Free Republic

North Carolina’s Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a Republican-led bill on Thursday that would make sweeping changes to the state’s election laws, including the rules for absentee voting and same-day registration. The veto is likely to be overridden by the state’s GOP-controlled General Assembly. “Right now, legislative Republicans in North Carolina are pushing an all-out assault on the right to vote,” the governor charged in a Thursday video message. [snip] “We are creating a secure election system that makes it easy to vote and protects election integrity,” said Republican state Sen. Warren Daniel of Burke County. “But Gov. Cooper wants...

Legislators in North Carolina overrode several vetoes by Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper on Wednesday to pass three new laws that protect children from the harmful consequences of radical gender ideology.Thanks to the bipartisan efforts of the state’s General Assembly, men in ladyface are barred from infiltrating women’s sports, a policy decision a majority of Americans support because they know that males have an indisputable biological and physiological advantage and women have a right to privacy and safety in places like locker rooms. Teachers, under another new law, must also alert parents of their children’s gender confusion issues instead of transitioning...

Transgender youth in North Carolina lost access Wednesday to gender-affirming treatments after the Republican-led General Assembly overrode the Democratic governor’s vetoes of that legislation and other bills touching on gender in sports and LGBTQ+ instruction in the classroom. GOP supermajorities in the House and Senate enacted — over Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto — a bill barring medical professionals from providing hormone therapy, puberty-blocking drugs and surgical gender-transition procedures to anyone under 18, with limited medical exceptions. The policy takes effect immediately, but minors who had begun treatment before Aug. 1 may continue receiving that care if their doctors deem it...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Transgender rights take center stage in North Carolina again Wednesday as GOP supermajorities in the General Assembly attempt to override the governor’s vetoes of legislation banning gender-affirming health care for minors and limiting transgender participation in school sports. The state House will hold the first of two votes Wednesday afternoon in a bid to enact the bills over Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s opposition. If House Republicans quickly muster the votes needed, the Senate might aim to complete the override with a decisive final vote Wednesday evening, the Senate leader’s office said. The GOP holds veto-proof majorities...

The Louisiana House of Representatives and the state Senate on Tuesday overrode Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards’ veto of a bill that makes offering so-called gender-affirming care to minors illegal. The bill will now become law and takes effect on January 1, 2024.Both GOP-dominated bodies were able to achieve the required two-thirds majority, with the House voting 76-23 and the Senate 28-11.The law will put an end to the disturbing practice of surgeries and hormone therapies for minors experiencing gender dysphoria who think they can change their sex. Despite what “the experts” tell you, the science on the benefits of...

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, vetoed three bills this week, one of which would have protected children from life-altering gender surgeries performed under the guise of “affirmation.” Cooper vetoed House Bill 808, also known as the Act to Prohibit Gender Transition Procedures for Minors, which specifically states that it would be “unlawful for a medical professional to perform a surgical gender transition procedure on a minor or to prescribe, provide, or dispense puberty-blocking drugs or cross-sex hormones to a minor.” The bill provided exceptions, including for those with a medically verifiable disorder of sex development. According to the...

The Senate dealt a bipartisan blow to President Joe Biden’s student loan debt cancellation plan on Thursday, voting to support a resolution that blocks it from becoming law and also restarts monthly loan payments that have been paused since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic – the most significant rejection to date of the White House signature higher education policy. House Republicans adopted the resolution last month, but Biden is set to veto it. The White House warned in a statement of administrative policy that he would veto the measure if it makes it to his desk, saying it would...

Election irregularities have haunted Maricopa County, Ariz. for the past ten years, raising doubts about the legitimacy of a number of elections, including the 2020 presidential election, where Biden’s state-certified victory was a tiny fraction of the overall vote, and again in 2022 in the election between Katie Hobbs and Kari Lake. Since then, Republicans in Arizona — and other states with election issues — have sought to reform the state’s elections to help ensure that everyone in the state can feel confident that results were conducted fairly. Democrats have aggressively opposed the efforts and on Friday, Hobbs vetoed several...

The White House on Monday threatened to veto a Republican-led bill in the House that would block the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program. In a Statement of Administration Policy, the White House expressed its concerns with a House resolution to disapprove of the student loan forgiveness plan, which provides up to $20,000 in relief for millions of eligible student loan borrowers. ADMINISTRATION White House threatens to veto GOP measure blocking student loan debt relief program BY BRETT SAMUELS - 05/22/23 1:32 PM ET SHARE TWEET The White House on Monday threatened to veto a Republican-led bill in the House...

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo campaigned on a pledge to protect the Second Amendment rights of Nevada residents, and the former Clark County sheriff delivered on his word on Wednesday by whipping out his veto pen and rejecting three bills approved by the Democrat-controlled legislature. Even more deliciously, Lombardo’s move came just hours before anti-gun groups had scheduled a press conference designed to pressure the governor to adopt the new restrictions. In his veto message, Lombardo said that he could not support any legislation that infringes on the rights of Nevada gun owners, adding that “much of the legislation I vetoed...

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Saturday vetoed a bill banning abortions after the first trimester, teeing up an override vote by the GOP supermajority legislature. The Democrat decried the legislation, which he vetoed at a rally in downtown Raleigh, as a “complicated and confusing monster bill” that makes patients “navigate a wicked obstacle course just to get care.” “Standing in the way of progress right now is this Republican supermajority legislature that only took 48 hours to turn the clock back 50 years on women’s health,” Cooper said. “Let’s be clear: This bill has nothing to do with making...

Joe Biden isn’t backtracking on his commitment to keep the border wide open.Despite his weak protestations that he is committed to finding a solution to the border crisis his own policies created, today he promised to veto a Republican bill to beef up border security.It’s an interesting move for a man of whom nobody approves who has decided to campaign for reelection.Biden dismisses GOP border security bill as too tough on illegal immigrants, says he’ll veto – https://t.co/x6OhhvTbeS – @washtimes— Mike Glenn (@MikeRGlenn) May 8, 2023There are between 700,000 and a million migrants waiting to cross the border, and Biden’s...

President Joe Biden will veto the Republicans’ flagship border reform bill because it reduces the federal government’s ability to extract economic migrants from poor countries, according to a White House statement. The pending GOP border-protection bill is a “huge deal,” said Rosemary Jenks, a government relations director at NumbersUSA. “This is a [GOP] blueprint for 2025” if a Republican is elected to the White House, she added.

Texas state legislators voted to advance a bill that would raise the legal age to buy certain semi-automatic rifles from 18 years old to 21 years old on Monday. State Rep Jarvis Johnson posted a video of the moment HB 2744 was passed out of committee. It will be scheduled for a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives next. HB 2744 passed with a vote of 8-5. The vote came two days after a mass shooting at a mall killed eight people, including children. Protesters, including families of Uvalde shooting victims, had filled the statehouse to support...

President Biden on Monday vowed to veto a congressional resolution that would undo his freeze on solar panel component tariffs should it reach his desk. In a statement Monday, the White House called the moratorium essential to allowing the U.S. to transition to renewable energy while it builds its domestic manufacturing capacity. “This rule is necessary to satisfy the demand for reliable and clean energy while ensuring Commerce is able to rigorously enforce U.S. trade laws, hold trading partners accountable, and defend U.S. industries and workers from unfair trade actions,” the White House said in a statement. “Passage of this...

The White House has released a statement insisting that Joe Biden will veto the bill backed by former college swimmer Riley Gaines to protect women’s and girl’s sports. On Monday, the White House noted that Biden would not sign the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act if it makes it to the president’s desk. (H.R. 734) Saying, “The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. 734,” the statement makes a series of claims that simply are not true.

President Joe Biden on Thursday issued his second veto since taking office, halting a bipartisan resolution that would have reversed waterway regulations enacted by his administration last month. The Biden Amdinistration’s regulations issue protections for “hundreds of thousands of small streams, wetlands, and other waterways,” walking back deregulations implemented during the Trump Administration, as the Associated Press noted. Republicans and some Democrats, like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), have argued the new regulations are an executive branch overreach. After vetoing the resolution, Biden said his administration’s regulation “provides clear rules of the road that will help advance infrastructure projects, economic investments,...

On March 29, 2023, the North Carolina legislature voted to override the veto of Democrat North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper. In the Senate, as expected, the vote was 30 to 19, with 30 Republicans voting to override the veto of the Jim Crow era pistol permit law, 19 Democrats voting against the bill, and one Democrat not voting with an excused absence.In the House, there are 71 Republicans and 49 Democrats. 3/5 of the vote is required to override a veto. If all members voted, 72 votes would be required. In this case, three Democrats were excused from voting, so...

Today, March 29, the House voted 71-46 to override Governor Cooper’s veto of Senate Bill 41, a bill that recognizes law-abiding citizens’ right to self-defense while attending a church with a school attached and also repeals the redundant permit-to-purchase system. NRA thanks the Senate leadership of Senator Danny Britt, Senator Warren Daniel, Senator Jim Perry, Senator Phil Berger, and others for fighting to protect the rights of North Carolina’s law-abiding citizens. Also, on the House side, NRA thanks Speaker Tim Moore, Representative Destin Hall, and others for their tireless efforts to advance Second Amendment freedom in the Tar Heel State....

On March 15, 2023, House Bill 153 was sent to Democrat Kentucky Governor Beshear for his signature or veto. The Governor may ignore the bill as well. House Bill 153 orders state and Kentucky government employees not to cooperate with federal officers in the enforcement of federal firearms statutes, rules, or regulations passed after January 1, 2021. Such rules are expected to include the new BATFE rules on pistol braces and the new rule on the definition of what is considered a firearm. The bill is only enforceable on Kentucky state employees. It also forbids the expenditure of public funds...