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Welcome to This Week at the Capital, your detailed breakdown of the legislation that matters most to your business. The NC Chamber tracks the bills our advocacy team is monitoring, in accordance with our 2023 legislative agenda, describing where those bills are in the legislative process and whether we support or oppose them on your behalf.

Throughout the legislative session, bills of high importance to the business community are added under one of the three pillars of North Carolina Vision 2030, the NC Chamber Foundation’s strategic road map for our state’s future. These pillars include Education and Talent SupplyCompetitive Business Climate, and Infrastructure and Growth. Votes and sponsorships on the legislation listed here will ultimately be considered for inclusion in How They Voted, our post-session legislative report card.

November 2, 2023 Edition

Last week, the NC Chamber sent a letter to Mexico Ambassador Moctezuma regarding a stoppage of import permits for U.S. manufactured food supplements. COFEPRIS, an agency within the Ministry of Health, stopped issuing import permits for U.S. manufactured food supplements, impacting many U.S. businesses and North Carolina food manufacturers who provide safe and reliable products to the citizens of Mexico. These name brand products are sold widely in the U.S. and are compliant with strict regulations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The North Carolina House reached a tentative decision last week on who will serve as the next Speaker of the House. Representative Destin Hall will likely become speaker once Tim Moore’s term concludes. Majority Leader John Bell who was running for speaker has endorsed Hall and is expected to become the next Rules Committee Chair. We are pleased to see this decision reached in a timely and unified manner. A speaker has also been selected at the national level, and we remain grateful to North Carolina’s Rep. Patrick McHenry for his leadership as speaker pro tempore last month.

In this week’s news, you may have seen that Toyota is bringing 3,000 more jobs to a North Carolina electric battery plant. If not, you can read about it below in our News & Views section. What you most likely won’t see referenced in the headlines are the significant delays Toyota encountered due to permitting issues. This is just one such example of how the regulatory reforms achieved in this most recent legislative session will benefit existing companies and those vying to come to North Carolina. And of course, while business expansion is always a positive, we are in the midst of a housing crisis. Because of that, the NC Chamber is committed to housing solutions that help support our growing workforce. Learn more about our efforts on that issue here.

Our Government Affairs staff is currently holding meetings with other state chambers who have helped implement Association Health Plans in their respective states, with the goal of hearing about their success stories and how that can translate in North Carolina. These types of plans would allow smaller groups to gain regulatory and economic benefits of a large group plan—enabling them to band together to manage risk and lower costs—and is a strong area of focus for the NC Chamber in the upcoming legislative session. Learn more here.


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