Last Thursday was the General Assembly's self-imposed "crossover" deadline, when a bill must pass one of the two chambers in order to technically be eligible for consideration the during rest of this session and in next year's session.
Bills were moving fast and furious, some had been bouncing around a while and were passed. Some came to the floor without so much as a committee hearing.
According to some statistics from the week posted on his blog, NCGA Bill Drafting's Director Gerry Cohen, shows just how many bills were passed.
Prior to last week, the Senate had passed 180 bills. Last week alone they approved 123 (or roughly 41% of the total for the session, so far).
Amazingly, the House did even more. They had passed 220 bills in the 14 prior full weeks of session. Last week they passed 204 (48% of the total).
Is this a good way to operate? I would argue no. While the General Assembly needs deadlines (and session limits), passing half of all legislation in four legislative days does not make good government.
Too often the phrase is heard, "We know this bill has some problems, but let's just get it passed and we'll fix it in the other chamber." Is that really in the best interest of the people of North Carolina? To pass imperfect legislation and just "fix it" later?
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