NC House To Vote On Override Of Gov. Cooper's SB382 Veto

Source: MANDEL NGAN / Getty

This week, state lawmakers will be back in session, and the NC House could vote to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of Senate Bill 382.

ABC11 reports that the vote was originally scheduled for Monday (Dec. 9), but has been pushed to Tuesday.

The bill would direct $227 million from the state savings reserve toward Hurricane Helene disaster relief. However, it also includes a series of unrelated changes that would weaken the powers of the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and superintendent of public instruction – all offices that will go to the Democratic party in the new year.

Democrats slammed the bill, calling it the GOP’s last-ditch effort to strip the power of those offices before losing their veto-proof supermajority in January.

“I think this is definitely a way for Republicans to disenfranchise voters in every single way, shape and form that they can,” North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton said. “And what we should be nervous about the most is I think that they are trying to disguise this bill and not give it the fair amount of time that it would in the public eye as a normal piece of legislation.”

The Senate already voted 30-19 to override Cooper’s veto last week.

Upon the bill’s initial introduction in November, three House Republicans broke away from their party to join all Democrats in voting against it, according to WRAL.

If just one of the three Representatives – Mark Pless, Mike Clampitt, and Karl Gillespie – continues its opposition with the Democrats or skips the override, Cooper’s veto could stand. However, Republican leaders have said they expect all three to vote with the rest of the party.