Stein warns lawmakers against ‘social war’ bills

Hurricane Helene recovery in western North Carolina was still top of mind for Gov. Josh Stein at Tuesday’s Council of State meeting, saying he’s glad it was the first bill the state legislature passed during his early weeks in the executive mansion.

“Well I’m glad that the first bill they sent me was one I could sign and not veto, and I hope it stays that way,” Stein told reporters.

During the meeting, Stein reflected on a visit he paid to Fairview, Buncombe County, and its volunteer fire department last week, which marked the six-month anniversary of Hurricane Helene.

“That community just absolutely was the epicenter of the pain and suffering,” Stein, a Democrat, told Council of State members. “Of the 106 lives lost, 13 were in that community, 11 from one family, and one of them was Battalion Chief Tony Garrison, and his nephew, Brandon. They died in the effort of saving other people’s lives, and one thing that moved me is his wife, and daughter and his son, Dylan, who is getting his firefighting certificate and wants to become a volunteer firefighter like his father, who heroically died trying to save the lives of others.”

The governor said he was encouraged by the bipartisan response to Helene recovery and that they have been working hard in collaboration with the federal government and the legislature and is optimistic they can keep it going.

He thanked State Auditor Dave Boliek for making sure the money they receive for recovery efforts is spent efficiently and effectively. He also thanked State Treasurer Brad Briner for setting up the Helene Cashflow Loan Program so quickly and the General Assembly.

“I was really pleased that the first bill that came to my desk was the Hurricane Helene relief bill (The Disaster Recovery Act of 2025—Part I, HB 47)., Stein said. “$524 million obviously is just a drop in the bucket of the needs, but it’s enough for us to get started on a number of very important programs, including the housing repair reconstruction program. We want to have hammers and nails ready this summer.”

They also have funding for the Private Roads and Bridges Program.

He added that in addition to needing the state to chip in, they desperately need the federal government to respond commensurately to how it has responded to other major natural disasters in recent US history.

Stein’s office submitted the state’s proposed action plan for the $1.4 billion federal Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) grant last week.

While North Carolina was the fastest state to submit a plan following a major hurricane in the past decade, Stein said that HUD can take up to 45 days to approve the plan and finalize the grant.

In an executive order Stein granted state employees more leave time if they helped out with Helene’s recovery efforts in the affected counties in the western part of the state.

SOCIAL MEDIA DETRIMENTAL TO YOUNG TEENS

In a briefing with reporters after the meeting, Stein commented on a bill before the legislature banning young teens from using social media, and whether it was the right way for North Carolina to handle such an issue.

“I haven’t seen the specifics of the bill, so I can’t say specifically that, yes, this is legislation that I support,” he said. “I will tell you that social media is immensely damaging to the lives of young people. It takes up their time, it distracts them, and creates all kinds of mental health challenges for them, so we need to have more protections.”

Stein added that “more needs to be done” to protect young people from companies like Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, all companies Stein sued served as North Carolina’s attorney general.

“These companies see children not as children who deserve protection, but as people to exploit, dollar signs, and that’s wrong,” he said. “It’s damaging. We have got to do more to protect our young people.”

FENTANYL CONTROL UNIT REQUEST

According to a February report from researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill, fentanyl overdoses have declined 52.9%, from their peak in May 2023, from 4.545 to 2,142 in September 2024.

Still, Stein says his request for funding from the legislature for a fentanyl control unit, mentioned in his State of the State address, is critical to addressing the opioid crisis.

“Fentanyl is the deadliest drug to ever hit this country,” Stein told reporters. “Absolutely devastating losing a couple thousand lives to overdoses every year, and most of those people have fentanyl in their systems when they die. We started to see a slight downturn in overdoses, yes, which is wonderful, wonderful news, but still, historically, we’re at an incredibly high point, so we’ve got to dedicate resources to getting this poison out of our communities to the fullest extent possible.”

Stein’s proposed federal control unit has two parts. The first is a unit within the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) dedicated exclusively to working with law enforcement to go after the drug trafficking rings peddling fentanyl. The second is a unit of prosecutors in the Department of Justice that works with local district attorneys to bring these cases, which are very time-consuming and complicated because they cross jurisdictions and require wiretaps that go up the chain.

Stein is optimistic that he can find common ground with the legislature on the problem of fentanyl, as he worked with them when he was attorney general on several bipartisan measures to tackle the fentanyl and opioid crisis.

VETOING BILLS

Stein’s predecessor and close ally, former Gov. Roy Cooper, vetoed more bills during his tenure than all other North Carolina governor combined. When asked about that record and this legislative session, Stein warned lawmakers against sending “ideological” and “social war” bills to his desk.

“I think that there’s an opportunity for us to avoid these ideological bills, these social war bills that really just serve to distract us,” Stein said. “I think if I started listing the number of bills that I was concerned about, we might be here for a while. It is the bill introduction deadline, and there are a lot of bills that have been introduced, not all of which have much support within the Republican caucus itself, so we’ll figure out these questions as we get further down the line.”

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