Bomb Threat Halts N.C. House Session

By Alex Kaplun

State & National Editor

RALEIGH -- Monday was a day most state legislators won't soon forget -- but not for the reason they expected.

At 6:34 p.m. -- 30 minutes into the House's legislative session -- House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, was alerted to a bomb threat made on the Legislative Building. Black immediately stopped the session and ordered everyone to leave the building. Police searched the building and did not find any kind of explosive device.

At a time when most legislators were expecting to debate one of the most significant pieces of legislation of the 2001 session, they found themselves instead across the street on the steps of the N.C. State Museum of Natural Sciences.

The bomb threat originally was phoned into the Wake County Sheriff's Department, which then relayed the information to the Capitol police who phoned Black's desk on the House floor.

Black said he was told that the person who called in the bomb threat simply told the police "there's a bomb in the building and it will explode."

At press time, police had not identified who called in the threat.

Lawmakers and their staff quickly filed out across the street where Black reconvened the session on the steps of the natural sciences museum. But almost as soon as the House session reconvened, it was adjourned.

Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, D-Beaufort, followed suit -- canceling the Senate session that was supposed to start at 7 p.m.

The House chamber was already packed with legislators, media personnel and observers at the time of the bomb threat, as the House lawmakers were expected to take up a piece of legislation that many have been waiting to debate for several months.

House lawmakers were expected to take up a tax package that could have brought to an end a budget debate that has stretched two months into the fiscal year.

State lawmakers have been struggling to build a balanced budget in the midst of a worsening economy that forced legislators to cut funding to state agencies and consider several tax increase proposals.

On Thursday, Black unveiled a tax increase package that was a combination of the various proposals made by the House, the Senate and Gov. Mike Easley.

The tax package breezed through the House Finance Committee on Thursday, but it remains unclear whether the proposal has enough votes to clear the full House.

But Black said he decided not to bring up the legislation during Monday's session -- bomb threat or not. "I wasn't going to bring out the bill today," said Black, adding that finishing touches were being put on the legislation and that it would hit the House today.

Black would not say if he had enough votes to pass the legislation. "You never know whether you have enough votes to pass something until you actually vote on it," he said.

But most legislators' attention was diverted from the tax proposal by the bomb scare.

Rep. Thomas Wright, D-Brunswick, complained outside that the Legislative Building that it was too easy for anyone to get into the building.

"We need to improve security in this building," Wright said. "If we don't want to protect ourselves, we could at least protect the people that come to see us."

In April, the U.S. Secret Service provided the General Assembly with a list of ways security could be improved in the building -- including the presence of bomb-sniffing dogs.

But Basnight said it was impossible to prevent further bomb threats.

"There's no way to stop this, if someone calls in a bomb threat, you have to get out of the building."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.