NC House passes $500M in Helene aid, $100 boost to weekly unemployment checks
North Carolina Rep. Dudley Greene (R-Avery) urges the House to support a bill sending $500 million in aid to western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene on Feb. 25, 2025. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)
The North Carolina House approved a pair of key bills Tuesday, passing the next round of Hurricane Helene relief and an increase in the state's weekly unemployment payouts.
Both measures received bipartisan support; the Helene aid bill now heads to the Senate, where leaders have been quiet about their exact plans. The unemployment bill requires one more vote to pass the House.
House Bill 47, state lawmakers' third round of aid for western North Carolina, sends $500 million in new spending to the mountains. It passed the House unanimously.
The relief bill includes $150 million for a new homebuilding program, $150 million for agricultural relief and $100 million to repair private roads and bridges in the region.
Efforts by the legislature to get new money flowing have taken on a new sense of urgency with questions plentiful and mounting at the federal level, months after the storm. Officials had already expected months-long delays on money to rebuild homes. And reported White House cuts to key offices could further complicate another bundle of money arriving on time.
Rep. Dudley Greene (R-Avery), one of the lead sponsors of the bill, said it would address 'immediate needs' in the mountains.
'We all hope that that money will start flowing soon,' said Greene. 'But I fully expect that this won't be the last that will be needed. In this or future sessions.'
The bill marks the General Assembly's largest investment in Helene relief since mid-October, when it approved a $600 million aid bill. And it brings the state's total spending on Helene to about $1.1 billion.
Gov. Josh Stein and his fellow Democrats have continued to urge, without success, higher levels of spending in the latest round of aid. Stein requested $1 billion earlier this month, including money for a small business grant program and for schools to fund summer classes.
'We are five months out from this storm,' said Rep. Lindsey Prather (D-Buncombe). 'We've got to move quicker, and we've got to spend more. We have a rainy day fund for a reason. Let's use it.'
House Speaker Destin Hall (R-Caldwell) told reporters Tuesday that the current approach to sending aid allowed for further transparency on how the money has spent. Republicans remain wary of disaster relief after one of the offices leading recovery efforts in eastern North Carolina in response to past hurricanes ran up a major deficit.
'Instead of just passing one bill and sending all of that money to the governor in one go, we're going to have oversight of it over time,' Hall said.
It remains to be seen whether the Senate will make major changes to the aid bill. Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) said earlier this month that the chamber could either take up the House bill or begin moving its own.
The House also gave initial approval to a bill boosting the state's weekly unemployment payouts by $100 on Tuesday.
House Bill 48 would raise North Carolina's maximum weekly payment from the current $350 to $450. It earned initial approval in the House on a 115-1 vote.
The bill would mark the first increase in unemployment benefits since they were slashed almost a decade ago. Facing with repaying a federal loan from in the aftermath of the Great Recession, lawmakers in 2013 dramatically cut the total length of unemployment eligibility and capped the weekly payment at $350. Since then, North Carolina's unemployment benefits have been among the least generous in the country.
When first introduced, the bill increased the weekly payment to $400. A Democratic-led push to boost it further, to $450, found bipartisan support during the committee process.
The increase, if it becomes law, would spend around $584 million from the state's unemployment fund over the next five years, according to legislative staff's analysis. But the staff still expects the fund to 'continue to increase,' even with increased benefits.
After Hurricane Helene, former Gov. Roy Cooper issued an executive order increasing the maximum weekly unemployment check to $600. That order expires March 1.
The bill both ratifies that executive order while also declaring that the governor did not have the authority to issue it in the first place. Democrats have expressed concerns that the language could stop governors from moving to respond to future disasters effectively.
Rep. Deb Butler (D-New Hanover), the sole 'no' vote, said the bill was 'just another step in a rather calculated effort to undermine the balance of power in this state.'
'Let's allow our governor to use his best judgement during emergencies,' Butler said.
House Republicans have signaled that their party colleagues in the Senate may be less enthusiastic about the $450 figure. Berger told reporters earlier this month that 'we probably need to raise' the payment — but declined to commit to a specific amount.
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