Senator Sydney Batch on the 2025 legislative session and the possibility of veto overrides

NC Newsline

The North Carolina General Assembly has gone home for the month of July, and perhaps – depending on some of the political machinations between House and Senate Republican leaders – the rest of the summer. But that doesn’t mean there’s a lot to point to in the way of major accomplishments.

Not only have lawmakers yet to pass a new state budget to coincide with the fiscal year that began July 1, but the list of truly significant legislation in other areas – Helene relief, education, infrastructure — was extremely limited.

One of the most vocal critics of this situation has been Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch. Indeed, when Newsline’s Rob Schofield caught up with her recently for a special extended conversation, Batch described 2025 as one of the most unproductive legislative sessions in modern history.

In Part Two of our chat, we discussed some of the bills GOP leaders advanced from the far right’s culture war agenda, including their especially disturbing decision to hijack a consensus bill designed to protect people from revenge porn and transform it into a catchall for things like banning school books and denying health care to transgender people. We also discussed the fact that despite repeated assurances of their desire to quote “protect women,” how Republican leaders failed to advance a bill that would have enhanced insurance coverage for detecting breast cancer.

Click here for the full interview with Senate Democratic leader Sydney Batch.