Summaries of legislation from the 2009 NC Regular Session

Courtesy of North Carolina General Assembly Research Division Director Walker Reagan:

 

“I am pleased to announce that the Summaries of Substantive Ratified Legislation – 2009,  is available on the General Assembly’s web site. “

 This comprehensive 325-page publication is organized by subject areas. The School of Goverment has now discontinued their similar publication.

Updated NC General Statutes online

The North Carolina General Statutes on the NCGA website now incorporate changes made during the 2009 Regular Session of the General Assembly. There were 2228 sections of the General Statutes either added, amended, or repealed during the 2009 Regular Session.

Updated NC General Statutes online soon

From our webmaster:

“NOTE: 01/06/2010 – The Statutes on the North Carolina General Assembly web site are updated through the 2008 session. The Publisher has sent the updates and they are in the process of being proofread. The anticipated date of publishing the statutes on the website with changes from the 2009 Session is mid March 2010.  Please review the 2009 changes to the statutes by visiting NC Statutes and Session Laws affected by ratified bills.“

There were 2228 sections of the General Statutes either added, amended, or repealed during the 2009 Regular Session of the North Carolina General Assembly, 365 of those have been cleared by our proofreaders. They are checking about 100 each workday.

stats on NC long sessions 2001 through 2009

Here’s a table comparing the volume of legislation filed and passed during the last five long sessions of the North Carolina General Assembly, covering 2001 through 2009:

	2001	2003	2005	2007	2009
Date Convened	Jan. 24	Jan. 26	Jan. 26	Jan. 24	Jan. 28
Date adjourned	Dec. 6	July 20	Sept. 2	Aug. 2	Aug. 11
Senate legislative days	173	102	126	111	112
House legislative days	179	102	125	113	114
Senate bills introduced	1,109	1,340	1,184	1,573	1,109
House bills introduced	1,478	1,028	1,800	2,072	1,658
Total bills introduced	2,587	2,368	2,984	3,645	2,767
Session Laws enacted	519	435	463	551	577
Vetoes	0	1	1	1	1
Joint resolutions ratified	36	32	58	68	33
Simple resolutions adopted	10	16	26	7	8
Total measures passed	565	483	547	626	618
% measures passed	21.8%	20.3%	18.3%	17.2%	22.3%

source for most of the data: North Carolina Legislative Library, Legislative Statistics 1965-2009. This post is an update of a similar one post-2007 long session, which covered 1993-2007 .

Table of statutes amended by 2009 NC regular session

We’ve put up a final list (in Excel spreadsheet format) of all General Statutes and Session Laws amended by the 2009 Regular Session of the North General Assembly, find it on this page, listed as:  NCGS and Session Laws Affected by 2009 Ratified Bills.

What’s on the Governor’s desk – Aug. 15 edition (108 bills)

Here’s a list of the 108 bills on Governor Perdue’s desk as of Friday, August 15, 2009 (I don’t expect anything to be signed this weekend and I’m in Winston-Salem until Wednesday — deadline for guberantorial action is September 10):

The Adjournment Resolution over to 2010

The North Carolina General Assembly adjourned by joint resolution on Tuesday, August 12, 2009 to meet again on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 for the so called “short session”. The practice of using a joint reslution to reconvene and set the rules limiting what can be considered was first used in 1975 for the 1976 short session.  The first short session was in 1974, but the 1973 adjournment resolution had no restrictions on what could be considered the next year.

The 2009 adjournment resolution is nearly identical to that from 2007 — the session will convene Wednesday, May 12, the eighth day after the primary. (in 2008 the session convened on the first Tuesday after the primary, 2010  convening is one day later in relation)  All the eligibility rules are the same, and all the filing deadlines are in the same relationship to the week of convening of the short session.

Text of the resolution follows:

NC Session Wrap #2

At today’s North Carolina General Assembly House and Senate Sessions, 59 bills and three joint resolutions were ratified.  This afternoon, the final 53 bills were delivered to the Governor. The Governor now has 108 bills on her desk. The other six were bills that became law when they were ratified.

 

There have now been 470 laws enacted this session.

 

Action by the Governor on the 108 bills is required by September 10, the 30th day after adjournment.  This gives a potential total of 578 laws enacted in 2009, compared with 551 in the 2007 long session.

 

In addition, 2009 saw a total of 33 joint resolutions passed, compared with 70 in 2007.

 

-Gerry Cohen

 

note: the potential total of 578 laws is a revisal from the total of 575 I mentioned last evening.

Finding what the 2009 NC Regular Session did

Looking for what the 2009 Regular Session of the North Carolina General Assembly did?

You will be able to find:

(1) Session Laws on public and local bills. This gets updated within an hour or two after we get bills back from the Governor. The list is in chronological order by Chapter number and includes links to the bill statis page and .pdfm ,rtf, and html versions of the laws. You can also find the same list by bill number, but this might be updated up to a day later.

(2) Bills pending on the Governor’s desk. Updates on this may be delayed up to a day.

(3) Bills signed by the Governor. This is a smaller universe than the list in (1), as it does not include local bills, a redistricting bill, and the appointments bill, none of which require gubernatorial approval. This also may be delayed by a day.

(4) Bills still  in conference. Yes, there are two of these, which might see further action in 2010.

(5) Lots of other reports can be found here.

(6) The adjournment resolution, giving details on what is elgible for the reconvened (short) session that starts May 12, 2010.

(7) Joint resolutions passed in 2009, all 33 of them.

(8) A list of General Statutes and laws amended in 2009 can be found by selecting 2009 from this report page. This is a great resource for practitioners interested in whether certain laws have been amended.

Note that actions on bills ratified today (Tuesday, August 11) should be updated by late afternoon.

2009 North Carolina legislative session wrap-up

UPDATED 11:04 am Tuesday, cajoled paperwork for four more bills.

 

At its Friday North Carolina Senate and Monday House sessions, the General Assembly took final action on 62 measures:  59 bills and 3 resolutions.  Of those 59 bills, 53 will will be signed and go to the Governor Tuesday, five are local bills which become law immediately, as does the appointments bill which does not require gubernatorial approval.

 

Of those 62 measures, 55 59 will be signed by the Speaker in the House at noon and by the Lt Governor at 1 pm Tuesday.  Six  Two bills will be signed in both houses probably around 1:30 p.m. as we have to wait for the Senate to release documents after it convenes at 1 p.m., and finally the adjournment resolution will be signed in both houses.

 

Through today, there had been 463 laws enacted in the 2009 Regular Session.  There will be 6 more becoming law tomorrow (local bills and the appointments bill). The Governor currently has 56 bills on her desk, and will get 53 more Tuesday, for a total of 109 to be pending. Action on those is required by September 10, the 30th day after adjournment.  This gives a potential total of 575 laws enacted in 2009, compared with 551 in the 2007 long session.

 

In addition, 2009 will see a total of 33 joint resolutions passed, compared with 70 in 2007.

 

-Gerry Cohen