Legislative Update: May 2020

General Assembly’s COVID-19 Session Completed

The North Carolina General Assembly met for five days to consider budget and policy matters in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In bipartisan, nearly unanimous votes, the legislature appropriated $1.6 billion from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

The UNC System received $44.4 million for allocation to campuses to mitigate COVID-19 impacts, including costs incurred by switching to digital coursework and cleaning of facilities in preparation for reopening campuses.

The legislature is expected to return to Raleigh later this summer to consider additional COVID-19 relief measures and to pass the 2020-21 state budget.

COVID-19 Research Workforce Relief

U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis is co-leading the COVID-19 Research Workforce Relief Senate letter with U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts. The letter advocates for $26 billion in research relief funding to be included in the fourth stimulus package. Five members of the North Carolina House delegation, Alma Adams, G.K. Butterfield, George Holding, David Price and David Rouzer, signed onto the House version of this letter.

The requested funding would:

• Cover supplements for research grants and contracts
• Provide emergency relief to sustain research support personnel and base operating costs for core research facilities
• Fund additional graduate student and postdoc fellowships, traineeships and research assistantships