Attorney General Jeff Jackson said he joined a legal challenge to the federal funding freeze out of concern for “widespread and immediate damage” to North Carolinians. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)
Senate Republicans surprise with sudden vote on presidential executive orders
Republicans in the North Carolina Senate, in an unexpected Wednesday vote, approved a bill that would ban Attorney General Jeff Jackson, a Democrat, from challenging presidential executive orders.
Senate Bill 58 forbids the state’s attorney general from filing “any action” or making “any argument” that would invalidate an executive order from the White House. It comes just months after Jackson won the AG’s office, defeating Republican Congressman Dan Bishop.
Sen. Timothy Moffitt (R-Henderson), the bill’s sponsor, has called it “housekeeping,” arguing that policy battles in the courts fall outside the AG’s purview.
“I just think that anything that would rise to a level of concern, this General Assembly is capable of interceding,” Moffitt said in February.
Democrats blasted both the bill itself and the unexpected motion to debate Wednesday.
“With this bill we kneel to the president,” Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed (D-Mecklenburg) said. “And with this bill, North Carolina will always kneel.”
And Sen. Graig Meyer (D-Caswell) said if party control was reversed, “I would do not this.”
“That’s easy to say,” Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) told reporters in response after the vote. “It’s easy to criticize. So, I mean, I take him at his word.”
The vote on the measure was added suddenly to the Senate’s calendar on Wednesday. Democrats said they were given notice only after the afternoon floor session commenced.
It was approved 28-17, along party lines. One more vote is needed to send the legislation to the House; that vote is scheduled for Tuesday.
In the first months of his tenure, Jackson has joined lawsuits against the federal government over the potential exposure of North Carolinians’ personal information to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, an attempted freeze on wide swaths of funding from the National Institutes of Health, and most notably, an order by Trump purporting to end birthright citizenship in the United States. Federal judges granted relief to the states in every challenge.
NC Newsline’s Brandon Kingdollar contributed reporting.
Mangled railroad tracks and damaged buildings wrought by Hurricane Helene can be seen along the French Broad River on October 3, 2024 in Marshall, North Carolina. Helene caused more than $59 billion in damages to the state. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)Summer school money, more farm aid added to Helene relief as latest bill inches closer to passage
The state Senate passed new spending for Hurricane Helene relief on Wednesday, adding money for summer school programs and boosting the amount of agricultural aid in the half-billion-dollar spending package.
House Bill 47, the legislature’s third dedicated relief bill for western North Carolina, also sends a final bundle of money to finish post-hurricane homebuilding efforts for in the east. The bill, passed unanimously in the Senate, now returns to the House for final approval.
The bill lays out $545 million in new state spending for Helene recovery efforts. And it sends $217 million to ReBuild NC, the long-struggling homebuilding program, to finish construction projects from post-Hurricanes Matthew and Florence.
“I appreciate the fact that it was a unanimous vote here in the Senate, and looking forward to the House concurring with the changes that we’ve made,” Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) told reporters.
Among those changes are an additional $4.5 million to fund summer schooling for districts in western North Carolina. Gov. Josh Stein had requested the money, previously absent in the bill, to help students who missed weeks of classes after the storm catch up.
Senators also added more money to agricultural aid, making it the largest line-item in the bill at $192 million. That money will fund a crop loss program, as well as debris removal on farms.
Other major spending includes $140 million for a new homebuilding program, $100 million for private road and bridge repairs, and $55 million for local governments to repair business infrastructure.
Senate Democrats voted in support of the bill, but lamented a continued lack of money for small business grants and rental assistance. Sen. Julie Mayfield (D-Buncombe) questioned why the bill’s extensive aid to farmers couldn’t be extended to other industries.
“That is frankly a distinction I do not understand,” Mayfield. “Nor does anyone in my district.”
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