Politics

Helene relief remains a hostage of House-Senate budget impasse

By Sarah Michels, Carolina Public Press, Published: June 19, 2025

In late May, the latest Helene recovery package passed unanimously in the North Carolina House. But then it stalled for weeks, as Senate Republicans opted to use it as a bargaining chip in ongoing, tense budget negotiations about the relief bill.

That is, until Tuesday, when a super minority of Senate Democrats used one of the few tools at their disposal — a discharge petition — to force action on the relief bill. While their move wasn’t entirely successful, it did make some legislative ground on the Helene bill.

Now, the Helene relief bill is in the Senate’s main budget committee, and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, told reporters he expects further movement before the legislature breaks for a months-long recess at the end of June.

As it stands, the Senate budget includes $700 million for Helene recovery, taken from various state funds. The House leaves Helene recovery out of its budget, instead opting to pass a separate $565 million package while budget negotiations drag on.

While the Senate appropriates about $26 million for specific spending and puts the rest in the Helene Fund, the House appropriates $464 million, most of it from a previously allocated $500 taken back from NCInnovation.

What’s a discharge petition?

Berger and House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, are at a standstill.

The approach to Helene recovery is one of a few sticking points in budget negotiations, which Berger said will not end by July 1. But tax policy is perhaps the stickiest; the Senate wants to move faster toward income tax rate reductions and the House wants to move slower.

After the House passed its budget, Berger expressed his intent to use the Helene relief bill at the negotiating table to get what his caucus wants in the budget. But weeks later, the chambers still have no agreement.

With a monthslong vacation coming up at the end of the month, if lawmakers are going to pass Helene relief, they’ve got to move quickly. So, tiring of the stalemate, Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch, D-Wake, decided to act.

As a superminority, Senate Democrats can’t do much to move the needle. They can try to befriend members of the majority party, but mostly they have to rely on rhetorical moves, Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper said.

On politically popular bills, such as the Helene relief bill, the discharge petition may just be the smartest way to go, he said.

A discharge petition is a backdoor legislative maneuver used to get around leadership blocking legislation that is broadly popular among legislators. If used successfully, a discharge petition can bring a bill to the floor for a vote without leadership approval. But legislators must hop several hurdles on the way there.

First, a bill has to have been stalled in a given committee for at least 10 calendar days. Then, whoever wants the bill to be brought for a vote has to get two-thirds of the chamber to sign the discharge petition, stating that they want the bill to be removed from committee and brought to a vote. In this case, that means Democrats and Republicans have to agree that the bill should move forward.

If legislators get enough signatures, they file the discharge petition with the Senate clerk. The following day, the clerk puts the petition on the calendar, meaning that senators have to vote again on whether they’d like to remove the stalled bill from committee. If two-thirds agree, then the following day, the actual bill is held for a vote.

Relief bill discharge failed successfully?

Batch sent an email to state senators Monday, informing them of the Senate Democrats’ plan to file a discharge petition to remove the Helene relief bill from the Senate Rules Committee, where it had stalled for three weeks, to the floor.

Tuesday, Senate Republicans moved the bill from the Rules Committee to the Senate Base Budget and Appropriations Committee, which handles appropriations bills. Berger denied moving the bill because of the threat of a discharge petition.

Instead, once it was clear budget negotiations would extend past July, Berger said his caucus moved the relief bill to the appropriations committee so they could take action on it before the budget eventually passes.

“I think it’s an indication that (Democrats) really have no ability to actually impact the final result of things unless they work with us,” Berger said. “If they try to work against us, it’s just not going to work.”

Sen. Julie Mayfield, D-Buncombe, told reporters she hopes Senate Republicans finally moved the relief bill “maybe because they wanted to frustrate our petition, and because they’re actually going to do something.”

Batch isn’t so optimistic. If Senate Republicans wanted to act, they could have done so a month ago, or brought the relief bill straight to the floor.

“We do not believe that you should take the lives of North Carolinians and all the devastation that’s occurred in Western North Carolina and play petty politics, which is exactly what happened,” she said.

Either way, the move saved Senate Republicans from choosing between two bad options — signing the Democrats’ discharge petition and showing disloyalty to their party leadership or not signing the petition and facing inevitable attack ads on how they were complicit in blocking Helene relief.

“Nobody wants to be on record as not supporting Helene relief,” Cooper said.

Batch’s move showed her chops as the new Senate minority leader, he added.

“She made a rhetorical move, and the leadership followed and did something at least not inconsistent with what she wants,” he said. “Now, we’ll see what the final vote is in the end, but I think she won the battle. We still don’t know who won the war.”