Under the Dome: NC lawmakers advance a foster care bill with broad, bipartisan support
Good morning and welcome to Under the Dome. I’m Avi Bajpai, bringing you today’s newsletter along with my colleagues Kyle Ingram and Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi.
Nearly half of the 120 members of the N.C. House have already signed on in support of a new bipartisan bill introduced this week that seeks to improve the state’s foster care system.
That level of support from lawmakers, in addition to more than 80 organizations across the state that are backing the bill, makes Rep. Allen Chesser, one of its primary sponsors, optimistic that the coalition behind this foster care bill is broad enough and strong enough to move it through the legislature this session.
“We’ve been vetting this particular draft of legislation for roughly 16 months now, off and on, and so, this is not something that we just came up with overnight,” said Chesser, a Republican from Nash County, at a news conference Wednesday morning. “It is something that a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and I’ll just say love, has been poured into.”
Chesser said the goal with House Bill 612 is to “overcome some of the political obstacles that we have faced in the past and actually move the needle for the children who need it the most, and that is the children who are in foster care.”
Among other things, the bill would expand the authority of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services to monitor the performance of county social services departments and review any open or closed child welfare cases.
It would also put in place parameters for identifying and evaluating conflicts of interest when a report of abuse, neglect or dependency involves social services employees, their relatives, or county officials.
Chesser’s fellow primary sponsors on the bill are House Rules Committee Chairman John Bell and GOP Rep. Donnie Loftis of Gastonia and Democratic Rep. Vernetta Alston of Durham.
Alston noted during Wednesday’s press conference that the bill has a number of Democratic cosponsors as well. She said she expects it to “continue to grow momentum” as more lawmakers are educated about what’s in the bill and what it would do.
House Speaker Destin Hall, meanwhile, said he’s spoken with Chesser about the bill and agrees there’s a “real need” to make improvements to the foster care system.
“Anything that we can do to make it easier for folks to be foster parents, while also making sure that we have good folks doing that, we’re putting kids in good homes, I think it’s a worthy cause that we ought to look at, and I think that bill has a chance,” Hall told reporters after session.
— Avi Bajpai
BILL TARGETING DEI IN GOVERNMENT GETS FINAL COMMITTEE APPROVAL
A Republican bill seeking to ban diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in state government and schools will head to the House floor following a final committee vote Wednesday.
“This bill does nothing but to make sure that state government is driven by ability, performance and fairness,” the bill’s sponsor, House Majority Leader Brenden Jones, said at a Rules Committee hearing.
The bill would ban state agencies and schools from using DEI in their hiring decisions or giving differential treatment or special benefits on the basis of race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation and more.
It would also ban government agencies from using state funds to support DEI programs or applying for federal grants that require compliance with DEI policies.
Democrats have opposed the measure, saying it could chill protected speech and eliminate useful diversity programs.
House Democratic Leader Robert Reives rebutted the notion that the state government was hiring people based on DEI metrics at the expense of merit.
“I’d hate for people out there to think that what we’re doing is we’re just grabbing people off the street and hiring them,” he said. “...I really think that as a governmental entity, we shouldn’t make accusations and present premises that imply things that don’t happen.”
An earlier version of Jones’ bill was far more restrictive, applying to non-state entities and imposing criminal punishments for violations. He released an amended version earlier this week removing those sections.
The Senate has also introduced two of its own bills targeting DEI programs, one of which has already passed the chamber. Those bills focus specifically on DEI in K-12 public schools and public universities.
— Kyle Ingram
SENATE COMMITTEE ADVANCES CON REPEAL
A Senate bill to repeal Certificate of Need regulations — a state law that governs where hospitals, clinics and other health care facilities can be built — cleared its first committee Wednesday, passing the Senate Health Committee and moving to Rules.
Lawmakers have tried and failed to repeal CON before. Supporters of the law, including the state’s hospital association, say it prevents an oversupply of hospital beds and costly equipment, helping control health care costs. Opponents argue it drives up costs and limits access to care.
Some CON restrictions have been rolled back in recent years, including in the state’s Medicaid expansion bill, which passed in 2023 and removed requirements for behavioral health and chemical dependency treatment beds. That followed negotiations between the House, which resisted broader changes, and the Senate, which pushed for them. The House has filled a bill alongside the Senate to repeal CON but that has not yet received a hearing.
Republican Sen. Benton Sawrey of Clayton, a main sponsor of the Senate bill, said on Wednesday that North Carolina “is one of the most heavily regulated states in the nation with respect to certificates of need.” He pointed to a case last session where lawmakers had to pass a CON exemption to allow the conversion of a former state-operated facility in Butner into a psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents.
“We had to pass a law so that somebody could fill a need. The state was not nimble enough at the administrative level in order to do so,” he said.
Legal challenges to CON have also mounted. In October, the state Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling in a lawsuit by a New Bern ophthalmologist and sent the case back to trial, keeping the challenge alive.
Sen. Ralph Hise, a Spruce Pine Republican, referenced the case Wednesday, saying passage of the bill could prevent “a lot of heartache.” But he added, “The sun sets in less than three years on these CON laws” as the case moves through the courts.
— Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi
Today’s newsletter was by Avi Bajpai, Kyle Ingram, and Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi. Check your inbox tomorrow for more #ncpol.
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This story was originally published April 3, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Under the Dome: NC lawmakers advance a foster care bill with broad, bipartisan support."
