Hundreds of bills never stood a chance this legislative session. They had one thing in common.
Democratic leader Robert Reives notes that more than 700 Democratic-sponsored bills never received a hearing this session. (Photo: NCGA screengrab)
North Carolina House and Senate Democrats held a funeral of sorts Tuesday, highlighting the hundreds of bills they introduced this session that were then directed to the Rules Committees of the two houses, the proverbial legislative graveyard.
Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch (D-Wake) said Democrats introduced over 700 bills this session that were killed in committee.
'Common sense, community focused solutions to our state's biggest problems — and they went nowhere,' Batch said. 'Republicans didn't debate or defeat these ideas. They shoved them in drawers, locked them behind doors, and they prayed every single day that the public never finds out how little they're actually doing with their tax dollars that you will send to this state to run our government.'
Batch said gerrymandering has allowed Republicans, who chair the committees, to completely control which bills advance and which never see the light of day.
Sen. Woodson Bradley (D-Mecklenburg) said she came to Raleigh hoping to make communities safer, only to find her ideas silenced by the majority party.
'I may be a freshman senator, but I'm also a domestic violence survivor. I'm a responsible gun owner and concealed carry holder. I'm the daughter and wife of law enforcement. I know crime. I know cops. But more important than that, less than 5% of the people in this building know what it's like to be a victim. And that's who I came here to help,' said the Mecklenburg County Democrat.
Bradley said the ideas she championed were basic protections and deserved to be fully debated.
'We hear a lot from the other side about protecting families and standing with law enforcement. But if you won't even bring a bill to the table that protects survivors of abuse or helps officers prevent gun violence, what are you standing for?'
Sen. Lisa Grafstein (D-Wake) said that even ideas that had merit like allowing remote license renewals to ease the NC DMV backlog were dismissed, if the idea came from a Democrat.
'Democrats introduced real solutions for fixing what ails us in state government, hiring critical staff, investing in the infrastructure behind state services. But Republicans actually didn't want to fix it. They wanted to exploit the failings to support their talking-point that government doesn't work.'
Senate Bill 611 would have taken an estimated one million North Carolinians out of lines at the DMV allowing them to complete their task online, said Grafstein. But Republicans kept the bill bottled up and allowed it to die rather than make the May 8 crossover deadline.
'The Republican majority would rather have people stand in line all day and get frustrated because it fits that narrative that we just need to slash more and privatize.'
Rep. Lindsay Prather (D-Buncombe) said bills that would restore teacher longevity pay and establish a $17 an hour minimum salary for non-certified public school employees also failed to gain traction.
Legislative leaders also dismissed both the Voucher School Accountability Act and the Voucher School Transparency Act.
'These are bills that would shine a light on private schools receiving public funds, giving more information to parents to make an informed decision, and more information to taxpayers on whether your money is actually going to provide a quality education to a North Carolina student.'
Prather said decisions not to take up those bills shortchanged North Carolina's children and their parents.
As a Captain in the US Army National Guard, Rep. Dante Pittman (D-Wilson) said he has learned not to surrender.
He's still advocating this session for the Working Families Act (House Bill 786) that would raise the state's minimum wage, increase the stock of affordable housing and reenact the child tax credit.
'Not all hope is lost. And I would offer for them to take these good ideas and include them in the budget.
Because what we're trying to do here in North Carolina is make sure that our children have the opportunity that they need and our families are secure.'
The North Carolina House will begin the process of unveiling parts of its state spending plan on Thursday.
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