In committing to the work of becoming anti-racist, we know that confronting our failures will be difficult and painful. Guided by faith and grace, we are willing to accept this challenge and to do the necessary work.
FCNCL sends time-sensitive ACTION ALERTS on legislative issues related to our PRIORITIES. Read them here and take action. SIGN UP to receive alerts as they are issued.
2025 Action Alerts
Pass the NC Budget and Meet the Needs of North Carolinians (sent 11/00/2025)
We ask our participants to contact their state senators and urge them to speak out strongly in support of passing the budget bill already passed by the House.
The NC Legislature should pass a complete budget that meets the needs of the citizens of North Carolina by :
- Fully funding Medicaid expansion by replacing the funding of Medicaid lost from the Federal subsidy. It is clear that Medicaid Expansion has helped address the loss of medical facilities and professional medical staff from rural areas. This program is vital to the health of many North Carolinians.
- Fully supporting Public Education funding– rather than vouchers for private schools. Good education for all citizens is the foundation of Democracy.
- Providing state income tax credits for renewable energy.
- Supporting the adjusted budget triggers that will suspend tax cuts if certain revenue goals are not met, rather than continuing the 2023 triggers. The House budget recognizes that the state’s situation has changed due to uncertainty of money coming from the federal government, and anticipates greater spending to meet the needs of our residents. We need to be able to meet the health, education, and environmental needs of the people, not just maintain a low tax rate that primarily benefits the state’s wealthiest citizens.
Raises in base pay of teachers and public employees cannot be paid out until a budget is passed. North Carolina is one of the lowest states in the nation for teacher pay. Increases that are included in the House budget will help stem the outflow of qualified teachers from our state. Please encourage your senator to support the House budget and speak out to bring that budget to the Senate floor for a vote.
TAKE ACTION NOW. Let your SENATOR know (find him/her here: www.ncleg.gov/FindYourLegislators).
ACTION ALERT
Sustain Gov. Stein’s veto of HB 402 – the REINS ACT
The REINS Act was passed during this NC General Assembly session and calls for any new rules proposed by state boards and commissions that would cost more than $1 million to implement over 5 years to each be approved by a two-thirds legislative majority. Governor Stein wisely vetoed this bill, citing “an unworkable unanimity requirement” and added red tape. The Senate has overridden the veto on July 29, 2025, but the House still needs to take a vote on whether to sustain the veto or not.
NC has 340 boards and commissions overseeing issues ranging from Agriculture, to the Zoo, to Environmental Management. This law would hobble action on a wide range of issues, and create more barriers to timely adoption of essential rules to protect human health and environmental quality. Furthermore, the law is another step in consolidation of legislative control of government functions, injecting partisanship rather than expertise into the process.
We call on the North Carolina General Assembly to sustain Governor Stein’s veto of the REINS Act, which threatens to hamstring the state’s responsibility to fulfill its fundamental obligation to protect public health, safety, and environmental quality.
TAKE ACTION NOW. Let your REPRESENTATIVE know (find him/her here: www.ncleg.gov/FindYourLegislators), as well as the Speaker of the House, Representative Destin Hall (Destin.Hall@ncleg.gov) that you support Governor Stein’s veto of HB 402.
Sample script:
Dear (legislator),
I am a member of the Friends Committee on North Carolina Legislation, which is guided by policy priorities aligned with our Quaker beliefs. Quakers support the vital responsibility of government to protect public health, safety and environmental quality.
Led by these principles I believe that the REINS Act would seriously impede North Carolina from exercising its fundamental obligation to preserve these protections.. Expert commissions and boards are gathered to provide expert knowledge needed to make wise decisions that provide adequate protection of health, safety, and environmental quality. This bill will greatly impede the ability of boards and commissions to do this work, and will be subject to partisanship which can negatively influence their expert decisions.
I urge you to sustain Governor Stein’s veto of HB 402, which requires an extraordinary level of agreement from a divided partisan legislature, and imposes hurdles to timely enactment of sensible rules that ensure the health and safety and environmental quality of our state.