Disaster Relief
For the second time in the past year, North Carolina and 25 other states are suing FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security for threatening to withhold millions of dollars in disaster relief and counterterrorism funding. FEMA and DHS manage several grant programs that give states millions each year to respond to natural disasters and fight against cyberattacks.
Now, the federal agencies are requiring states to agree to two new conditions in order to use the grant money — one that would allow the federal agencies to terminate a grant for any reason, and another that would allow them to revoke at least 20% of the funding unless states agree to change the way they run their elections.
The new rules could put at risk over $17 million that has gone to North Carolina this fiscal year, including $9 million in emergency management funding that the state has used to fund recovery efforts in Western North Carolina following Tropical Storm Helene.
“The last time they tried this, we took them to court and won. Now they’re trying again, and I expect we’ll beat them — again,” said North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson in a Monday news release. “Hopefully they get the message: Don’t threaten our first responders unless you’re ready for a fight.”
FEMA wasn’t immediately available to comment on the allegations made in the lawsuit.
Under the new requirements, announced July 10, federal officials want states to verify that every registered voter is a U.S. citizen using the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database. SAVE has been used by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for years, and was initially created to check if foreign-born U.S. residents were eligible for public benefits.
Under the Trump administration, SAVE has been expanded, now allowing election officials to check the citizenship of registered voters.
To do so, it uses data from the Social Security Administration, often performing bulk checks on individuals’ citizenship. However, a federal judge ruled in June that the Trump administration’s expansion of SAVE was unlawful, and that the system can’t be used as is; the system has already mistakenly flagged several U.S. citizens as noncitizens, according to the ruling.
In 2023, the Social Security Administration told the Fair Elections Center, a nonprofit research group, that their data “merely represents a snapshot of the individual’s citizenship status at the time of their interaction with SSA,” and that “SSA’s records do not provide definitive information about an individual’s citizenship status.”
According to the complaint from Monday’s lawsuit, DHS also wants states to “transition their voting systems to equipment that reads hand-marked paper ballots, conduct costly post-election audits according to nonexistent guidelines to be set by the Secretary of Homeland Security, and more.”
In North Carolina, that could require some 13 counties to “spend millions of dollars replacing voting equipment the State Board already certified after mandatory testing by nationally accredited laboratories,” according to the release from Jackson’s office. FEMA doesn’t have oversight of elections.
I-77 Benefits
North Carolina Transportation Secretary Daniel Johnson told community leaders last week that Interstate 77 toll lanes could provide more community benefits to west Charlotte, so long as local governments reverse an earlier decision and back the project. One possible community benefit would be two new grocery stores to address food deserts on West Boulevard and near Five Points.
Charlotte business leader Malcomb Coley organized last Friday’s meeting with Johnson and neighborhood leaders. Coley described the meeting as a listening session in which community members proposed greenways, bike lanes and recreation space for the west side if the toll lanes were built. He also said Johnson told a group that the private toll lane developer could probably finance those things and also help pay for the new grocery stores.
The West Boulevard Neighborhood Coalition is trying to raise $15 million to build a grocery co-op near the Stratford Richardson YMCA on West Boulevard. Historic West End Partners is also trying to build a grocery at Five Points near Johnson C. Smith University.
If DOT were building the toll lanes on its own, it wouldn’t be able to use tax dollars to pay for grocery stores. But because a private developer would finance most of the $4 billion toll lanes, the store could possibly be included as a community benefit. Motorists would end up paying the cost of the grocery stores and other benefits through tolls.
Corine Mack of the NAACP emailed Charlotte City Council members this week and said people at the meeting felt optimistic about finally implementing initiatives that would address long-standing concerns in Charlotte’s West Corridor communities.
The Charlotte City Council in May voted 6-5 to reject the state’s plan to partner with a private developer to build the toll lanes. Soon after, the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization voted to reject the project. But Republican state lawmakers wrote in a provision in the state budget that would require local governments that vote against the project to repay the DOT roughly $60 million in design costs.
Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, who heads the DOT, has criticized the payback provision. But he has not instructed the DOT to present Charlotte with other options to improve the highway that do not include toll lanes.
Charlotte City Council member Victoria Watlington has called on Stein to protect Charlotte and others from having to repay the fine by declaring their actions not unilateral. The state budget requires the DOT to instruct the local governments that they must pay back the money. Stein’s office declined to answer a question from WFAE as to whether he would do that. Stein’s office said in a statement this week that “My office and the NCDOT continue to engage local leaders. I continue to believe that decisions about infrastructure and ways to enhance road safety in Charlotte should be collaborative and locally driven.”
The Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization is voting on the toll lanes again in late September.
Spending Investigation
More charges are expected in a criminal investigation into influence-buying at the state legislature, Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said Tuesday — a day after WRAL first reported on a newly released search warrant highlighting questionable spending by a politically connected nonprofit group at strip clubs, beach vacation rentals and sports outings.
Four lobbyists active in the state legislature already face charges over separate trips Greater Carolina organized, with lobbyists and state lawmakers traveling together on tours to Kentucky bourbon distilleries. All have pleaded not guilty.
Freeman indicated she doesn’t expect more charges against those four. However, she said she does anticipate others will be charged soon. She declined to say who those charges could be against, citing the ongoing investigation.
An advocate for government ethics reform, Brooks Fuller of the group Common Cause North Carolina, believes it could include elected officials. “If these allegations in these indictments are accurate, then I would not be surprised to see indictments against lawmakers not far behind,” Fuller said in an interview.
No elected officials are named in this new search warrant, but several were identified in past warrants connected to the Kentucky bourbon trail trips.
The new search warrant indicates specific spending by the Greater Carolina treasurer that is under the microscope. It includes:
- $15,128.80 spent at strip clubs in Clearwater, FL and North Myrtle Beach, SC
- $26,602.84 on a beach vacation rental on Emerald Isle
- $26,454 with the Carolina Panthers
- $10,981.14 at an Atlanta-area TopGolf
The Greater Carolina treasurer is also named in a past warrant with questionable spending, including:
- $7,920.12 on at least five trips to the Boca Raton Resort
- $7,660.58 at Giorgio Armani in Beverly Hills
- $4,079 at Carolina Men’s Clinic
This newest search warrant says nonprofits, including Greater Carolina, are legally obligated to “further the common good and general welfare of the people of the community” because of their nonprofit status. The SBI agent in charge wrote, “there is probable cause to believe that information contained in the bank records… may be evidence of conduct and activities constituting the crime of obtaining property by false pretense by individuals associated with Greater Carolina, Inc.”
Environmental Permits
Nuclear energy plants and natural gas projects in North Carolina could soon be approved and built faster than before. The state budget directs the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality to use a fast-tracked permitting program system under Title 41 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, fittingly referred to as FAST-41.
The permitting program expedites approval for projects, including energy infrastructure like nuclear reactors and natural gas plants, that supporters say are often slowed by bureaucratic processes. The program’s intention is to speed up environmental reviews, develop predictable timelines and provide accountability.
Environmental advocacy organizations have warned that fast-tracking environmental reviews poses potential harm. Former President Barack Obama signed the provision into law during his second term. President Donald Trump, during both of his terms further accelerated the environmental review process and expanded the program eligibility to include critical mineral mining and energy projects.
DEQ is required to “fully participate in the FAST-41 process for any critical energy infrastructure project” that requires the agency’s authorization, according to the state budget passed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly and signed into law this month by Democratic Gov. Josh Stein.
The provision specifies that DEQ cannot refuse or delay its participation in the program. The budget defines critical energy infrastructure projects as nuclear energy facilities, natural gas-fired electric generation and natural gas pipelines.
DEQ declined to be interviewed but sent The News & Observer a statement. “DEQ is reviewing the language in the bill to determine how we will implement the requirements,” the agency said.
The Southern Environmental Law Center, which is based in Chapel Hill, said the budget provision may put an unfunded mandate on DEQ to conduct the reviews.
Bill Norton, a spokesperson for Duke Energy, told The N&O that the energy company appreciates “policymakers’ efforts to support our customers by advancing policies that result in more timely and more affordable infrastructure projects to support North Carolina’s growth.”
“We operate in one of the most highly regulated industries and will continue to meet strict state and federal regulatory requirements designed to keep communities and the environment safe,” he said.
Under the budget provisions, DEQ is required to meet and engage with any federal agency involved in the FAST-41 process, as well as provide target dates, milestones and deadlines to include in coordination documents. The agency is also directed to conduct environmental reviews concurrently with the federal government, “except when otherwise prohibited by State or federal law,” according to the budget. The budget includes other administrative responsibilities for DEQ, including reviewing project applications and coordinating with the federal government to share materials, studies and documents “to avoid duplicative review.”
Brooks Rainey, legislative counsel at the Southern Environmental Law Center, said that the program “requires aggressive timelines for massive infrastructure projects, which unnecessarily limits DEQ’s ability to conduct thoughtful environmental review, and leaves little room for thorough, science-based safety checks on projects that can have huge implications for the environment.”
“The provision also raises the question of whether the budget provides adequate funding for DEQ to conduct such reviews,” she said.