A recent headline, “NC Republicans create “secret police force” got our attention – “North Carolina’s new $30 billion state budget contains a provision that gives extraordinary investigative powers to a partisan oversight committee co-chaired by Senate Leader Phil Berger (R) and House Speaker Tim Moore (R).  

NC State Senator Graig Meyer’s weighs in – “I don’t think I have ever publicly called the GOP leadership ‘authoritarian’ because that’s not a term I take lightly, but their approach to seizing power and cover up their tracks now fits the bill,” Meyer told Popular Information. “The hypotheticals of how Gov Ops power could be abused are endless. Verbal assurances of restraint are inadequate; we need clear guardrails in law.” Meyer added that he “hope[s] that members of both parties can see what’s happening before it’s too late.” 

Read the story at https://popular.info/p/north-carolina-republicans-create?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Listen to Senator Meyer’s initial comments on the floor.

Learn more at: https://www.wral.com/story/government-gestapo-created-in-nc-budget-democratic-lawmakers-raise-alarms-brushed-off-by-gop/21060509/

From WRAL – Senate leader Phil Berger also defended the change — which had never been publicly announced or debated before showing up in the state budget on Wednesday, about 18 hours before the first vote was called.

“We have a constitutional obligation to oversee what the executive branch is doing, so the GovOps committee is actually being modernized, to actually function,” Berger said.

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