When lawmakers reconvene in Raleigh just after Thanksgiving, their scope will be limited to almost a dozen possible topics. However, some of the topics are so broad that you could drive the proverbial dump truck through it.
One particularly broad provision allows lawmakers to consider “concurrence in any committee substitute or amendment.”
A “committee substitute” is a legislative phrase that allows lawmakers to take a bill, gut its contents and put totally different content matter in it.
For example, at the one-day session held Monday to tidy up redistricting mistakes the other day, lawmakers took a bill that would have given school systems more flexibility in their calendar if they miss days because of inclement weather and turned it into a bill to correct omissions in the state’s congressional redistricting plan.
Other matters eligible for consideration include:
– Bills related to redistricting, the Voting Rights Act or redistricting litigation.
– Bills related to election laws. Now that’s another broad topic.
– Bills providing for hurricane relief.
– Bills ratifying a compact between the governor and the Cherokee Indians over casinos.
– Efforts to override vetoes by the governor.
The General Assembly is scheduled to reconvene at 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 27. That’s the Sunday after Thanksgiving Day. However, legislative leaders say that no action will be taken on that Sunday, other than technicalities.
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