2025 NASW-NC Legislative Session Update: NC General Assembly on Spring Break

In this week's update:

• NC General Assembly on Spring Break 
• Take Action Now to Protect Medicaid! 
• NC judges rule against GOP plan to strip governor of election board appointments         
• US appeals court pauses NC elections board action in the Supreme Court election case
• NC Senate to cut North Carolina’s Innocence Inquiry Commission
• May Day is International Workers Day
• 2025 Aging Advocacy Day
• Social Work Compact Passes NC House 
• NCGA Bills to Watch 
• NASW-NC Clinical Institute 

NC General Assembly on Spring Break 

The North Carolina General Assembly was on Spring Break the week of April 21-25, 2025.  This meant there were no NC House, Senate or their staff members present at the Legislative Building or Legislative Office Building.  There were no committee meetings or floor votes.  Normal calendar operations resume on Monday, April 29th .  While the NC Senate has released their budget, the NC House still has to release their proposed version of the FY 2025-2027 Budget.  The final Bill Crossover between both chambers is May 8, 2025. 
 

Take Action Now to Protect Medicaid! 

Millions of Americans count on Medicaid for their health care – don’t let Congress cut this vital resource for American families! #ACTNOW! American families deserve better. Please join #NASW in our fight for the Medicaid program and for the health and well-being all Americans deserve. Contact your members of Congress today and tell them to vote against any proposed cuts to the Medicaid program.
https://www.votervoice.net/NASW/campaigns/125164/respond

NC judges rule against GOP plan to strip governor of election board appointments

A panel of judges on Wednesday struck down a GOP plan to wrest control of North Carolina’s election boards from Democratic Gov. Josh Stein and transfer it to the Republican state auditor.

In a 2-1 ruling, a Republican and Democratic judge in Wake County Superior Court agreed with Stein that the power shift, which was passed in the final days of the GOP’s veto-proof supermajority, violated the state constitution.

“The Constitution prevents the legislature from unreasonably disturbing the vesting of ‘the executive power’ in the governor or the governor’s obligation to take care that the laws are faithfully executed,” the majority opinion, authored by Judges Edwin Wilson and Lori Hamilton, says.

Had it not been for the court’s intervention, newly-elected Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek would have gained control over the boards on May 1, making him the only auditor in the country with election oversight powers.

Over the last eight years, the Republican-controlled legislature has made numerous attempts to wrest control of the State Board of Elections away from the governor. All of those schemes were defeated by either courts or voters.

Their latest attempt, passed as part of a sweeping power shift bill called Senate Bill 382, gave the power to appoint a majority of the board’s members to the state auditor — a position which has just been won by a Republican after Democrats held the office for 16 years.

Wednesday’s ruling is a win for Democrats who, for now, will be able to retain a 3-2 majority on the State Board of Elections, as well as all 100 county boards of elections.

“The North Carolina Constitution puts the Governor in charge of executing the law,” Stein said on social media after the ruling. “That’s what the voters elected me to do, so that’s what I’ll do.”

However, Boliek quickly said in a statement he would appeal the ruling. An appeal would be heard by the state’s Republican-dominated appellate courts, which have previously backed other efforts by the legislature to expand its power.

Similarly, Senate leader Phil Berger said he’s “taking immediate steps to rectify this constitutionally corrosive and misguided ruling.”

“Two lower court judges just erroneously pronounced nine duly elected, statewide members of the executive branch nothing more than honorary figureheads,” he said in a statement.

In a dissenting opinion, Judge Andrew Womble, a Republican, argued that the legislature is the closest branch of government to the people and therefore has broad authority to assign responsibilities from the governor to a different official in the executive branch.

“The decision to assign the duty of appointment of members to the Board of Elections to the auditor is one the General Assembly was expressly authorized to make,” he wrote. “As result, the governor cannot show that Senate Bill 382 neither impedes his ability to take care that the laws will be faithfully executed nor violates the separation of powers clause.”

Lawyers for Republican legislative leaders, who defended the law in court, made similar arguments in a hearing last week.

Attorney Jim Phillips, who represented Stein, noted that elections were not traditionally a power within an auditor’s purview. “For 150 years, the auditor ain’t ever had nothing to do with elections,” he said.

The majority agreed, writing that while the legislature can prescribe some duties to executive officers, their power was “constrained by the people’s understanding of the purpose of those offices when they were created.”

(Source: NewsandObserver.com) 

US appeals court pauses NC elections board action in the Supreme Court election case

A federal appeals court ordered the State Board of Elections not to send information to overseas or military absentee voters about providing photo ID, granting a stay that Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs requested. It’s the latest development in the nearly six-month-old dispute over last November’s election for an associate justice seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court.

Federal District Judge Richard Myers II told the Board of Elections earlier this month to prepare to act on the state high court’s instructions to notify some military and overseas absentee voters they need to supply photo ID for their votes in last fall’s election for a seat on the high court to count. 

Tuesday’s 2-1 Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals order stops that action before Myers makes a decision on Riggs’ request for a preliminary injunction. 

The state Supreme Court agreed with GOP Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin that military and overseas absentee voters in certain counties should have had to provide photo ID when they cast ballots in last fall’s election. 

Griffin is trying to unseat Riggs, an incumbent Democrat on the Supreme Court. He trails by 734 votes. In an attempt to win, he wants thousands of votes in the race erased. He is challenging overseas and military voters in a handful of counties. The Supreme Court rejected Griffin’s attempt to throw out more than 60,000 votes based on his claim of incomplete voter registrations. 

The Supreme Court said overseas and military voters would have 30 days to “cure” their ballots once the Board of Elections sent out notices. 

Riggs filed a federal appeal. Myers told the Board of Elections to get to work implementing the Supreme Court order, but to not certify a winner. 

Judges Paul V. Niemeyer, appointed by President George H.W. Bush, and Toby J. Heytens, appointed by President Joe Biden, decided to grant the stay. Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr., appointed by President Donald Trump, dissented. 

The state Board of Elections told local elections administrators last week not to contact overseas or military voters, citing the ongoing litigation.

(Source: NCNewsLine.com)

NC Senate to cut North Carolina’s Innocence Inquiry Commission

North Carolina’s Innocence Inquiry Commission — a small state agency that investigates prison inmates’ claims that they were wrongfully convicted — would lose all funding under a budget proposal approved Wednesday by the North Carolina Senate. 

The commission has exonerated more than a dozen people wrongfully convicted of murder, rape and other serious crimes since its creation in 2006. Senate Republican lawmakers say it hasn’t handled enough cases to be worth the investment in a year when they’re trying to cut costs. 

The group has also long faced opposition from police and prosecutors around the state whose work and ethics have been called into question by many of the exonerations; those groups have lobbying arms influential among GOP politicians.

Leaders of the commission, which this week secured the release of another man wrongfully convicted for murder, say they provide a valuable service to the falsely convicted that other non-governmental organizations can’t. 

“We open up the road when they reach a dead end,” said Laura Pierro, the commission’s executive director.

Pierro said she was shocked by the funding cut in the Senate’s budget proposal. 

The chamber gave final approval to the chamber’s $32.6 billion spending plan with a 30-15 vote on Wednesday, a day after long debate and an initial approval that lasted into the evening. The proposal now goes to the state House of Representatives, which is expected to eventually present its own spending priorities. From there, the two chambers will hash out a final budget. 

The commission has 13 full-time employees, and a total annual budget of $1.6 million — approximately 0.005% of the state’s overall budget. Senate lawmakers have been trying to slash costs across state government to accommodate planned state tax cuts. 

Sen. Danny Britt, R-Robeson, said the commission has failed to handle enough cases in its 18-year existence. He pointed to other nonprofit organizations that have also been working on exonerations and suggested they could take up the commission’s work. 

“They could do that with no expense to the state,” Britt said Tuesday during a Senate appropriations committee meeting. “That’s why we chose that cut.”

Pierro pushed back Wednesday, pointing out the commission has far more legal power than a nonprofit to subpoena witnesses, conduct DNA testing, and look for evidence that law enforcement may claim has disappeared or been destroyed. 

“It makes all the difference in the world,” Pierro said. 

The commission — which was the first of its kind in the United States — has reviewed at least 3,500 claims of innocence since it was created with bipartisan support by the General Assembly in 2006. In that time, it secured the release of 16 people wrongfully convicted of crimes. Those 16 people served a total of 300 years in prison. “What we do is we search for the truth,” Pierro said.

The agency’s most recent exoneration was announced Tuesday. A three-judge panel ruled Clarence Roberts was wrongfully convicted after serving eight years in prison on second-degree murder charges. 

The commission has also worked on other high-profile cases, including the eventual exoneration of Greg Taylor, who was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1993. It also secured the exoneration of Leon Brown and Henry McCollum, two intellectually disabled brothers framed for the rape and murder of a young girl by authorities in Robeson County who pressured them into signing false confessions; DNA evidence later identified the real killer.

Pierro is hopeful the state House will take a different view. A spokesperson for House Speaker Destin Hall didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.  

“I ask you to give me an opportunity to reintroduce you to the commission, so that you really understand what we do, how we do it, and the benefit we provide to all North Carolinians,” Pierro said.

(Source: WRAL.com)

May Day is International Workers Day 

On May Day (Thursday, May 1st, 2025) Common Cause North Carolina is proud to join a broad coalition of organizations demanding a democracy that puts our families over their fortunes — public schools over private profits, workers over bosses, migrant safety over fear-mongering, healthcare over hedge funds, housing over homelessness, and thriving communities over bombs and genocide. 

Raleigh, NC
Click here to RSVP today!
4:00 PM Gather at Halifax Mall, 300 N Salisbury St, Raleigh, NC 27603
5:00 PM March to Bicentennial Plaza 

Western NC
Click here to RSVP today!
1:00 PM at the Henderson Co Courthouse, 200 Grove St. Hendersonville, NC
3:00 PM at Pack Square Pavilion, 80 Court Plaza Asheville, NC 

(Source: Common Cause North Carolina) 

2025 Aging Advocacy Day

Wednesday, May 7
NC General Assembly 

This advocacy rally is hosted by AARP North Carolina, NC Coalition on Aging and Friends for Residents in Long Term Care and provides the opportunity to make your voice heard. You will have the opportunity to meet with lawmakers and observe the legislature in action. 

Click above to register for this important event. Plan to arrive in Raleigh at 8:30 a.m. on May 7 for a group rally at the State Library of North Carolina (auditorium) that is located at 109 E. Jones Street and adjacent to the Legislative Building. The program will begin at 8:45 a.m. Public parking is available across the street from the library. 

If your schedule allows following the 2025 Advocacy Day on May 7, join the Celebrate Older Americans Month event at the NC State Farmers Market from 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Click Here to Register! 

Social Work Compact passes NC House

The Social Work Interstate Licensure Compact Bill (HB231) was heard on the House Floor on Tuesday, April 1, for its final vote in the House, and it passed unanimously with a floor vote of 116-0. The week prior, NASW-NC staff had been at the General Assembly ensuring that HB 231 passed favorably in both the House Finance Committee and the House Rules Committee. 

The North Carolina legislation (SB155 and HB231) would allow licensed clinical social workers to apply to provide their services across multiple states. A comprehensive data system would also be created so the public could be kept safe and informed regarding a social worker’s current license status and any adverse actions associated with a licensed clinical social worker.

NASW-NC's top priority for the 2025 legislative session is the passage of the Social Work Interstate Licensure Compact. NASW-NC has been the driving force behind this bill, and was the only organization in North Carolina to work to introduce the bill in both chambers of the NC General Assembly.

NASW-NC has worked tirelessly for the last two years to secure the 40 primary and co-sponsors in both the Senate and House of Representatives for the Social Work Licensure Compact.  NASW-NC would like to thank all of HB 231's sponsors and co-sponsors for their leadership and support in getting this bill passed.⁠

HB 231 has been referred to the NC Senate. NASW-NC will continue to monitor and advocate for the bill’s passage. NASW-NC will also continue to advocate for SB 155 - the companion bill of HB 231 to be heard in Senate Finance Committee and eventually in a floor vote in the NC Senate.

NASW-NC is also working to advance HB 523 – School Social Workers/Master’s Pay. This is the second 2025 NASW-NC Legislative Agenda priority item that has been introduced as a bill in the House. This bill will most likely be voted through House Education and referred to Appropriations, where it will be included in the House Budget. We are working on getting support in the Senate.

NASW-NC is the ONLY organization lobbying and advocating for the entire Social Work Profession at the North Carolina Legislature. The NASW-NC lobbying team would not exist without the incredible support of NASW-NC membership. If you are already a member of NASW-NC, THANK YOU. Our members are the only reason that we have been able to do this work! 

NASW-NC is not federally funded; we are not state funded. We are funded by the members of NASW and will not exist to advocate for you and the social work profession without YOU!  We are able to do more if we have a large voice and robust membership. If you are not yet a member, please join NASW and join us in our advocacy efforts.

Follow updates on the Social Work Compact in the NC General Assembly here. 

NCGA Bills to Watch 

SB 155 (HB 231): The Social Work Interstate Licensure Compact works to increase access to social workers and this bill would add North Carolina into a compact where social workers from other states who meet requirements within the bill can serve North Carolinians.  Click Here for how you can support passage of the Social Work Compact. 

HB523: School Social Workers/Master's Pay.  This bill will restore master's level pay for school social workers. 

HB171: Equality on State Agencies/Prohibition on DEI. This bill will eliminate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives and prohibit public funding for DEI initiatives in state and local government.

SB558: Eliminating "DEI" in Public Education Higher Ed. This bill will ban Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”) content and programs in public colleges, universities and community colleges.

HB690: The Citizens Support Act. This bill requires multiple state agencies to verify immigration status and/or take measures to prevent undocumented immigrants from accessing public services.

HB560: Parents Protection Act. This bill focuses on protecting parents and guardians from accusations of abuse or neglect related to how they raise children, particularly in relation to a child's biological sex.

Action Alert on HB560: https://www.votervoice.net/NASWNC/campaigns/125714/respond
 

HB 636: Promoting Wholesome Content in Schools  This bill bans books in public school libraries. 

Voter Voice Bill Tracker

NASW-NC has created a page to keep members up to date with legislative developments regarding the Social Work Interstate Licensure Compact, restoring master’s level pay for school social workers, and other bills related to the social work profession.

NASW-NC is currently keeping an eye on more than 100 bills that, if passed, may impact the social work profession and the populations we serve. You can view all of the bills NASW-NC is tracking at the NC General Assembly HERE. 

2025 NASW-NC Clinical Institute 

The Clinical Social Work Institute is one of NASW-NC's flagship conferences, offering 1.5-hour workshops for both advanced and beginning clinical social workers. Past attendees have shared that the workshops offered are an enhancement to their practice and areas of specialization. The conference welcomes Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSWs) from across North Carolina, with others joining in from other states and a few from other countries. 

May 12-13, 2025
Virtual 
Up to 31 hours of CE Live and Recorded 

Registration Fees:
Members $125
Not yet a member? $250
 

REGISTER HERE TODAY 

Thank you to the members of NASW-NC for supporting the advocacy work we do. We would not be able to advocate for the social work profession or social justice issues in North Carolina without a robust and engaged NASW membership. If you are a social worker and not a member, we ask that you join NASW today. Our voice is louder with your membership.

Learn more about NASW-NC membership here.

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