Senate Democrats to push for vote on House Helene bill
This was first published by the North Carolina Tribune.
Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch came to her current post believing her caucus needs “to be more bullish” and aggressive in its approach to dealing with the chamber’s GOP supermajority.
It’s looking like we’re about to see just what that means.
On Monday, Batch’s office announced that Senate Democrats will launch a discharge petition to bring the latest Hurricane Helene relief package, House Bill 1012, to the floor for a vote.
This is the bill, you’ll remember, that makes $464.8 million in new appropriations to the cause of helping western North Carolina recover from the hurricane.
It includes, among other things, $60 million for “business recovery” grant program long favored by Democrats and western business leaders.
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The package cleared the House on May 22 on a 106-0 vote. But Senate Leader Phil Berger almost immediately hinted that Senate consideration of the package could get wrapped up in the chamber’s disputes with the House about budget priorities for the 2025-27 biennium.
He has since left himself room to walk away from that idea — more on that in a second — but Batch isn’t going to let anyone forget the Rockingham County Republican’s first impulse.
“Sen. 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,” she 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.”
The discharge petition process, her staff notes, is a rare move Senate rules allow to pull a bill from committee directly to the floor.
Its rarity is partly a function of its difficulty. Those using it have to clear multiple hurdles, the first of which passed on Monday with the 10th legislative day going by since Berger assigned HB 1012 to a committee.
The next step is getting two-thirds of all senators — at least 34 — to sign a petition asking for the bill to come to the floor. Suffice to say that can’t be done with just the chamber’s 20 Democrats. Petitioners would need nearly half the chamber’s Republicans to get on board.
But if they do, the petition would come to a floor vote, and once again, supporters would need two-thirds of the Senate to vote in favor of removing the bill from committee. And chamber rules say that’s “two-thirds of the membership of the Senate” — not merely of those senators those present and voting, the more customary standard.
If the petition is approved there, there would be another vote the next day on the bill itself.
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Berger acknowledged there’s little chance of getting a budget done by the end of this month, and that the chambers are likely to take a summer break.
That leaves open the possibility of passing a series of “mini-budget” bills, and Berger’s left the door open to dealing with Helene recovery in that manner.
“The sense within the Senate,” he said, “is that if we do adjourn at the end of the month without a budget, and we plan to come back at a certain time, that there are some things with reference to Helene recovery that we probably would need to do before we leave town.”
That apparently remains the case.
“Sen. Berger remains steadfast in his support for western North Carolina,” Berger spokeswoman Lauren Horsch said. “Senate budget writers are working on identifying budget measures that need to be accomplished before we adjourn for the summer, and that includes hurricane relief items. We anticipate taking up additional hurricane relief before we adjourn.”
By the way: Batch’s “be more bullish” comment appears in an upcoming Business North Carolina article about her accession to the caucus leader’s post. It’ll hit newsstands on July 1.