Early evening recriminations and allegations of bad faith to resolve the lingering House Bill 2 saga flared up Tuesday between General Assembly Republican leadership and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.

Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, hastily called a 6:15 p.m. press conference at which they accused Cooper of double-dealing on what they thought was agreement on a potential solution.

Cooper’s office accused them of “political stunts.” House Minority Leader Darren Jackson, D-Wake, held an impromptu press conference immediately after Berger and Moore’s to say the Republicans pulled the rug from under Democrats seeking to end the long-running controversy.

The level of acrimony displayed makes it doubtful a repeal bill could be hammered out and passed before a noon Thursday deadline set by the NCAA for North Carolina to be eligible to host college championship sports events from 2018-22.

Though Berger said he had no specific conversations with the college sports organization, he said legislation drafted from Cooper’s offer should appease the NCAA’s concerns over H.B. 2, which requires people to use the bathroom matching their anatomy, not their identified gender.

Berger said the developments Tuesday evening makes the Wednesday introduction of a repeal bill unlikely.

Berger and Moore contend Cooper attorney William McKinney forwarded the governor’s four-point compromise proposal on Cooper’s behalf. They said they spent several days urging House and Senate Republican legislators to go along with the new plan.

They believed they had enough votes to pass a measure, and called Cooper on the way to the press conference to advise him they had an agreement in principle. All that remained was to work out legislative language, and draft a bill, Berger said.

“He now denies that he ever made the proposal, so we’ve got to figure out exactly where we are,” Berger said. “Quite frankly, I was taken aback by the governor disavowing he ever made the proposal. I did not anticipate that.”

Berger and Moore handed out draft copies of Cooper’s four-point plan, and an email string between McKinney and Berger’s staff in which the proposal was discussed. The Cooper proposal would:

  •       Repeal H.B. 2.
  •       Guarantee privacy in bathrooms and shower facilities by leaving regulation of multi-occupancy facilities to the state, returning to the status quo prior to passage of Charlotte’s bathroom ordinance that women and girls should not have to share bathrooms with men.
  •       Authorize local governments to pass employment and accommodation nondiscrimination ordinances, provided they are consistent with federal employment and accommodation non-discrimination law.
  •       Protect the rights of conscience by allowing citizens to collect court costs and attorney fees if they successfully pursue legal action proving a violation of their constitutional rights, as protected by Article I Section 13 of the North Carolina Constitution and the First Amendment.

Article 1, Section 13 of the state constitution reads:

“All persons have a natural and inalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences, and no human authority shall, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience.”

The “conscience” provision proved problematic, with Cooper’s team comparing it to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act passed in Indiana.

In a statement issued shortly after Berger and Moore concluded their press conference, Cooper spokesman Cole Porter said, “It’s frustrating that Republican leaders are more interested in political stunts than negotiating a compromise to repeal H.B. 2.”

Cooper wants to settle the dispute, Porter said, yet “Republican leaders’ insistence on including an Indiana-style RFRA provision remains a deal-breaker. Any compromise must work to end discrimination, repair our reputation, and bring back jobs, and sports, and a RFRA is proven to do just the opposite.”

Berger said when he spoke with the governor Tuesday, Cooper took issue with adhering to both the federal standard on nondiscrimination policies and the constitutional provision protecting religious liberty.

Moore said he has been meeting with groups of legislators on both sides of the debate to talk about the governor’s proposal.

“We have a majority of our caucus who are prepared to support a bill,” Moore said. He said House Speaker Pro Tem Sarah Stevens, R-Surry, has an initial draft of legislation that may satisfy those four principles.

But Moore said he understood the proposal would have bipartisan sponsorship and support.

“If that’s not the case, that’s obviously a game changer,” he said.

Berger was asked if he had lined up enough Republican and Democratic votes, why didn’t he introduce a bill without the governor’s involvement and send it to Cooper.

“That may be an option at some point, but that was not as we were going forward the pathway that we thought this would take,” Berger said. “So we really have not had an opportunity to plow that ground very much.”

Jackson said he, Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue, D-Wake, Cooper, Berger, and Moore were scheduled to meet at the executive mansion at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to discuss the H.B. 2 stalemate. The meeting was brokered by a handful of businessmen who were working as go-betweens with Cooper, Berger, and Moore.

“That language that they discussed, I don’t know where it came from. It had not been agreed to by anyone,” and he had not seen it, Jackson said.

“I can tell you there has been no formal offer made. I would have been involved in that process,” Jackson said.

Republicans are unwilling to resolve the impasse, Jackson said. “And so they want to pass a bill, and make the governor veto it, and lay the blame at his feet.”