Why This Western N.C. Republican Voted Against the Helene Relief Bill

Two days before Thanksgiving, Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a bill that would rearrange the balance of power in Raleigh. Senate Bill 382 has disaster relief in its title, but the legislation mostly deals with stripping authority from governor-elect Josh Stein and the state’s newly elected attorney general, Jeff Jackson, both of whom are Democrats. 

The bill would allow the new state auditor, a Republican, to appoint State Board of Elections members, instead of the governor. It would also prevent the attorney general from arguing in court that anything the General Assembly does is unconstitutional.

In January, Republicans will lose their veto-proof majority, and they rushed to pass this bill before adjourning for the year. Three Republicans, all from Western North Carolina, voted against it: Rep. Mark Pless (Haywood), Rep. Karl Gillespie (Macon), and Rep. Mike Clampitt (Swain).

Pless argued the bill did not provide any real disaster relief for areas pounded by Hurricane Helene. When The Assembly reached him this week, he was on his way to Washington, D.C., for a summit hosted by the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. 

Pless warned that small businesses struggling to survive the winter might have to close. Meanwhile, residents who need private roads and bridges repaired may be unable to access their homes.

The Senate voted to override Cooper’s veto on Monday. But if Democrats vote as a bloc when the House convenes on December 11 and just one Republican joins them, Cooper’s veto would stand. 

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I know that you have some concerns about Senate Bill 382. Can you tell me what worries you about it? 

The disaster portion of it doesn’t do anything. And I’ve been involved in disaster stuff for three years now, after Tropical Storm Fred, and I understand there are processes and things that have to be done, but it was just moving money from one account to another without actually appropriating it for anything.

So there was no new funding for any of the hurricane-affected counties?

There was money moved, but it was moved from the disaster savings account in Raleigh to the now-created Helene savings account in Raleigh. There was a small portion—I think it was $25 million—that goes to debris removal, which is not even a drop in the bucket. But it didn’t do anything to get money to the people that are needing it. 

Right now, I’ve had a lot of requests for private roads, bridges, housing repairs. We have a lot of nonprofits that are doing repairs, and for right now, they have money to be able to do some of that stuff with, but we’re not going to have the ability to do anything until at least February, so we were going to have a dry spell, and I was very disappointed that this money didn’t do anything.

Nothing will be done until February. Could you explain that a little bit more?

We are almost at the end of the year. We have one more voting session that will be next week—it’s the 11th. The Senate just adjourned today, so the Senate is not coming back for the remainder of the year, and we are not, by calendar, scheduled to begin session again until January 29 [when the new General Assembly will start].

What kinds of requests are you getting for urgent needs? 

There are folks that have received funding from FEMA for their private roads and bridges that—they can’t access their homes. And FEMA gives them money, but it’s not enough to actually do the repairs. We did a lot of private roads and bridges with Tropical Storm Fred, and by putting money in there [from the state], these folks that have gotten a FEMA award could access this money over the next couple of months and be having contractors put bridges back in place so that they can get in and out of their residence.

But we also haven’t put money towards these nonprofits—Samaritan’s Purse, Baptists on Mission. We need to get some money to those folks because they come in and buy the materials and volunteer labor, and they can get people’s houses put back in a situation where [they] can be habitable. 

I’ve heard from residents here in Transylvania County who have applied for FEMA grants. Their homes are in floodplains. They can either raise their homes or move, but there’s a limited amount of money available for that, and they’re having to make those decisions right now.

They need to slow down before they make that decision, because here’s how it typically works. There’s going to be some kind of a HUD award, or some kind of a federal government award, here in the next few months that will pay to do those kinds of things. 

The people that are trying to make rash decisions, they need to sit still and give these things a chance to start coming into play. I don’t know if you followed any of the stuff with Hurricane Matthew and Florence down on the coast, but with that HUD money, disaster money is what’s putting people back in homes six and eight years later. This area is so large, it’s going to take a while to get everybody back in. But we’re pretty confident we’re going to get a substantial grant that will help us get people back in their houses, and we will, as the state, eventually put some money towards that as well. 

It’s been a concern for our mayor here in Brevard. There are these families in the floodplains, and they’ve been given three years to raise their homes, and people are really scared by the price tag attached to that.

This is what happens when a disaster comes in. You have a lot of people that do the knee-jerk and try to figure out what’s going to happen, and I don’t know what they’re telling them or what they’re interpreting is being told to them. But if they’ll sit still, we can help them. They don’t have to move. There are going to be some areas that must be elevated, and things will look differently for them, but if they want to stay on their property without some really gross extenuating circumstance, then they should be able to stay on their property.

And what about small business loans? Businesses are trying to make it through this season when they missed out on a lot of tourism dollars during the peak leaf season.

Businesses, they choose [federal] small business loans—that’s the only option that is primarily available to them. [In late October, the Small Business Administration ran out of funding for disaster assistance loans].

Now, some of these fundraisers that people have been doing—and everybody wants to talk about the millions of dollars that they raise—they should focus on those folks and help them because we’re going to take care of the residents. It’s very difficult to deal with businesses. And in the short term keeping them open—there’s not a way for us to do that. You see, the short term has been eight weeks before we could even get any more money to anybody. Next year, these businesses that are trying to make it are just going to close. This is not a viable option for them—waiting on us to give them money. 

Just a few weeks ago, the leaders of the General Assembly were here, touring Western North Carolina, looking at the damage. Are you surprised that they didn’t do more?

Well, so far, there is about $800 million already appropriated. This [Senate Bill 382] is only about [$227 million]. So they’ve already put a lot of money out here. They just haven’t put it to any individuals. Local governments can access it. The Department of Environmental Quality can access it for water, sewer, wastewater, for home septics, and things like that. So there’s money out here and there’s money being spent. It’s going to agencies that can disperse it and use it. So they are helping. It’s just we’re not helping specific things with this one.

Have you decided how you might vote on an override? 

I haven’t decided. I voted against it before because I disagree with it … I’ll make my decision right before I push the button. But I still don’t like it. 

If you’re the only Republican who votes against it, could you potentially keep it from passing? 

If we are in full attendance, which is 120 members, we have 72 Republicans right now. We have 48 Democrats. If all of the Democrats voted no and I voted no, technically it would [fail]. But they never work out exactly that way. 

You’ll have some folks that are going home on the other side of the aisle that may choose to vote for it, or you may have people that are staying, that choose to vote for it, for one component or another, you never really know who or how many. It becomes a vote of your conscience when it comes right down to it. 

I’ll just make my decision and vote what I feel is the best in this situation. If it passes, it passes. If it fails, it fails. I’ve done my part.

Lisa Rab is a journalist based in Asheville. Her work has appeared in Politico Magazine and The Washington Post Magazine, among many other outlets. Reach her at lisarab.substack.com.