Lawmakers’ 2021 focus: COVID relief, slow vaccine rollout and diluting Cooper’s power
State lawmakers have prioritized COVID-19 as the major issue needing to be addressed during the legislative session that ceremonially begins Wednesday.
“I think almost everything else that we do will play off of what that situation is in terms of the virus,” said Senate leader Phil Berger.
Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore, both Republicans, spoke with The News & Observer last week about their session plans regarding COVID-19. The first COVID-19 and health care discussions for the session began Tuesday in a joint legislative committee meeting.
Berger and Moore said last week that neither of them are happy that North Carolina ranked as one of the worst states for getting vaccines out to residents, based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data on vaccines administered. As of Monday afternoon, North Carolina ranked in the bottom 10 states on the CDC’s population-adjusted ranking.
Lawmakers and the Democratic governor may also return to their dispute over who controls the state’s response to the pandemic. Berger and Moore said Gov. Roy Cooper has been given too much power when it comes to making emergency orders for the state.
But Moore and Berger said before they can tackle anything else they need to look at the COVID-19 relief package recently handed down from the federal government.
“That’ll probably take up the largest amount of time and energy at the beginning and then I would anticipate that we transition into the state budget,” Moore said.
He added that lawmakers aren’t yet clear on what the latest legislation from federal lawmakers does for the state. He said lawmakers are working to get a better idea of what the state needs to do to either distribute funds or implement new programs.
State level
Cooper said in an interview with The News & Observer on Friday that he’s been speaking with members of both parties about how they can work together this session and said they have a common interest in COVID-19 issues.
“We’ve all agreed that we need to go ahead and appropriate this federal money from this last package that has come down,” Cooper said. “One of the things we hashed out is that we didn’t want to wait until the general fund budget, we wanted to go ahead and get this money out.”
Cooper added that this funding has less flexibility, which means fewer decisions for state leaders on where to route the money. He added that the federal dollars are earmarked for helping educators, small businesses and people needing assistance paying rent and utilities.
From there, lawmakers plan to look at what relief is needed from the state level.
Cooper said though federal money is coming to help with unemployment compensation, he hopes the state looks at providing money for that as well.
Berger said he expects to hear from interest groups and constituents about their needs in regards to coronavirus relief.
And Moore said he plans to use the session to help businesses hit hardest by the pandemic. He said that could come in the form of tax, administrative and regulatory relief.
He said he also wants to follow the lead of the federal government and make the Paycheck Protection Program grants nontaxable for businesses needing help.
Berger said his focus is on ensuring that North Carolinians have the access they need to COVID-19 vaccines.
Vaccine rollout
Both Moore and Berger expressed frustration over the state’s vaccine rollout.
“I really want to see us do all we can to make sure the vaccine rollout continues so that those who want the vaccine can get it and get it as soon as possible,” Moore said.
Berger said his two biggest concerns is making sure there are enough vaccines in North Carolina and that those are getting into residents’ arms.
He added that North Carolina officials know that leaving mass recovery efforts to local entities doesn’t work. He said that has become clear during hurricane recovery efforts and is proving true in the vaccine rollout as well.
“I think that that’s a predictable process problem that should have been dealt with on the front end as opposed to what appears at this point to be scurrying to try to rectify a bad situation,” Berger said.
Moore added that getting vaccines to the people is “one thing that doesn’t need to be messed up.”
Ford Porter, Cooper’s spokesman, responded to Berger and Moore’s statements with criticism of how the legislative leaders have handled the pandemic.
“The state is using every resource with urgent priority to help health providers get vaccines in arms and the pace of vaccinations increases each week,” Porter said. “It is interesting to hear criticism on COVID-19 from Speaker Moore and President Pro Tem Berger in that they have mostly ignored safety protocols throughout this pandemic, including today during the hearing where several of their members did not wear masks.”
In that meeting, Sen. Ralph Hise, a Spruce Pine Republican, asked Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen about the vaccine rollout.
Cohen acknowledged that some of the local providers had a slow start but said there has been a 113% increase in administering vaccines in the past week.
“I know we all feel a sense of urgency to get out this vaccine quickly, I can report that we are getting much faster,” she said.
Cohen said that some providers said they delayed out of concerns about whether they would receive a second dose for patients. Both COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in the United States require two doses for all patients. Cohen said she had to assure those providers that a second dose was coming and ask them to start distribution of the first dose immediately.
She said she’s working with providers to try to understand what stands in the way of their getting the vaccines out quickly. She said if the issue is insurmountable she is having those agencies partner with one another.
Cohen told Hise she commits to speeding up getting the vaccines to the public.
In an interview following the committee meeting, Republican committee chair Sen. Joyce Krawiec said the legislature does not currently have plans to take up any vaccine-related legislation, but that lawmakers can continue to make recommendations “to let them know we expect better from you, and we expect you to pick up the ball and deliver those vaccinations into people’s arms.”
“We’re going to hold their feet to the fire to see that the vaccinations are put in people’s arms in a timely fashion,” Krawiec said. “If things don’t get better, I would expect that my colleagues will be clamoring for us to do something.”
Cooper’s power
Berger said another concern that will be raised during the session is the amount of power Cooper has to make emergency orders without input.
Lawmakers have been critical of Cooper throughout his response to the pandemic, saying that he has issued orders that have affected the state’s economy without any buy-in from other leaders.
Moore said he is “pretty sure” there will be more legislation this fall to try and modify the Emergency Management Act. Moore offered few details other than to say the legislature wants the elected leaders on the Council of State to sign off on Cooper’s emergency orders.
Legislators tried that last summer, but Cooper vetoed the bill, saying that it added bureaucratic red tape to his ability to make fast decisions in the middle of an emergency.
Cooper on Friday reiterated his concerns about changing his powers in the middle of a pandemic.
“Our focus has been from the beginning to save lives, we do listen to the data and the science in making decisions and continue to do so,” Cooper said. “We’ve been communicating almost daily with the General Assembly about what’s going on with the pandemic. They know, I believe, how critical this situation is right now.”
Cooper added that modifying the Emergency Management Act may be something to look into later in the year.
“Right now though, we are complying with the law, I think the court decisions have shown that,” Cooper said Friday. “I think we should spend our time right now on prevention and slowing the spread of this virus, getting people vaccinated and really making sure we pay attention to our economic recovery.”
Like the legislature’s majority, a majority of the Council of State is Republican.
“I continue to have concerns about how from the get-go we’ve had a situation where the executive branch has assumed full control over all manners of things dealing with the pandemic,” Berger said. “There has been too little, in my opinion, not just oversight, but participation in decision making on the way things are being handled.”
Legislative vaccines
What Berger and Moore agreed people won’t see this session is lawmakers jumping to the front of the line to get vaccinated.
Both leaders have concerns about how vaccines are prioritized. Berger doesn’t think that young prisoners should get vaccinated before the elderly in the general public. Moore is concerned about the firm cutoffs between age groups, such as the one that gives everyone 75 and up priority over people a bit younger.
When it comes to their colleagues, they both agree that lawmakers should receive vaccines in the same order as others do based on their ages, underlying illnesses and careers.
All 170 members of the General Assembly and their staff plan to gather together for months at the Legislative Building for the session. But Berger said that shouldn’t give them any heightened ability to receive the vaccine.
“I’m not aware that there’s any particular provision that would allow legislators to jump to the front of the line,” Berger said. “If there were, you would have heard me scream.”
This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 4:53 PM with the headline "Lawmakers’ 2021 focus: COVID relief, slow vaccine rollout and diluting Cooper’s power."
.jpg)