By Avi Bajpai for the Raleigh News and Observer

The N.C. House of Representatives, convening for votes for the first time since lawmakers left Raleigh at the end of June, voted to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes of three bills.

Since legislative Republicans secured supermajorities in both chambers of the General Assembly in April 2023, they’ve overridden 22 vetoes issued by the Democratic governor.

Those bills have included major ones like new abortion restrictions, changes to election laws, a ban on gender transition surgery for minors, a repeal of the state’s permit law for buying handguns, and changes to the state’s masking and campaign finance laws.

The vetoes that the House voted to override on Wednesday involved two bills concerning, among other things, the operation of off-road vehicles and tenancy regulations. The third bill would prohibit state agencies or courts from accepting payments using a central bank digital currency, or participating in any test of a central bank digital currency by any branches of the Federal Reserve.

A few Democrats joined Republicans in voting to override each of Cooper’s vetoes, in votes that otherwise split along party lines.

Each bill will require a successful override vote by the Senate before it can be enacted into law over Cooper’s objections.

The Senate isn’t expected to convene this week, however, so the bills will remain vetoed until the upper chamber comes back and decides to take up the bills for override votes.

Vetoes awaiting action

There are two additional Senate bills that Cooper vetoed. Bills need to be taken up first for override votes by the chamber where they originate.

House Speaker Tim Moore told reporters on Wednesday that he expects the Senate to hold votes on the three bills the House acted on when the Senate returns, and also send the House the two bills it has, for override votes.

Both chambers agreed to adjourn this year’s “short” session at the end of June, after House and Senate Republicans were unable to reach an agreement on a new budget bill to make adjustments to the two-year budget they enacted over Cooper’s veto in October.

The preceding article originally appeared on July 31, 2024 at the Raleigh News & Observer’s website and is made available here for educational purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 106A-117 of the U.S. Copyright Law.