North Carolina Senate Democrats are demanding a vote on the latest round of Helene relief. Last month the House unanimously passed House Bill 1012, the Disaster Recovery Act of 2025 – Part II. This piece of legislation would appropriate $464.8 million to western North Carolina to help counties recover from the destruction of Hurricane Helene.
Though it passed the House in late May there has been no action on the legislation in the Republican-led Senate. Senate leader Phil Berger (R- Rockingham) has said that the legislation could be wrapped into conversations on the state budget, which recently reached a dead end and is not expected to be passed before the legislature’s summer break.
Minority leader Sydney Batch (D- Wake) argued that the people of western North Carolina cannot afford to wait. “Senator Berger wants the legislature to recess for two months while hurricane survivors are still living in uninhabitable homes, facing washed-out roads and waiting for their classrooms to reopen,” Batch said. “He may be ready for a vacation, but our neighbors in western North Carolina don’t get to take a break from this crisis.”
Monday, Batch’s office announced that Senate Democrats plan to begin the discharge petition process, which is a move Senate rules allow to move a bill that has been sitting in committee for more than 10 days to go from a committee directly to the floor in order to force a vote on the bill. A discharge petition requires two thirds of the chamber members to pass, which cannot be done with Democrats alone.
However, after Batch’s office announced they would be attempting a discharge petition, HB 1012 was scheduled for a Senate committee on Appropriations/Base Budget. The move resets the timer for Democrats who will now have to wait another 10 days of the bill being in committee to file for a discharge petition.
This push by Democrats for disaster relief funding comes at a time when federal funds for disaster recovery are being cut, withheld, or denied. Governor Stein’s request for FEMA to fully reimburse the state for debris cleanup has been twice denied. FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which assists states to better mitigate the damage of natural disasters by building better infrastructure, was abruptly ended this year. Along with ending the program, the new head of FEMA, appointed by President Donald Trump, announced that he would be canceling the billions of dollars congress already approved to be sent to states for the program, upending communities goals to rebuild.
Governor Josh Stein, in a statement in May following the release of his second Helene relief budget proposal, said that it is time for the state to be bold when it comes to relief. “We’re coming up on eight months from the storm. That’s more than enough time to comprehend just how much we lost during Hurricane Helene,” He said. “And in the face of so many unmet needs and unanswered prayers, it is time for the State of North Carolina to be bold.”
“The storm’s impact is so much more than a number. It’s people’s lives. It’s cherished communities. It’s traditions and hopes for the future.”
