North Carolina Republicans are under fire for including a measure in their state that will reportedly create a “secret police force.”
The Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations, a legislative investigative committee, will have more power under the state budget. The changes will allow the committee to look into local government agencies “or non-State [entities] receiving public funds.”
The budget will enable the GOP-led committee to examine “any documents or records related to any contract awarded by a State agency, including, but not limited to, (i) records related to the drafting and approval of the contract and (ii) documents and records of the contractor that the Commission determines will assist in verifying accounts or will contain data affecting fees or performance,” according to the legislation.
Democrats such as State Rep. Allison Dahle have raised concerns about this measure being a government overstep, comparing the investigative body to a “secret police force.”
“This secret police force can even come into, for example, a law firm that receives state funding for court-appointed lawyers. This now means that the sanctity of the attorney-client privilege is now defunct,” Dahle said.
“27.10 gives Gov Ops broad, intrusive, & punitive powers to investigate any state entity or any ‘non-state entity’ that has pretty much any connection to the State of NC at all,” State Sen. Graig Meyer wrote on the social media platform X. “Let’s say you’re a subcontractor to a contractor [with] a state agency…get ready to turn over your docs.”
But Republicans defended the legislation, arguing that expanding the committee’s authority is “not a partisan thing.”
“Why is it taking so long for these people to get back in their houses? What’s taking so long. So, when our Gov Ops committee went in and started asking these same questions, they were stonewalled as well,” State House Speaker Tim Moore told Raleigh-based news station WNCN.
“It is something that is designed to assist the General Assembly and all members of the General Assembly in carrying out our constitutional obligations to oversee the money that’s being spent,” Senate leader Phil Berger also told the local news station.
