A bill that is threatening North Carolina's housing and safety is back on the N.C. General Assembly floor! HB 488 has already passed the North Carolina House and Senate (S378) and was vetoed by Governor Cooper on Friday, July 7th. However, there is still a possibility that this bill could become law if the legislature overrides his veto.

Please contact your House and Senate representatives to ask that they sustain Governor Cooper’s veto.  You can easily find your Legislator’s contact information (phone and email) here!

Here is some simple text you can use or modify for contacting your legislators if you like:

Dear _____,  I am writing to ask you to vote to sustain Governor Cooper’s veto of the very bad building-code-hampering bill HB 488. 

 Governor Cooper made the following points in his veto, and I strongly agree.

“This bill stops important work to make home construction safer from disaster and more energy efficient, and ultimately will cost homeowners and renters more money. The bill also imperils North Carolina’s ability to qualify for FEMA funds by freezing residential building code standards. Not only does the bill wipe out years of work to make homes safer and more affordable, it also violates the Constitution by rigging the way rules are made.”

Background on HB 488:  

By rigging the board to require 9 votes to approve rules and conduct business, the bill violates the Constitution by failing to follow McCrory v. Berger despite giving the Governor 7 appointments to the legislature’s 6. The bill also requires board members to undergo Senate confirmation and takes away the Governor’s ability to remove an appointee. These changes violate the separation of powers clause and further allows the legislature to put its thumb on the scale in these important safety decisions. 

God’s blessings and thank you for your service to our state.

If you would like to know more about this bill, continue reading…

For the past two years North Carolina’s Building Code Council has evaluated potential updates to state building energy conservation codes. The Council is currently weighing an update that would bring us in line with 2021 standards, improving upon our current codes, which are essentially from 2009. 

Now, this legislature is attempting to subvert the efforts of the building experts by preventing efforts to update the energy codes until 2031. This would mean new homes in North Carolina would be built to 20-year-old code standards that are less-efficient and more expensive for occupants to operate during a time of significant utility rate increases, and lead to our state missing out on federal FEMA funding. You can read this letter to our state legislators and Governor Cooper for more context!

Lastly, please thank Governor Cooper for standing up for the lives of North Carolinians, by vetoing such dangerous legislation. This bill is truly a justice issue that impacts the people and environment of North Carolina, please use your “Power & Light” from within and help protect the Veto on HB 488 today!