North Carolina General Assembly · 2025–2026 session
Showing 1873–1896 of 2,338 bills
Introduced by Edward Goodwin
This bill allows veterans, their dependents, and other individuals covered under the federal Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act to pay in-state tuition at North Carolina colleges and universities without meeting the standard 12-month residency requirement, as long as they qualify for admission. The change applies to the 2025-2026 academic year and beyond.
Education
Introduced by Aisha Dew
This bill legalizes cannabis possession and use for adults 21 and older in North Carolina, effective January 1, 2028. It establishes a regulated market for cannabis sales through licensed businesses, creates three reinvestment funds to support communities harmed by cannabis prohibition, and automatically expunges prior marijuana convictions. The bill maintains penalties for sales to minors, impaired driving, and unlicensed operations.
Criminal Justice & Public Safety
Introduced by Renee Price
This bill appropriates $1.7 million in state funds to Caswell County for replacing the Casville Volunteer Fire Department's facility. The funds come from the state's General Fund and would be available starting July 1, 2025.
Taxes & Budget
Introduced by Jim Burgin
This bill increases transparency and efficiency in health insurance utilization reviews—the process insurers use to approve or deny medical services. It sets faster approval timelines (24 hours for urgent care, 3 business days for non-urgent), requires clearer notification to patients and doctors, mandates that qualified medical professionals (not just algorithms) make decisions, and requires insurers to disclose their prior authorization requirements on websites and membership cards.
Healthcare
Introduced by Terence Everitt
This bill requires Local School Administrative Units (LSAUs) to maintain academically or intellectually gifted (AIG) services for students who are placed in alternative learning programs or alternative schools. Currently, there is no explicit requirement to continue AIG services when a student is transferred to an alternative educational setting.
Introduced by Timothy Moffitt
This bill prevents cities from exercising zoning and land use authority in areas outside their city limits (called extraterritorial jurisdiction or ETJ) if the county has already adopted its own zoning regulations. The bill aims to eliminate overlapping regulatory authority between cities and counties by giving counties primary control over unincorporated areas.
Local Government
Introduced by Charles Miller
This bill removes three specific parcels of property (identified by Brunswick County tax numbers) from the City of Southport's corporate limits, effective June 30, 2025. Property owners in these parcels will no longer pay municipal taxes to Southport starting July 1, 2025, though any outstanding city tax liens from before the change remain valid and collectible.
Introduced by Michael Garrett
This bill appropriates $8.3 million in state funding to Guilford County Schools for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. The money is designated for two programs: $5 million for expanding high dosage tutoring services and $3.3 million for learning hubs that help at-risk students meet graduation requirements.
Introduced by Gladys Robinson
This bill appropriates approximately $2.3 million in state funding over two fiscal years to the Department of Health and Human Services to expand sickle cell disease programs and services. The funds will support six comprehensive sickle cell medical centers, create transition coordinator positions to help patients move from pediatric to adult care, provide grants to community organizations, and improve emergency department care for sickle cell patients across North Carolina.
Introduced by Gale Adcock
This bill prohibits health insurers from using artificial intelligence algorithms as the sole basis for deciding whether to deny, delay, or modify healthcare services. It requires that only licensed and qualified healthcare providers can make final determinations about medical necessity or appropriateness of care. The bill applies to private insurers and the state health plan for teachers and employees.
Introduced by Neal Jackson
This bill prohibits North Carolina banks, savings and loans, savings banks, and credit unions from denying, restricting, or canceling services to farmers based on their greenhouse gas emissions, use of fossil fuel fertilizers, or use of fossil fuel-powered machinery. If a financial institution has environmental, social, or political (ESG) commitments related to agriculture, the law presumes any denial of service to a farmer violates this rule unless the institution can prove the decision was based solely on financial reasons.
Business & Labor
Introduced by Julia Greenfield
This bill makes major changes to North Carolina employment law, including abolishing at-will employment so workers can only be fired for just cause, requiring paid work breaks and meal periods, eliminating the subminimum wage for tipped employees, protecting workers' rights to discuss wages, allowing public employee collective bargaining, creating protections for contract workers in state government, and allowing local governments to set minimum wages and establish worker safety programs.
Introduced by Natalie Murdock
This bill appropriates $150,000 in state funds to the Pauli Murray Center in Durham for fiscal year 2025-2026. The money is designated for developing the Pauli Murray Center Green, which will improve accessibility to the center and install drainage and stormwater management systems.
This bill appropriates $237,000 in one-time state funds to The Stagville Memorial Project to design and develop an art installation honoring the history of Stagville descendants. The installation will be located on land across from the Museum of Durham History in Durham, and the funding becomes available July 1, 2025.
Introduced by Sophia Chitlik
This bill appropriates $50 million in state funds to continue child care stabilization grants through the end of the 2024-2025 fiscal year. The grants help compensate child care providers and are intended to prevent facility closures and support families and employers relying on child care services.
Introduced by Graig Meyer
This bill requires the North Carolina General Assembly to provide greater public access to the budget process by mandating at least one week of public comment, holding public hearings and committee meetings before budget votes, and making public the documents showing which legislators and agencies requested specific budget provisions or funding once the budget becomes law.
This bill authorizes the state to distribute supplemental funds to eligible school districts for teacher and administrator salary increases during fiscal years 2025-2027. Guilford County is specifically included as eligible to receive these funds, along with other counties with lower property values. Each eligible school district receives funding based on the number of teachers employed, with a maximum supplement of $5,000 per teacher.
Introduced by Wyatt Gable
This bill legalizes the sale and use of consumer fireworks in North Carolina, subject to local ordinance approval and specific safety regulations. It creates a permitting system for fireworks retailers, establishes rules for possession and use (including age limits and time restrictions), and raises the minimum age for purchasing fireworks from 16 to 18 years old.
Other / General Government
Introduced by Mark Pless
This bill repeals a change made in 2023 to restore the North Carolina Coordinate System of 1983 as the official state coordinate system. The bill effectively undoes a recent modification to state mapping and surveying standards.
Introduced by Zack Forde-Hawkins
This bill creates a new Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority special registration plate in North Carolina and sets its additional fee at $20. The bill also clarifies how fees from Divine Nine fraternity and sorority plates are distributed, directing a portion of Sigma Gamma Rho plate fees to the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority National Education Fund.
Introduced by Hugh Blackwell
This bill makes two main changes to North Carolina law: (1) it expands permanent no contact orders so that judges can prohibit convicted violent offenders from contacting not just crime victims, but also the victim's immediate family members, and (2) it clarifies that child abuse laws apply to anyone providing care or supervision of a child under 16 who commits or allows sexual acts upon that child, classifying this as a felony.
Introduced by Mike Clampitt
This bill appropriates approximately $328.6 million in state funds for the 2025-2026 fiscal year to three western North Carolina counties (Jackson, Transylvania, and Swain) and related institutions. The funds support infrastructure projects like water/sewer systems and fire department facilities, higher education institutions including community colleges and Western Carolina University, and nonprofit organizations.
This bill increases the fees that nurses must pay to the North Carolina Board of Nursing for various licensing services, roughly doubling most fees. For example, the application fee for registered nurse examination increases from $75 to $150, and the two-year license renewal fee increases from $100 to $200. The bill specifies that the Board's operations must be funded entirely through these collected fees rather than state tax dollars.
Introduced by Carla Cunningham
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, grandparents, siblings, spouses, domestic partners, and others with equivalent family relationships. The bill also adds protections against employer retaliation for employees who use sick leave for these purposes.