NC Senate overrides Cooper on limits to racial topics at work — and on 3 more vetoes
North Carolina’s Republican-dominated Senate voted to override four vetoes from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper on Tuesday, with one a dispute over how state employees can discuss race and gender at work.
That vote was 30-18 along party lines, enough to override the veto with a three-fifths majority of votes. Two Democrats were absent.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have Republican supermajorities. If the House also overrides Cooper’s veto on that and the other three bills, the bills would become law. That would make six successful veto overrides this session.
Senate Bill 364 would prohibit “compelled speech” and the promotion of certain concepts in the workplace and in hiring. Some of its rules for state workers mirror previously vetoed legislation that would have changed how teachers are allowed to talk about race and gender in public schools. Republican state lawmakers and the UNC Board of Governors have sought to prevent “compelled speech” in college hiring, as well.
SB 364 would prevent state employees from asking job applicants questions about their “beliefs, affiliations, ideals, or principles regarding matters of contemporary political debate or social action as a condition of employment.”
Sen. Warren Daniel, a Burke County Republican, said on the floor before the override vote that “this bill is about encouraging, ensuring diversity of thought in the state of employment.”
Racist incident cited
When Cooper vetoed the bill on Friday, he cited the recent racist incident on the House floor in which a white lawmaker, Rep. Jeff McNeely, asked a Black lawmaker, Rep. Abe Jones, if he got into Harvard University because he was a minority or an athlete. Jones, a Raleigh Democrat, defended his academic record, and McNeely, an Iredell County Republican, apologized on the floor and again privately.
Cooper said that the legislature shouldn’t be “pretending that bias and racism don’t exist,” and said the legislation “attempts to eliminate training that can help us understand the unconscious bias we all bring to our work and our communities.”
“It is troubling that a legislature that witnessed open racism on the floor of the House of Representatives wants to stop training aimed at creating a more effective and understanding workforce,” Cooper said Friday in announcing the veto.
The bill would prevent state government agencies and institutions from promoting in the workplace, or including in any training, 13 concepts that include that “One race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex; An individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive or “bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex;” or “should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress.”
In a tweet Tuesday morning, Cooper said: “GOP Senate is rushing to override my vetoes of bills that hit consumers with higher interest rates and fees, try to eliminate unconscious bias training & take money from small communities that are late on audits instead of helping them. These are the wrong priorities for NC.”
Wood, Folwell supported revenue vote
The other vetoes overridden were for Senate Bill 331, which amends the Consumer Finance Act; Senate Bill 329, which amends the Retail Installment Sales Act; and Senate Bill 299, which would let the state penalize local governments that are late to file audits by withholding some sales tax revenue from them, The News & Observer reported.
On Tuesday, State Auditor Beth Wood, a Democrat, and State Treasurer Dale Folwell, a Republican, issued a joint statement supporting a potential override vote of SB 299. They said they were “disappointed” in the veto that passed with bipartisan support in both chambers.
They said they see “the leadership of many counties and municipalities perennially failing to submit audits on time to the LGC. When the leadership of governmental units fail to submit timely audits, the state has no insight as to whether they are in financial difficulty,” Folwell and Wood said.
“The taxpayers hurt by this lack of transparency are often those on lower and fixed incomes,” they said.
The Senate overrode Cooper’s veto of that bill 31-16.
The votes to override SB 329 and SB 331 were 31-16 and 30-16, respectively.
Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters after the overrides that he didn’t think they have held four override votes in one day since Republicans have been in power. He said there were multiple reasons for adding the three other vetoes to the calendar on Tuesday, which had just one override vote scheduled before the session began.
“Some of it had to do with scheduling. We had some members that had some commitments that may not be here tomorrow, or next week. And so we had the numbers, talked to our members — they wanted to move forward. So we went ahead and did it today,” he said.
Republicans have already successfully voted into law two bills this year over Cooper’s vetoes. They repealed the state’s requirement to get a permit to buy a handgun. And once Republicans gained a supermajority, they created a new law banning most abortions after 12 weeks.
This story was originally published June 20, 2023 at 5:40 PM with the headline "NC Senate overrides Cooper on limits to racial topics at work — and on 3 more vetoes."
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