Members of the North Carolina House of Representatives will be allowed to introduce no more than 10 “public” bills each this session. House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, proposed the cap with the intention of making government more efficient, but at least one of his fellow Republicans is concerned. In an interview last week with Carolina Journal, Tillis said the cap would force members to communicate, collaborate, and eliminate bill duplication.
Freshman Rep. Glen Bradley, R-Franklin, had eight public bills drafted before the session began. He expects he’ll come up with more than two others before it’s over.
The General Assembly distinguishes between “public” bills — legislation that would affect more than 15 counties — and “local” bills, which would not. The 10-bill limit, adopted by the House last week in its rules, does not apply to private bills.
Bradley, who’s from the Ron Paul wing of the Republican Party, said most of his bills would repeal current laws. He says it would require many more than 10 bills to undo decades of what he considers overreaching, freedom-grabbing legislation.
Three of his eight bills have to do with restoring states’ rights. One would exempt North Carolina farmers from the federal Food Safety Modernization Act, as long as their produce is grown, sold, and consumed within the state; another would exempt North Carolina from federal firearms regulations, as long as the gun is manufactured, sold, and used only in the state; the third would try to limit the federal government’s role in intrastate commerce generally.
Two bills focus on re-establishing individual rights and “defining the role of state government and the extent to which it shall be permitted to intervene into citizens’ lives.”
The remaining three bills are: a jobs bill centered around repealing the regulatory burden on businesses; a community-based redistricting bill that would allow voters to “draw their own districts;” and an open caucus bill enabling open popular caucuses of the electorate on any popular issue.
Bradley said he understands why Tillis made the rule.
“There is a structure bills have to go through and if you overwhelm that system it gets clogged,” he said, limiting time for debate on other bills.
“The rule is probably necessary because we’re going to end up seeing a lot of obstructionist behavior on the part of the new minority, but it will make the job of someone such as myself — who has an overriding agenda to restore the Constitution — a little more difficult,” Bradley said.
Tillis spokesman Jordan Shaw said the rule is necessary because there have been House members in the past who introduced more than 100 bills in one session.
“Everything we’re doing this year comes from a need and a desire to make state government function more efficiently,” Shaw said.
The Republican leadership wants to make sure “the work we’re doing here is focused, that we get in, do our work and get out,” he said.
Shaw noted that 10 bills multiplied by 120 members adds up to 1,200 bills.
“It’s laughable to think the house can’t accomplish what it needs to with 1,200 bills,” he said.
While Shaw said he understood Bradley’s concerns, he said Tillis is urging legislators to focus more on the quality than the quantity of their proposals.
“We are encouraging members to seek out [and work with] fellow members who may happen to be introducing the same or similar legislation, or members who may not have reached their 10-bill limit,” Shaw said.
That is exactly what Rep. George Cleveland, R-Onslow, said he plans to do. Even though Cleveland has more than 20 bills ready to be filed, he said the limit doesn’t bother him. Cleveland said he expects to have no problem finding allies who will file the remaining legislation after he has reached the cap.
Sara Burrows is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.