The final day to file legislation in the State House has just passed, and lawmakers rushed to get their bills in before the deadline. The deadline to submit legislation for the state Senate has already passed. Now, with both the House and Senate filing periods coming to an end, with both chambers filing almost 2,000 bills combined, the legislators have laid out their priorities for the session, ranging from education to public safety and voting changes. Here’s a look at a few of the bills that made it in on the final day of filing.
Education
Many of the bills filed this session by both democrats and republicans had to do with education, whether it be teacher pay, school operations, or even course content. House Bill 912 would provide teachers with an additional $500 to teach in the district where they grew up. These additional funds are meant to work as an incentive for teachers to work in more rural areas that may not be able to afford to pay teachers as much. The bill has gained support. A similar bill, House Bill 943, appears to have the same end goal, but by funding a non-profit, the North Carolina Foundation for Public School Children, that works to turn students into teachers.
Lawmakers also filed bills regarding the operations of a school. House Bill 878, entitled “Increased Academic Transparency”, would increase the public’s access to teacher lesson plans and learning materials. House Bill 875 calls for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to make various changes to how math is instructed in public schools. And House Bill 985, “Increase Punishment for Assaulting Teachers”, does at its title suggest and increases penalties for students who assault school staff and volunteers.
Healthcare
Healthcare has been a talked about topic politically on both the state and federal levels. From transgender medical care to abortion rights, the main political stage has been riddled with discussion on healthcare. In the state we have seen a number of bills relating to transgender individuals, most notably which is Senator Vickie Sawyer’s Senate Bill 516, titled “Women’s Safety and Protection Act,” which is reminiscent of the infamous House Bill 2, also known as the bathroom bill, that cost the state billions in business. Sawyer’s bill calls for the state to recognize only two genders and to require people to use the bathroom corresponding to their biological sex. These bills were filed some time before the deadline. However, on the final day of filing, lawmakers brought forward House Bill 1,000, which would allow individuals who receive gender reassignment surgery to sue their doctors if they later regret the surgery.
Then there is the matter of abortion, which has been a prominent topic since the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and since our state shortened the amount of time available for a legal abortion. The most notable bill of the session relating to abortion was brought forward by Republican Representative Keith Kidwell. House Bill 804 would make abortion after conception illegal with no exceptions of rape or incest. The only exception in the bill would be to save the life of the mother, making it one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. However, that bill, which was filed earlier in the session, won’t be making it to committee, according to House Speaker Destin Hall. Regardless, that didn’t deter other republicans from filing a different bill that aims to tighten abortion restrictions even further. House Bill 844, filed right before the deadline, would ban abortion after six weeks, halving the current time, and would also make various changes to parental rights and foster care in the state.
Public Safety
Public safety has been in the spotlight of North Carolina politics often this year, with legislation aimed at loosening gun laws being pushed by Republicans despite opposition from the public and law enforcement.
For the last day of filing, weapons were left out of the conversation as lawmakers focused on other public safety measures. House Bill 852, for example, would ensure higher penalties for dog owners if their dog were to get loose and injure a person or farm animal. Legislators also filed legislation that would affect the rules of the road in the state. House Bill 903 would increase the fines applied when an individual passes a stopped school bus, and House Bill 864 would allow cops to give tickets to drivers who are driving too slow in the left lane of a highway.
