North Carolina General Assembly · 2025–2026 session
Showing 313–336 of 2,338 bills
Introduced by Sophia Chitlik
The Make Enf. Liable & Transparent (MELT) Act would require judicial warrants (rather than administrative warrants) for federal immigration enforcement in North Carolina, repeal a 2025 law expanding jail cooperation with immigration authorities, provide $4 million in grants to immigrant legal services organizations, establish transparency requirements for law enforcement (facial coverings, identification, body cameras), prohibit immigration enforcement in courthouses, schools, hospitals, and places of worship, and create penalties for impersonating federal officers.
Criminal Justice & Public Safety
This bill aims to improve food allergy safety in North Carolina schools by requiring at least one full-time nurse in every school, establishing statewide training programs for staff on recognizing and treating anaphylaxis, requiring medical action plans for students with diagnosed medical conditions, and prohibiting food at school celebrations (with limited exceptions). The bill allocates $92 million in recurring funds for school nurses and $300,000 for developing training materials.
Education
Introduced by Larry Strickland
This bill creates the North Carolina-Ireland Trade Commission, a seven-member commission administratively housed in the Department of Commerce. The commission's duties are to encourage bilateral trade and investment between North Carolina and Ireland, promote cultural and educational exchanges, and submit annual reports to the General Assembly, with $10,000 in funding appropriated for administrative services in fiscal year 2026-2027.
Business & Labor
Introduced by Zack Forde-Hawkins
This bill establishes the Learning and Enrichment in Afterschool Programs (LEAP) Advisory Council and Grant Program within the Department of Public Instruction. It creates a $19.5 million fund to provide grants to community organizations, schools, and local governments that offer afterschool and summer youth programs, with priority given to rural and underserved communities.
Introduced by Bob Brinson
This bill allows local governments in North Carolina to create zoning regulations for areas within 5 miles of major military installations. These regulations would require developers to coordinate with the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, include noise and light buffers, and notify military commanders of development decisions to prevent uses that could interfere with military operations.
Local Government
Introduced by Michael Garrett
This bill creates a new 7% income tax on individual income above $1 million per year in North Carolina. All revenue collected from this tax, minus administrative costs, would be distributed to the state's public school fund and allocated to local school districts based on the number of students they serve.
Taxes & Budget
Introduced by Steve Jarvis
This bill establishes a program allowing the Department of Environmental Quality and Environmental Management Commission to use artificial intelligence as a decision-support tool to help staff review and draft environmental permits. The bill requires that humans independently review all AI-generated work, prohibits permits from being approved based solely on AI output, and mandates transparency by informing applicants when AI was used and requiring annual performance reports.
Environment & Energy
Introduced by Norman Sanderson
This bill establishes a 10-year moratorium (through January 1, 2037) on new or expanded fishing regulations in North Carolina's coastal waters, including restrictions on bag limits, seasons, gear, and reporting requirements. It restores recreational fishing rules to 2019 standards and creates a legislative commission to review seafood and aquaculture issues, with exceptions only for federal compliance and genuine emergencies.
Introduced by Brandon Lofton
This bill reduces the percentage of gross family income that parents must pay as copayments for subsidized child care from 10% to 7%, effective October 1, 2026. The bill appropriates $25 million in recurring state funds annually to cover the cost of this reduction.
Social Services & Welfare
Introduced by Phillip Shepard
This bill increases criminal penalties for secret peeping offenses when the victim is a minor. Currently, many of these offenses are Class 1 misdemeanors or Class I felonies; the bill elevates them to Class A1 misdemeanors or Class H/G felonies when a minor is the victim. The bill also allocates $25,000 for a public awareness campaign about these laws.
Introduced by Julie Mayfield
The Safe Parks Act creates a new funding account to clean up environmental contamination at public parks caused by old landfills and hazardous sites. It increases the solid waste disposal tax from $2 to $4 per ton and redirects a portion of corporate income tax revenue to pay for park remediation, requiring local governments to match every $4 in state funds with $1 of local funding.
This bill provides North Carolina state employees, public school employees, and community college employees with paid bereavement leave of up to 40 hours when an immediate family member dies and up to 8 hours when a colleague dies. The bill appropriates $2 million to fund this benefit, effective July 1, 2026.
Introduced by Beth Helfrich
This bill appropriates $4 million in state funding to the Lake Norman Community Development Corporation for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. The funds are designated for the Smithville Revitalization Plan ($2 million) and other affordable housing development ($2 million), with up to 15% of the total available for administrative costs.
Introduced by Sarah Crawford
This comprehensive bill implements changes to support North Carolinians with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) across multiple areas: it provides $183 million to increase direct care worker wages to at least $18/hour, adds 1,000 waiver slots and develops a 10-year plan to address service needs, updates Medicaid eligibility rules for workers with disabilities, studies new employment and community activity services, establishes rental assistance for housing, funds vocational rehabilitation services, restricts prone restraints in schools, and increases funding for special education and accessible transportation.
Introduced by Jay Chaudhuri
This bill requires North Carolina public schools to adopt policies limiting student use of wireless devices (phones, tablets, laptops, etc.) during instructional time, with stricter restrictions for younger grades. It also appropriates $930 million for teacher assistants in K-5 classrooms and allows parents to opt out of device issuance, while requiring print-based instruction for K-8.
Introduced by Timothy Reeder
This bill establishes a Short-Time Compensation Program that allows employers to reduce employee work hours by 10-60% as an alternative to layoffs, with affected employees receiving partial unemployment benefits to offset lost wages. The program requires employer applications, Division approval, maintenance of employee health and retirement benefits, and is capped at 52 weeks per employee, with $100,000 appropriated for implementation.
Introduced by Donny Lambeth
This bill appropriates approximately $14.1 million to expand North Carolina's workforce development and education-to-career pathway programs. It funds apprenticeship support, industry credentials, postsecondary transfer technology, career planning platforms, a career development pilot program for middle and high school students, and a consolidated teacher bonus program rewarding performance in advanced courses, career-technical education, and student growth.
Introduced by Lisa Grafstein
This bill modifies North Carolina's tax rate reduction trigger by adding a requirement that the General Assembly must pass a Current Operations Appropriations Act (a comprehensive budget spending plan) by July 1 of the fiscal year before automatic tax rate reductions can take effect. Previously, tax rate reductions were triggered solely based on whether General Fund revenue exceeded specified thresholds; this bill adds the budget requirement as an additional condition.
Introduced by Lindsey Prather
This bill appropriates $1.047 billion to update Medicaid funding to reflect current enrollment and costs, allows Medicaid health plans to create restricted provider networks specifically for research-based behavioral health treatment, and removes statutory rules that would automatically end Medicaid coverage for the expansion population under certain conditions.
Healthcare
This bill requires North Carolina public schools and charter schools to allow students with disabilities who attend private schools to enroll part-time in public school classes, programs, and services. Schools must develop policies for part-time enrollment and post information about the option on their websites, with $10,000 in state funding provided to help schools implement the policy starting in 2026-2027.
Introduced by Phil Rubin
This resolution urges Congress to preserve North Carolina's authority to enforce existing consumer protection laws against harmful uses of artificial intelligence, and to reject any federal actions that would limit the state's ability to investigate and regulate deceptive AI practices. The resolution asserts that states should retain full power to protect consumers from fraud and unfair commercial practices involving AI systems.
Technology & Privacy
Introduced by Paul Lowe
This bill establishes the Nursing Fellows Program at Winston-Salem State University to provide forgivable loans to nursing students pursuing Bachelor of Science or Master of Science degrees in nursing. The program aims to recruit and support future nurses and nursing instructors in North Carolina, with loans forgiven through years of service in the state. The bill also appropriates $1.4 million for the program and $650,000 for nursing curriculum support services.
Introduced by Bill Ward
This bill appropriates funds and creates programs to support historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and historically minority-serving institutions in North Carolina. It establishes a study committee on HBCU infrastructure, creates completion assistance and nursing fellows programs, funds capital improvements at multiple institutions, and expands merit scholarships.
Introduced by Michael Lee
This bill creates a system for certified private construction inspectors to conduct building inspections when local inspection departments fail to inspect within 10 business days or miss an agreed-upon deadline. It establishes qualification standards, registration requirements, and procedures for private inspectors while preserving local government oversight of zoning, utilities, and fire safety systems.