North Carolina General Assembly · 2025–2026 session
Showing 1513–1536 of 2,338 bills
Introduced by Woodson Bradley
This bill makes multiple changes to support working families in North Carolina. It lowers copayments for subsidized child care from 10% to 7% of family income, restores a state child tax credit, increases the minimum wage to $15/hour starting September 1, 2025 and allows cities/counties to set higher local minimum wages, expands property tax relief for homeowners, creates a down payment assistance program for first-time homebuyers in public service jobs (teachers, police, firefighters, military, medics), and establishes a paid family and medical leave insurance program funded through employer and employee payroll contributions.
Taxes & Budget
Introduced by Natalie Murdock
This bill establishes the North Carolina Broadband Assistance Program, which provides free broadband service to low-income families at or below the federal poverty level, and monthly credits of at least $15 to families between 100-135% of poverty level who participate in certain assistance programs. The bill appropriates $250 million in state funds for the 2025-2026 fiscal year to operate this program.
Technology & Privacy
Introduced by Michael Lazzara
This bill exempts sign manufacturers who are UL (Underwriters Laboratories) certified from needing a general contractor license in North Carolina. It also requires applicants claiming this exemption to submit documentation proving their UL certification and a verified affidavit to local building inspectors, who must verify the exemption claim with the state licensing board.
Business & Labor
Introduced by Sydney Batch
This bill creates a comprehensive framework for Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) agreements in North Carolina, allowing student-athletes at universities and high schools to earn money from using their name, image, or likeness for commercial purposes. It establishes a state NIL Clearinghouse, provides tax credits for businesses that pay student-athletes for NIL deals, allows universities to allocate up to $20.5 million annually for direct athlete compensation, and creates a study committee to explore revenue-sharing models.
Introduced by Laura Budd
This bill creates a paid family and medical leave insurance program in North Carolina, funded by employer contributions starting January 1, 2026, with benefits paid to eligible workers beginning January 1, 2027. Eligible individuals can receive between 12-26 weeks of partial wage replacement (typically 90% of wages up to the state average) to take leave for reasons including childbirth, adoption, personal serious health conditions, caring for family members with serious health conditions, and qualifying military family situations.
Social Services & Welfare
Introduced by Lisa Grafstein
This bill appropriates $40.48 million annually for the 2025-2027 fiscal biennium to increase salaries for North Carolina State Highway Patrol officers. The law establishes new experience-based pay scales for troopers ranging from $56,000 to $105,000 and rank-based salaries for supervisory officers ranging from $120,750 to $224,612, effective July 1, 2025.
Introduced by Julie von Haefen
This bill would have North Carolina officially ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution, which states that equality of rights under the law shall not be denied on account of sex. The bill argues that the ERA became the 28th Amendment in 2020 when Virginia became the 38th state to ratify it, meeting the three-fourths requirement, and that North Carolina's ratification would be a formal recognition of this constitutional change.
Elections & Voting
Introduced by Benton Sawrey
This bill establishes two requirements for North Carolina hospitals and other entities participating in the federal 340B drug pricing program. First, it prohibits these covered entities from charging patients more than their actual acquisition cost when dispensing drugs purchased at 340B discounted prices. Second, it requires covered entities to annually report detailed information about their 340B drug purchases, pricing, patient assistance programs, and third-party payments to the state Department of Health and Human Services, with reports made public online.
Healthcare
Introduced by Mujtaba Mohammed
This bill defines school resource officers (SROs) in North Carolina schools and establishes training requirements for them. It also requires that complaints about student misconduct filed by SROs must be signed off by a school administrator or school social worker before being sent to juvenile court.
Education
Introduced by Robert Reives
This bill creates an 'Individual Freedoms Act' that establishes legal protections against state surveillance, requires medical and political privacy in government dealings, protects parental authority, ensures education is fact-based and non-ideological, and prohibits employment and housing discrimination based on political beliefs or medical history. The bill applies a 'compelling state interest' standard, meaning the government can only restrict these rights if it has a strong reason and uses the narrowest possible means to achieve it.
Other / General Government
Introduced by Caleb Theodros
The Family Empowerment Act expands child care assistance to families earning up to 300% of the federal poverty level, caps child care costs at 7% of household income, and establishes tax incentives for businesses offering paid family leave. The bill also funds home-visiting programs, financial counseling services, flexible workplace policies, and creates an oversight board to monitor program effectiveness, with $75 million in state appropriations for fiscal years 2025-2027.
Introduced by Terence Everitt
This bill adds a new responsibility to the State Auditor's duties, requiring the auditor to periodically audit the General Assembly (the North Carolina legislature). The bill does not specify the frequency, scope, or details of these audits.
Local Government
Introduced by Ben Moss
This bill designates the Freedom Flag as an official state symbol of remembrance for the lives lost in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It allows the Freedom Flag to be displayed alongside U.S. and North Carolina state flags on public buildings, institutions, and county courthouses on September 11 each year, and permits public officials to accept donated Freedom Flags for this purpose.
This bill requires courts to sentence non-violent offenders who are primary caretakers of dependent children to community-based sentences without imprisonment instead of incarceration. The sentence would include rehabilitation services like counseling, job training, parenting classes, and housing assistance, with the court able to modify or reduce the sentence based on the person's progress or impose confinement if conditions are violated.
Criminal Justice & Public Safety
Introduced by Ted Alexander
This bill reduces the required waiting period before retired Assistant District Attorneys (ADAs) and Assistant Public Defenders (APDs) can return to work for the state from six months to 30 days. Current law requires a six-month separation from any state employment before retirees can return, but this bill creates a specific exception for these legal professionals.
Introduced by Sophia Chitlik
The Birth Freedom Act requires health insurance plans in North Carolina, including Medicaid and the State Health Plan, to cover maternity care at home and birthing centers with the same benefits as hospital births. The bill allocates $150,000 to help increase access to birthing center services and sets reimbursement rates at 90% of average commercial hospital rates.
Introduced by Bobby Hanig
This bill requires law enforcement officers to intervene when they observe another officer using excessive force (if safe to do so) and to report suspected unauthorized use of force to a supervisor within 72 hours. It also protects officers who make these reports from retaliation, termination, or discipline by their employer for having made the report, while allowing agencies to still discipline officers for unrelated prior misconduct.
The Coaches Care Act requires all coaches and athletic directors at middle and high schools to complete approved youth mental health first aid training and maintain current certification. The bill also requires youth athletics organizations using county or city facilities to ensure their coaches have this certification. The State Board of Education will maintain a list of approved training programs.
This bill requires North Carolina courts to delay imprisonment for pregnant people sentenced to prison terms if they are determined to pose no significant threat to the community. During the deferment period of at least 12 weeks after delivery, the pregnant person must maintain prenatal care, participate in available education programs, and report monthly to the court, before eventually serving their sentence.
Introduced by Norman Sanderson
This bill appropriates $12 million in state funds to the Town of Beaufort for upgrades and repairs to its boat docks. The funds would be available for the 2025-2026 fiscal year and become effective July 1, 2025.
Introduced by Eddie Settle
This bill prohibits the intentional release of substances into North Carolina's atmosphere to alter temperature, weather, or sunlight intensity through methods like stratospheric aerosol injection, cloud seeding, and electromagnetic radiation. The bill amends state environmental law to make atmospheric modification activities illegal and requires the Environmental Management Commission to create rules to enforce the prohibition.
Environment & Energy
Introduced by Jay Chaudhuri
This bill appropriates $30 million per year for a two-year pilot program (2025-2027) that provides child care expansion assistance grants to help licensed child care programs offer free or reduced child care to their full-time employees earning up to 85% of state median income. The state would cover 75% of tuition costs for up to two children per eligible employee, with the child care program covering the remaining 25%.
The North Carolina Survivors' Act allows courts to reduce sentences for people convicted of crimes if they were victims of domestic violence or abuse, and that abuse was a substantial factor in causing them to commit the offense. The law applies to new sentencing hearings and allows people already imprisoned to request resentencing, with specific sentence reductions based on the original sentence length (for example, life sentences reduced to 30 years or less). The law excludes certain serious crimes including sex offenses and crimes against children or people with mental disabilities.
This bill provides North Carolina state employees, public school employees, and community college employees with paid leave for pregnancy loss (such as miscarriage or failed fertility procedures) and paid bereavement leave for the death of immediate family members. The bill appropriates $3.8 million total ($1.8 million annually for pregnancy loss leave and $2 million annually for bereavement leave) to fund these new benefits starting July 1, 2025.