as a goal or some sort of a mandate?' asked Newton. Van der Vaart said the interim goal does provide the state with 'offramps' if things don't go as planned. 'I think if you look back a little bit into this, you'll see that some of the load predictions and the requirements that were anticipated in the past turned out to be somewhat inaccurate. Now the 2050 goal appears to be a mandate,' Van der Vaart responded. Critics of SB 261 have argued that not having an intermediate goal could make it harder to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. The bill was fast tracked through the Senate in March, but has yet to see action in the House this session. Sen. Jay Chaudhuri (D-Wake) joked that van der Vaart may hold the most degrees out of all nominees in front of the legislature: a bachelor's in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Juris Doctor from North Carolina Central University, a master's in chemical engineering from North Carolina State University, and a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Cambridge. Chaudhuri also asked what van der Vaart thought was the most important role for the utilities commission. 'The most important role, despite the fact that we regulate a number of utility functions, is to deliver reliable and affordable energy within the confines that are mandated,' van der Vaart said. 'We need to work very hard to maintain the affordability of our electricity… If we didn't have a consumer advocacy function in North Carolina, then we would be ill served.' Asked about the rising demand for natural gas and pipeline capacity to meet industrial growth, Van der Vaart said this was an issue of critical importance in sustaining the electric grid. 'I think that one of my interests will be to determine and to convince myself that we have the kind of physical capacity and redundancy from a national security standpoint to be able to continue to deliver manufacturing support electricity and various other residential uses of natural gas reliably in the future.' Environmental groups and clean energy advocates have raised concerns about the build out of natural gas pipelines, amid worries about the impacts on water, air and habitats, and greenhouse gas emissions. Along with voting to confirm van der Vaart, the committee heard a resolution to approve Reid Wilson as the DEQ secretary, following appointment from Democratic Gov. Josh Stein. This portion was 'discussion only' and the panel did not take a vote. Wilson formerly served as secretary for the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources from 2021 to 2024. Before that, he was DNCR's chief deputy secretary from 2017 to 2020. He's been serving as DEQ secretary on an interim basis while awaiting confirmation. Clayton Henkel contributed to this report.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hundreds of bills never stood a chance this legislative session. They had one thing in common.
Democratic leader Robert Reives notes that more than 700 Democratic-sponsored bills never received a hearing this session. (Photo: NCGA screengrab) North Carolina House and Senate Democrats held a funeral of sorts Tuesday, highlighting the hundreds of bills they introduced this session that were then directed to the Rules Committees of the two houses, the proverbial legislative graveyard. Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch (D-Wake) said Democrats introduced over 700 bills this session that were killed in committee. 'Common sense, community focused solutions to our state's biggest problems — and they went nowhere,' Batch said. 'Republicans didn't debate or defeat these ideas. They shoved them in drawers, locked them behind doors, and they prayed every single day that the public never finds out how little they're actually doing with their tax dollars that you will send to this state to run our government.' Batch said gerrymandering has allowed Republicans, who chair the committees, to completely control which bills advance and which never see the light of day. Sen. Woodson Bradley (D-Mecklenburg) said she came to Raleigh hoping to make communities safer, only to find her ideas silenced by the majority party. 'I may be a freshman senator, but I'm also a domestic violence survivor. I'm a responsible gun owner and concealed carry holder. I'm the daughter and wife of law enforcement. I know crime. I know cops. But more important than that, less than 5% of the people in this building know what it's like to be a victim. And that's who I came here to help,' said the Mecklenburg County Democrat. Bradley said the ideas she championed were basic protections and deserved to be fully debated. 'We hear a lot from the other side about protecting families and standing with law enforcement. But if you won't even bring a bill to the table that protects survivors of abuse or helps officers prevent gun violence, what are you standing for?' Sen. Lisa Grafstein (D-Wake) said that even ideas that had merit like allowing remote license renewals to ease the NC DMV backlog were dismissed, if the idea came from a Democrat. 'Democrats introduced real solutions for fixing what ails us in state government, hiring critical staff, investing in the infrastructure behind state services. But Republicans actually didn't want to fix it. They wanted to exploit the failings to support their talking-point that government doesn't work.' Senate Bill 611 would have taken an estimated one million North Carolinians out of lines at the DMV allowing them to complete their task online, said Grafstein. But Republicans kept the bill bottled up and allowed it to die rather than make the May 8 crossover deadline. 'The Republican majority would rather have people stand in line all day and get frustrated because it fits that narrative that we just need to slash more and privatize.' Rep. Lindsay Prather (D-Buncombe) said bills that would restore teacher longevity pay and establish a $17 an hour minimum salary for non-certified public school employees also failed to gain traction. Legislative leaders also dismissed both the Voucher School Accountability Act and the Voucher School Transparency Act. 'These are bills that would shine a light on private schools receiving public funds, giving more information to parents to make an informed decision, and more information to taxpayers on whether your money is actually going to provide a quality education to a North Carolina student.' Prather said decisions not to take up those bills shortchanged North Carolina's children and their parents. As a Captain in the US Army National Guard, Rep. Dante Pittman (D-Wilson) said he has learned not to surrender. He's still advocating this session for the Working Families Act (House Bill 786) that would raise the state's minimum wage, increase the stock of affordable housing and reenact the child tax credit. 'Not all hope is lost. And I would offer for them to take these good ideas and include them in the budget. Because what we're trying to do here in North Carolina is make sure that our children have the opportunity that they need and our families are secure.' The North Carolina House will begin the process of unveiling parts of its state spending plan on Thursday.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rocky Mount mayor announces candidacy in NC's 1st Congressional District
Configuration of the 1st Congressional District for the 2024 election (Source: NCGA) Republican Rocky Mount Mayor Sandy Roberson announced he is running for Congress in the 1st District where U.S. Rep. Don Davis is serving a second term. Laurie Buckhout, Davis's 2024 Republican opponent, has endorsed Roberson. Davis, a Democrat, narrowly defeated Buckhout in the eastern North Carolina district that Republicans in the state legislature redrew in 2023 to make it easier for a Republican to win. The mostly rural district is considered the state's only toss-up. Roberson's campaign announcement echoed the themes Buckhout emphasized in her own campaign: the border, fentanyl, and the economy. 'I'm running for Congress because North Carolinians deserve a representative who isn't afraid to take on the tough issues,' Roberson said in a statement. 'In Congress, I'll stand with President Trump to secure our border, stop the flow of deadly fentanyl into our region, and unleash the American economy to benefit the citizens of North Carolina's First District.' Roberson's announcement said he's committed to spending at least $2 million of his own money 'to help jumpstart his campaign.' Roberson lost a bitter primary for the 2022 Republican nomination to Sandy Smith. A super PAC linked to the U.S. House Republican leadership spent about $600,000 to support Roberson in that primary. Roberson loaned his 2022 primary campaign more than $1 million, according to FEC filings.
