Republicans asserted their newfound power by taking the first step to check an item off their 100-day agenda.
They advanced a bill protecting North Carolinians’ right not to buy health insurance from a government-approved provider as mandated in the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Thursday’s vote was taken less than two hours after discussion in the Judiciary Committee. Democrats said the process was moving too quickly and there should be further debate and public hearings.
House Majority Leader Skip Stam, R-Wake, said, “[Democrats] had the substance of this bill for almost nine months. It was No. 3 on our to-do list. We talked about it several hundreds of times in the election, and they all knew this was part of the election.”
The committee vote was largely along party lines. All Republicans present and one unaffiliated representative voted in favor of the bill. All Democrats present voted against it. The count was 23-16.
Minority Leader Joe Hackney, D-Orange, repeatedly pushed to delay the vote arguing there is no fiscal note attached to the bill, even though there is a fiscal memo. Discussion in the hearing indicated the temporary rules adopted by the House Wednesday give equal weight to fiscal notes and memos.
Rep. Grier Martin, D-Wake, shared an anecdote about a bill which would ensure that references to the National Guard in state laws had capitalized N’s and G’s. He said, “If this bill passes this committee today, it will have only gotten incrementally more scrutiny” than his National Guard bill.
“There’s not a single vote here that will be changed by further discussion,” said Stam, defending the prompt vote. “The public has spoken. This is one of the election items, and the public spoke” during the November election.
In addition to the mandate opt-out provision, the bill would also assign to the state’s attorney general “the duty and standing to bring” a legal action to enforce the provisions of the bill. Attorney General Roy Cooper has chosen not to participate in a multistate lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the health care law.
Rep. Mickey Michaux, D-Durham, questioned whether requiring the attorney general to participate in specific litigation violated his oath of office.
Stam said, “The attorney general’s oath requires him to enforce the laws we pass.”
Michaux replied, “No it doesn’t.”
The bill is being held in committee until a fiscal note is prepared. Depending on what the fiscal note says, the bill either will be referred to the appropriations committee for more debate or sent to the House floor for a vote by the full body.
Anthony Greco is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.