Governor Roy Cooper has made more vetoes during his tenure than any other governor in our history.
The majority of those vetoes (a total of 37, approximately 65%) were filed under cover of night or over a weekend. The next bill on his desk for signature or veto is SB 116, the “Put NC Back to Work Act.”
House Majority Leader John Bell said, “On top of vetoing the most bills in North Carolina history, the Governor has made it a pattern of doing so on a Friday afternoon in an attempt to bury the news heading into the weekend. This is not leadership. The polling is clear that on both sides of the aisle people want to end the extra federal unemployment benefits and get our state back to work. Every day, I hear from local businesses who cannot find employees to fill open jobs. Just yesterday, one announced they are closing their doors for good due to labor shortages. I encourage the governor to sign this bipartisan legislation without delay.”
The NC Chamber’s President and CEO Gary Salamido also urged Governor Cooper to sign the bill, saying, “At this decisive moment for our state, every day matters for the job creators struggling to find talent and for the parents and families looking for a feasible path back to work. Senate Bill 116 provides the critical solutions we need to reinvigorate our workforce, reduce COVID-related childcare constraints on families to empower their return to a job, and end our dependence on federal programs created for a moment when jobs were not readily available across our state. The NC Chamber applauds our elected leaders who worked hard to secure this bill and we urge Governor Cooper to help expedite our economic relaunch by signing Senate Bill 116 into law.”