NC House & Senate at odds on Helene aid, with $535M relief package on brink of passage
The North Carolina Legislative Building (Photo: Clayton Henkel)
The North Carolina House and Senate are out of step on the legislature's newest Hurricane Helene relief package, sending the bill to joint negotiations as it sits one step away from the governor's desk.
House Bill 47, the legislature's $535 million aid deal, will head to a conference committee. The House voted to reject the Senate's changes to the bill on Tuesday, forcing members from both chambers to sit down and hammer out a compromise.
'When the bill came back … we feel like there's some additional language added, some things taken away that we need to discuss further,' said Rep. Dudley Greene (R-Avery).
The House originally passed the bill in late February. By the time it made it through the Senate, several major changes had been made. Among them: the removal of money for state park repairs, and an extension of relaxed building codes.
Rep. Eric Ager (D-Buncombe) said he supported the move to reject Senate changes, but urged lawmakers to move swiftly.
'I think the most important thing is that we get this money out there quickly,' Ager said.
Greene said members of both chambers would be going to conference 'as quickly as possible.'
The bill lays out $535 million in new state spending for Helene recovery efforts. And it sends $217 million to ReBuild NC, the long-struggling homebuilding program, to finish construction projects from post-Hurricanes Matthew and Florence.
After passing the Senate, the bill included $192 million in agricultural relief, $140 million for a homebuilding program, and $100 million for private road and bridge repairs, among a number of other line-items.
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