RALEIGH, North Carolina – Republican lawmakers in North Carolina reached agreement on a bill that now maintains a health exemption for wearing masks in public while also preventing masks from being worn during criminal activity, but only one chamber chose to vote on it. it on Thursday.
The state Senate approved new masking law — negotiated by both chambers to remedy concerns about removing a pandemic-era health exemption — in a 28-0 vote from which Senate Democrats were absent in protest. But after a canceled committee and a long private discussion among House Republicans, the House did not hold an immediate vote, delaying Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s approval of the bill for at least a few more days.
Republican supporters say the legislation was prompted in part by the widespread use of masks by those protesting on college campuses across the country against Israel’s war in Gaza – including at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Before the commitment, the bill eliminated a 2020 exemption for people wearing masks for health purposes in public, which outraged Democrats who said immunocompromised people could be unfairly targeted.
According to the new changes, the bill now allows anyone in public to wear “a medical or surgical grade mask for the purpose of preventing the spread of contagious diseases.” It also adds the ability for private property owners to ask someone to temporarily remove their mask to identify them.
Another addition to the bill would allow some federal political committees greater latitude in transferring contributions to local and state parties in North Carolina. Senate Republicans said the language would remove obstacles for groups like the Republican Governors Association and the Republican Attorneys General Association to donate directly to the North Carolina Republican Party to help with future elections.
Senate leader Phil Berger said the language will “level the playing field” after a 2020 State Election Board Advisory Opinion which he said favors the Democratic Governors Association and another group bringing money to the state Democratic Party in unlimited quantities. He said Democrats didn’t vote on the bill because they had no way to defend their opinion.
But Senate Democrats said they withheld their votes because of the short time they were given to review the proposed bill — in particular the campaign finance changes. At a later press conference that focused exclusively on the campaign finance provisions, Sen. Michael Garrett of Guilford County likened them to “political money laundering” by helping wealthy donors secretly funnel money to the state Republican Party. through republican groups.
The new version of the project also maintains some original aspects of the legislation, such as increasing punishments for people who wear a mask when committing a crime or purposely blocking traffic during a demonstration.
The bill passed quickly in the Senate until Representative Erin Pare, the only Republican member of the Wake County General Assembly, posted in X that she would not vote for the bill if it eliminated the healthcare exemption. Her opposition led the Chamber to pump the brakes about the bill’s passage two weeks ago, which sent it to a negotiating team of lawmakers to reach an agreement.
Now, Pare told the Associated Press he was happy with the healthcare provision, saying it was “the right thing to do.” The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services drafted that specific language, she said.
To assuage concerns about the new version of the bill, House Speaker Tim Moore told reporters that it needs to go through a vetting process before House members approve it. Then, the Chamber will vote on Tuesday.
“There’s not much of a rush,” Moore said. “Let’s just wait and deal with it next week.”
___
Associated Press writer Gary Robertson in Raleigh contributed to this report.
