Legislative Watch: Hurricane Relief Approved
Last week, unanimous approval of a limited but bipartisan appropriations bill for emergency hurricane recovery provided welcome relief from the General Assembly’s usual partisan power plays.
In a one-day meeting that miraculously avoided most partisan rancor, legislators approved a $56.5 million down payment on Hurricane Florence recovery funding. Signing two related bills into law, Gov. Roy Cooper said, “The bills I’ve signed today help students and teachers, protect voter access and make an initial down payment on the cost of this recovery. When a storm rolls in, it doesn’t come with a party label and our response can’t either. I will continue working with legislators from both parties to help Florence survivors.”
The legislation authorized use of the immediate appropriation primarily as matching funds for federal disaster relief money.
This special legislative session is scheduled to reconvene next Monday, October 15, to consider more specific funding and policy requests related to the storm. We hope the spirit of cooperation will continue when the session resumes—but NCLCV will be there to urge environmentally friendly decisions in the event that more anti-environment proposals emerge.
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