Wednesday was a very exciting and interesting day, as I was able to attend a variety of thought-provoking and informative discussions. In the morning, I sat in on the Justice and Public Safety appropriations meeting, which was very cool to witness as it was one of the first steps taken on the House budget this year. As a result of Covid and other factors, both the Senate and House budgets are progressing much more slowly this year, but in this meeting the committee’s appropriations were discussed and it was shocking to hear the amounts of money allocated to specific endeavors (as well as what those endeavors were and their purposes).
Front of LB
Ashley and I met with various legislators throughout the day, including Representative Brenden Jones, Representative Riddell, and Johanna Reese, Deputy Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs at the NCDOT. However, my favorite part of the day was listening to the Senate Health Care committee meeting where they discussed a bill called the Human Life Nondiscrimination Act. This was particularly intriguing as many senators from both parties had strong opinions on the bill (which they voiced), and we got to hear from over a dozen speakers from the public as well. The contributors included multiple individuals diagnosed with Down syndrome as well as an OBGYN, Planned Parenthood, and social services dealing with disability in North Carolina.
Obviously, the decisions surrounding this bill were very complex and controversial, and the discussion on the floor reflected this. It was a memorable meeting to witness for sure.
In a committee meeting