North Carolina General Assembly · 2025–2026 session
Showing 1681–1704 of 2,338 bills
Introduced by Val Applewhite
This bill allows the Governor to issue an executive order that temporarily prevents residential evictions during a declared state of emergency, if the disaster has caused widespread displacement, job loss, or economic hardship. The moratorium can last up to 90 days initially, with possible extensions up to 180 days total, and the Governor can direct state and federal funds toward rental assistance programs to help both landlords and tenants.
Housing
Introduced by Thomas McInnis
This bill updates North Carolina's Controlled Substances Act by adding dozens of newly-designed synthetic opioids, fentanyl derivatives, nitazene compounds, and other drug analogs to the state's list of Schedule I controlled substances. The bill aims to keep pace with chemists who create new drug variants by modifying the chemical structure of existing illegal drugs to circumvent current drug laws.
Criminal Justice & Public Safety
Introduced by Kandie Smith
This bill establishes a Small Farmers Support Grant Program that provides financial grants to North Carolina farmers with gross cash farm income of $1 million or less. The program, funded with $15 million in state money for 2025-2026, aims to help small farmers purchase equipment, inputs, and make operational improvements to remain viable.
Agriculture
Introduced by Matthew Winslow
This bill changes how North Carolina community colleges receive state funding by shifting to a model that allocates money based on student enrollment in specific workforce and educational programs, weighted by labor market demand. It also creates a reserve fund for colleges experiencing unexpected enrollment growth and allows individual community colleges to charge students up to 10% additional tuition and fees, with revenue used only for instructional purposes.
Education
Introduced by Carl Ford
This bill expands pharmacists' authority to test for and treat certain illnesses (like flu, COVID-19, and strep throat) using FDA-approved tests, and requires health insurance plans to reimburse pharmacists for clinical services at the same rate as other healthcare providers when those services are performed within the pharmacist's scope of practice.
Healthcare
Introduced by Julie Mayfield
This bill creates Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs), which allow courts to temporarily remove firearms from people deemed to pose an imminent danger to themselves or others. Family members, law enforcement, health care providers, and others can petition district courts for these orders, which can last up to one year and be renewed. The bill also requires courts to order seizure of firearms from people who fail to surrender them after domestic violence protective orders.
Introduced by Jim Burgin
This bill modifies how North Carolina taxes 1031 exchanges, which are real estate transactions where investors swap one property for another to defer federal taxes. The bill allows taxpayers to deduct from their North Carolina state income any gains from non-like-kind property (cash or other assets) received in a 1031 exchange, but only up to the amount of their original investment in the property sold.
Taxes & Budget
Introduced by Sydney Batch
This bill allows North Carolina employees to use up to five consecutive days of their accrued sick leave per calendar year to care for family members, including children, parents, spouses, grandparents, siblings, and others in close family relationships. The bill also protects employees from retaliation for using sick leave for family care purposes.
Business & Labor
Introduced by Jay Chaudhuri
This bill appropriates $500,000 in state funding to the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources to study whether North Carolina should establish a professional wrestling museum. The department must report its findings and recommendations to the legislature by July 1, 2026.
Other / General Government
Introduced by Lisa Grafstein
This bill allows people enrolled in North Carolina's BH IDD Tailored Plans (Medicaid managed care plans for behavioral health and intellectual/developmental disabilities) to have more flexibility in choosing their coverage. Specifically, it lets beneficiaries stay in traditional Medicaid fee-for-service if their current providers aren't in their plan's network, and it allows them to switch to tailored plans in other regions if those plans offer better services or providers. The state must request federal approval for these changes by July 1, 2025, and report back to lawmakers by August 1, 2025.
Introduced by Allison Dahle
This bill repeals Session Law 2023-106, which was known as the Parents' Bill of Rights, along with related provisions added in subsequent laws. The bill also removes references to these provisions from exemptions that apply to schools for the deaf and blind, charter schools, regional schools, and laboratory schools.
Introduced by Natalie Murdock
This bill modifies North Carolina law to give widows and widowers additional options when changing their name after a spouse's death. Instead of only being able to resume their pre-marriage surname or a previous spouse's surname, they may now also hyphenate their pre-marriage surname with their deceased spouse's surname.
Introduced by Sophia Chitlik
This bill creates the Capital for Communities Special Fund, a new state fund that receives quarterly transfers of 3.5% from state treasurer holdings and special investment accounts when those accounts achieve a 7% or higher return. The fund would support economic development projects in North Carolina including affordable housing, childcare facilities, healthcare initiatives, medical research, workforce development, living-wage jobs, and nonprofit education facilities.
Introduced by Michael Garrett
This bill proposes a constitutional amendment that would remove North Carolina's current constitutional definition of marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman. If passed by the General Assembly and approved by voters in November 2026, the amendment would take effect January 1, 2027.
Introduced by Amy Galey
This bill directs the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality to study and analyze nutrient management strategies for Jordan Lake, including water quality data and the effectiveness of existing regulations. The department must report findings to the Environmental Review Commission and Environmental Management Commission by January 31, 2027, with interim reports due earlier.
Environment & Energy
This bill, named after Wendy Williams, establishes mandatory training requirements for guardians and guardians ad litem appointed to care for incompetent persons in North Carolina. Guardians must complete training within six months of appointment covering legal duties, the ward's rights, available resources, medical terminology, and financial reporting. Clerks retain discretion to waive or expand these requirements based on the guardian's experience and the ward's specific needs.
Local Government
This bill requires law enforcement officers to intervene when they observe excessive force or other improper conduct, and to report such conduct to supervisors within 72 hours. It protects these officers from retaliation for making good-faith reports and allocates $100,000 for training criminal justice officers on these new requirements.
Introduced by Michael Lee
This bill revives a program that allows retired teachers to return to work in high-need schools without losing their retirement benefits or having their earnings count against them. The program is set to expire on June 30, 2027, and includes provisions allowing retired teachers to maintain health insurance coverage while working in these positions.
This bill gives owners of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles in North Carolina the option to pay their additional registration fees based on miles driven instead of a flat annual fee. Electric vehicle owners can choose between paying $180 annually or a mileage-based fee, while plug-in hybrid owners can choose between $90 annually or a mileage-based fee.
Transportation & Infrastructure
This bill prohibits defendants in homicide and assault cases from using a victim's sex, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation as a legal defense or as evidence that negates the crime's severity. The bill allows evidence about a victim's conduct or statements to still be admitted if relevant, and applies to offenses committed after December 1, 2025.
This bill establishes specific timelines for the North Carolina Department of Transportation to review certain permits related to driveways, encroachments, and subdivisions. The DOT must determine if applications are complete within 10 business days, then has 30 calendar days to approve or deny complete applications with written justification; if the DOT misses these deadlines, the permit is automatically approved.
Introduced by Ralph Hise
This bill increases child care subsidy payment rates to the 75th percentile starting July 1, 2025, and allocates $123.5 million annually for two years to fund these increases. It also creates an $8 million pilot program in western North Carolina counties affected by Hurricane Helene to help build new child care capacity through recruitment and mentoring of new providers.
Social Services & Welfare
This bill makes it illegal for people to carry or possess dangerous weapons at voting locations, within 100 feet of voting place entrances, or while waiting in line to vote. Violations would be charged as a Class 1 misdemeanor, with an exception for law enforcement officers performing their duties. The law would take effect December 1, 2025.
Elections & Voting
This bill requires North Carolina's Medicaid program to cover doula services during pregnancy and the postpartum period, with doulas meeting specified credentialing requirements in areas like childbirth education, comfort measures, and lactation support. The bill appropriates $1 million in state funds annually for the 2025-2027 biennium to implement Medicaid coverage and an additional $550,000 annually to support the doula workforce.