As the N.C. General Assembly looks to resume business
as usual next week, advocates face numerous complications with respect to their
typical in-person interactions, all related to COVID-19 safety measures. While
the legislative complex will be open to the public, members of the public will
have their temperatures taken prior to entry,
legislative
leaders announced. Leaders also outlined other limitations on the typical
ways that advocates conduct their business, including encouraging social
distancing practicing, discouraging lingering inside the buildings and meeting
rooms, limiting attendance in committee rooms to 50 percent, and utilizing the
complex’s largest meeting rooms only.
As a result, during the session advocates and other members
of the public will likely follow most legislative business via online audio and
video feeds. For example, the House will continue its recent practice of
conducting its committee meetings remotely, with legislators participating via
online meeting software. However, in contrast, the Senate scheduled its
committee meetings next week to take place in person.
In further indication that the legislature intended to
resume to its non-COVID business, this week marked deadlines to file all bills
except local bills, which must be filed by Tuesday. Of the 163 bills filed this
week, an unusual pattern emerged. Members of the Republican majority in both
chambers only filed a combined 24 percent of the bills, excluding bills filed
due to the bill sponsors’ positions as chairs of interim committees or
appropriations committees. Further indicating that legislators may conduct
business differently this session than in the past, only the House’s chief
budget writers filed bills this week that could be used later as the large
state budget bill. This development likely signaled that the Senate might not
be engaging in overall budget negotiations this session.
Please refer to
the League’s bill
tracking list for the full complement of bills filed this session that are
of most interest to cities and towns. Bills added to the list this week
addressed priority topics for cities such as broadband authority for local
governments, housing and utility assistance, and
the merging of recent
land use and planning legislation with the new Chapter 160D statutes. Another
bill of note was
SB 739 Personal Delivery
Device/PDD/Delivery Robots, which would authorize the use of
robots for package delivery. More specifically, this proposal would prevent
local governments from regulating these motorized devices, while at the same
time, it would impose state-level regulation on operating delivery robots on
streets and sidewalks.
