Representative Harry Warren
♦PASTOR TONY HALL has been named by Governor McCrory to serve on the North Carolina Social Services Commission. This Commission has the authority to establish rules for public assistance with the exception of medical assistance; placement and supervision of delinquent children and payment of necessary costs of foster home care for needy and homeless children; payment of State funds to private child-placing agencies and residential child care facilities for care and services provided to children in the custody or placement responsibility of a county department of social services; social services programs established by federal legislation; implementation of portions of Title XX of the Social Security Act; inspection and licensing of maternity homes; inspection and operation of jails and local confinement facilities; and rules required by the federal government for social services grants-in-aid. Membership consists of one member from each congressional district. Members are appointed by the Governor to serve for four-year terms. I am confident that Pastor Hall will do an outstanding job as he has done for years at Cornerstone Church. Congratulations, Pastor Hall!
ARYAMAN JANA, a second grader at Granite Quarry Elementary School, was named Google’s North Carolina State Winner in Doodle 4 Google Competition. Aryaman was one of more than 130,000 students who submitted entries this year. All 50 state winners will have their doodles displayed in a special exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York from May 22 – July 14. The public can vote for their favorite doodle from the 50 state winners and help select five national finalists (one per grade group). Voting will be open from May 2 to May 10 on this site: http://www.google.com/doodle4google/vote.html. The public vote will determine the five national finalists, one in each grade group.
This week was another interesting week with some very important legislation moving forward. HB 786, RECLAIM NC, was passed by the House Judiciary B Committee on a very bipartisan vote, and it will now move on to the Finance Committee. This bill is the result of more than 10 months of working with various groups and law enforcement officials and has been broadly maligned by 1 or 2 activist groups who deliberately misrepresent the RESTRICT DRIVER PERMIT as a NC Driver’s license. There is no similarity between the two beyond the authorization to operate a vehicle. The RESTRICTED DRIVER PERMIT clearly identifies the holder as an illegally present alien with NO LEGAL STATUS and NO LEGAL PRESENCE.
RECLAIM NC is a law and order, public safety bill that acknowledges the fact that we have people driving illegally in our state with revoked licenses (including citizens with DWI convictions) and without licenses, without insurance and without being certified that they even know the rules of the road or are even capable of driving (many of whom are illegally present immigrants). The bill also acknowledges that the federal government, which is in the throes of trying to create some changes in our immigration policies and guest worker program, is giving the states limited help with removing people who are in our state illegally, as they are aggressively pursuing some way to have them work toward citizenship. We do get help with those who are committing the most serious crimes – drugs, human trafficking, gang activity, sex crimes and kidnapping. This is the element that HB 76 is designed and intended to focus on.
HB 786 REQUIRES those who are here illegally to come forward and submit to a criminal background check (including fingerprinting), show proof of their identity, proof of a minimum of 1 year continuous NC residency, proof of insurance and the ability to pass the written, physical and eye exams of the DMV. Those who do so would be issued a RESTRICTED DRIVER PERMIT or a RESTRICTED NC ID CARD, valid for 1 year. Those who fail to come forth will have their vehicles confiscated when they are stopped by law enforcement and will fall under the rest of the provisions of the bill, where applicable.
It is unlikely that criminals are going to subject themselves to these conditions just to receive a RESTRICTED DRIVER PERMIT when they are involved in much more serious crime. This will help isolate them and make it easier for law enforcement to identify them. This bill authorizes law enforcement to check immigration status and hold detainees without bail while it increases the crime and penalty for manufacture and sale of counterfeit documents, disallows the Matricular Consulate Card and other similar cards and more.
When this bill passes, law enforcement will be better able to identify those they are dealing with and will be better able to direct their limited manpower and financial resources toward those who are engaged in the most hardened criminal activity. Additionally, our citizens will be a bit safer on the highways. This bill does nothing to legitimize those here illegally, but the qualifications for the RESTRICTED DRIVER PERMIT gives our citizens financial and safety cover that they do not have now, nor will have, if we don’t pass this bill.
Other Bills of Interest This Week
SB 269 – SALISBURY/DEANNEX ROWAN COUNTY AIRPORT PROPERTY. This Senate version of HB 260 was passed by the Senate State and Local Government Committee and has now advanced to the Senate Finance Committee. Meanwhile, I am working to have HB 260 SALISBURY/DEANNEX ROWAN COUNTY AIRPORT PROPERTY released from the House Finance Subcommittee on Annexation to be presented in the House Finance Committee before it can go to the House floor.
HB 824 - EPI PEN IN SCHOOLS. This bill is significant because it has the potential to save the lives of students who may suffer from anaphylactic shock due to an inadvertent exposure to an allergen. Peanut allergies, for example, affect many people, who may accidentally ingest them in some form while eating at school. Equally dangerous are attacks that arise from exposure to an allergen that creates an adverse reaction due to an allergy that was not known or diagnosed. This bill will stock each school with 2 “epi pens” (epi pens are auto-injectors that are filled with a single dosage of epinephrine) and will train certain school employees in the proper usage/administration of them.
HB 452 -2013 SCHOOL SAFETY ACT. This is an act to ensure the safety of children in the public schools by increasing the number of school resource officers, by enhancing the effectiveness of school resource officers, and by implementing other critical measures to enhance campus safety.
HB 153 – ESTABLISH GENERAL GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE. This committee would be comprised of six members each appointed from the House and the Senate who will be responsible for studying the programs, operations and policies of agencies assigned to it for oversight.
HB 379 – CLARIFY BOARD OF AGRICULTURE AUTHORITY/PLANTS. The bill establishes that the Board of Agriculture has the sole authority to prohibit the planting, cultivation, harvesting, disposal, handling or movement of plants, with the exception of noxious aquatic weeds.
HB 399 – AMEND LAWS PERTAINING TO DHHS – AB. This is an act to make changes requested by the Department of Health and Human Services to laws pertaining to child abuse, neglect, and dependency; Medicaid; and public health.
HB 635 –INVOLUNTARY COMMITMENT CUSTODY ORDERS. This legislation would authorize a clerk, deputy clerk, or assistant clerk of Superior Court or a Magistrate to issue an involuntary inpatient commitment custody order by means of facsimile transmission or e-mail when the respondent is already at the 24-hour facility. It also touches on training protocols and rules revisions.
HB 763 –ALLOW ALIMONY/POST SEPARATION SUPPORT DURING MARRIAGE. This bill would permit a husband and wife to enter into a valid contract during the marriage to allow a spouse to waive, release or establish alimony and post separation support.
HB 894 –ALLOCATION OF EXCESS STORMWATER LOCAL GOVERNMENT. This creative bill would allow cities and counties to utilize excess stormwater capacity for urban redevelopment projects.
HB 754 – LEASE PURCHASE OF REAL PROPERTY/COMMUNITY COLLEGES. This legislation would authorize community colleges to acquire real property by lease purchase.
HB 903 – UNC & COMMUNITY COLLEGE CREDIT TRANSFERS. Essentially, this bill would facilitate the transfer of community college course credits to the UNC system on a larger scale than is currently allowed. This would represent a substantial savings to our community college students and enable more of them to afford pursuing a four-year degree rather than a two-year associates degree.
HB 484 - Permitting of Wind Energy Facilities. This bill would establish a system of permits for the siting and operation of wind energy facilities. This ensures that the expansion and construction of wind energy facilities does nto pose a threat or interference with our military installations.
HB 460 – Expedite Voter List Maintenance. This act simply expedites the removal of deceased people’s names from the voter registration logs. The bill passed the House by a unanimous vote.
HB 872 – Protect NC Right-to-Work. This adds to existing law to say that it is unlawful for a contractor to require that employees must be union members or must join a union in order to secure employment.
The following bills were ratified for presentation to the Governor
SB 117 – Lily’s Law. This act will codify the common law to indicate that it is murder where a child, who is born alive, dies as a result of injuries inflicted prior to the child’s birth.
SB 240 – Develop Rules for Release of Path Materials. This bill directs the Department of Health and Human Services and the NC Medical Board to develop rules governing requests for and release of pathological materials, as recommended by the Legislative Research Commission on Pathological Materials.
SB 369 – Name Change Requirements for Minors. This legislation clarifies certain name change requirements and authorizes a parent to apply for a name change for a minor child without consent of the other parent if the other parent has been convicted of certain criminal offenses against the minor child or a sibling of the minor child.
HB 247 – Freedom to Negotiate Health Care Rates. This will allow health providers and health insurers to freely negotiate reimbursement rates by prohibiting contract provisions that restrict rate negotiations.
HB 388 – Assigned Counsel/Amend and Clarify.-AB. This legislation will amend the law governing assigned counsel in cases of partial indigency to authorize judgments for attorneys’ fees to be docketed upon the expiration of probation and to clarify the requirement for a social security number.
SB 122 – Sex Trafficking/Sex Offender Registration. This act adds the offense of human trafficking to the list of criminal convictions that require registration under the sex offender and public protection registration program.
This bill was passed out of the Education Committee on Tuesday of this week:
HB 839 – PUBLIC SCHOOL REPORTING REFORM. This will eliminate several reports currently submitted by LEAs to the State Board of Education and would incorporate Uniform Education Reporting System requirements into the Instructional Improvement System.
I want to extend a very special thank you to Representative Ruth Samuelson for coming to our Town Hall meeting last Friday in Cleveland. Representative Samuelson helped explain the Voter ID bill: VIVA that the House passed the week before, and which is now in the Senate Rules Committee. Earlier this week, the Raleigh News and Observer” ran a story that named Representative Samuelson as a strong candidate for the Speaker of the House in 2015. The article also theorized that Representatives Hager, Moffitt, Murry and Jones were potential candidates, as well.
Details for the May Town Hall meeting will be announced as soon as a date has been confirmed. I hope you will be able to attend.
Sincerely, Harry
N.C. House of Representatives District 77, Rowan County
611 Legislative Office Building Raleigh,
North Carolina 27603
(919) 733-5784
