Bishop William Barber speaks at a press conference on Nov. 25, 2024. (Photo: Christine Zhu/NC Newsline)
A coalition of North Carolinians gathered at the Legislative Building on Monday to highlight what they called the “anti-democratic policy violence” contained in a 131-page bill approved last week by Republican legislative supermajorities.
The General Assembly shepherded Senate Bill 382 through both legislative chambers last week, framing the measure as a third round of relief to western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene.
Lawmakers made the legislation public only an hour before it went to debate in the House on Tuesday. The Senate passed it on Wednesday.
Only 13 pages of the bill, however, are about disaster relief funding. The rest target myriad topics which Democrats frame as last-minute power grabs in the lame duck session before Republicans lose their supermajority in the state House of Representatives in January.
Click here to read a summary of the bill.
Without their current supermajorities in both houses, GOP legislators will likely not be able to override Democratic Gov.-elect Josh Stein’s vetoes as easily as they have with Gov. Roy Cooper.
“The people of North Carolina will witness the brazen seizing of power by the House and Senate Republicans,” Rep. Maria Cervania (D-Wake) said. “It is a frenzied attempt to steal power while they can.”
The bill now sits on Cooper’s desk.
The coalition was led by former Goldsboro pastor and current President and Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, Bishop William Barber, and joined by an array of progressive advocacy groups including Forward Justice, the NC Poor People’s Campaign, Democracy NC, Blueprint NC, the NC Black Alliance, and others.
Barber, who gained national attention a decade ago for leading weeks of “Moral Mondays” civil disobedience at the Legislative Building in protest of the then-Republican majority’s actions, denounced the current legislature for performing what he described as a “coup” and a “cover-up” leading to “policy violence” in the new bill.
He condemned Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson for clearing out the Senate gallery as spectators gathered to watch floor debate and voiced their displeasure. He also blasted lawmakers for pushing through the document as a conference report to avoid publicity and the possibility of amendments from their Democratic peers.
“The corrupt legislative leadership in Raleigh is trying to change the structure of government,” Barber said. “It is an attempt by a supermajority to use that majority to thwart the will of the voters, and they are doing it in a lame duck session.”
Barber and other advocates applauded the three House Republicans who voted against the bill last week: Majority Whip Karl Gillespie (R-Macon), Rep. Mike Clampitt (R-Swain), and Rep. Mark Pless (R-Haywood), all of whom represent districts in western North Carolina.
To some, this defiance from party lines meant even Republicans were aware of the power grab.
“There is no room to play with the disaster that’s happening in western North Carolina, even if you try to come back and remedy those three individual lawmakers who told the truth the first time,” Advance Carolina executive director Marcus Bass said.
Barber encouraged people of all backgrounds and political parties to return to Jones Street next week and fill the galleries as the legislature convenes on Dec. 2. He also encouraged a mass mobilization of North Carolina on Dec. 9.
That way, they’d be able to show their opposition to the “injustices” brought forth by Senate Bill 362.
“We are calling for all people of moral consciousness who know how wrong this is to be in the gallery,” Barber said. “We’re calling on everybody in this state who disagrees with this kind of aggressive power grabbing that is not democratic.”