RALEIGH — The N.C. General Assembly reconvened Tuesday to consider Gov. Pat McCrory’s two recent vetoes — but state representatives took less than an hour to vote to override both.
The N.C. Senate will meet today at 9 a.m. to vote on the vetoes of both a welfare drug testing bill and an immigration bill.
House Bill 392 would require background checks and drug testing for some welfare applicants and would prohibit fleeing felons and probation and parole violators from receiving welfare benefits.
House Bill 786, the immigration bill, would extend how long employees can work without undergoing a background check through E-Verify, a system used to ensure workers are citizens, from 90 days to nine months.
The N.C. House of Representatives voted to override McCrory’s veto of the drug testing bill 77-39, which met the required three-fifths majority.
McCrory said in a letter to legislators that he objected to the bill because it would not be funded by the new state budget. He also expressed concerns about the bill going against Fourth Amendment rights.
“I am concerned that the means for establishing reasonable suspicion, as outlined in the bill, are not sufficient to mandate a drug test under the Fourth Amendment,” he wrote.
The welfare drug testing bill passed the House in April with a 106-6 vote.
In an executive order, McCrory included the section to do background checks on recipients of welfare services, but cut the section that would require drug testing.
