NC Legislature: FAQs

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What is the difference between a Statute and a Rule?

Statutes are laws enacted by the General Assembly.

  • Statutes are identifiable by the prefix N.C.G.S. or G.S. followed by the statute’s Chapter and Section number and short title. An example would be. G.S. 145-2 State bird.

Rules are laws adopted by State government agencies, mostly in the Executive Branch.

  • Agencies can’t adopt rules without a grant of authority to do so by the General Assembly.
  • Rules are identifiable by N.C.A.C., which stands for North Carolina Administrative Code, in the body of the rule citation. N.C.A.C. is preceded by the Title number of rule and followed by the rule’s Chapter and Section number and short title. An example would be 15A NCAC 10H .0904 DISPOSITION OF GAME BIRDS OR GAME BIRD EGGS.

If there is a conflict between a statute and a rule, the statute will prevail.

What is the difference between a Session Law and a Statute?

The Session Laws are all laws passed by the General Assembly, including local, temporary, and uncodified laws.

  • They are designated by the year in which they became law followed by the order in which they became law. For example, the first law that was enacted during the 2025 Regular Session was Session Law 2025-1 or S.L. 2025-1.

The General Statutes are a subset of the Session Laws that contain permanent laws of general applicability.

  • The General Statutes are organized by subject matter into chapters, articles, parts, and increasingly more focused subject matter groupings.
  • Individual General Statutes are identifiable by the prefix N.C.G.S. or G.S. followed by the statute’s Chapter and Section number and short title. An example would be. G.S. 145-2 State bird.

The Session Laws and their subset, the General Statutes, have the force of law.

What is the difference between a PCS and an Amendment to a bill?

Proposed Committee Substitutes (PCSs) and Amendments are both vehicles for making changes to a bill.

  • Proposed Committee Substitutes (PCSs) are complete replacements for the entire body of the bill. They may be offered in committees, both standing and conference committees, but not on the floor of the House or the Senate. They are typically used for extensive changes throughout the body of a bill.
  • Amendments typically make more surgical changes to a bill as denoted by their references to the specific page and line numbers of the bill text they are changing. In addition to being offered in committees, amendments can also be offered on the floor of the House and Senate and in such cases are referred to as Floor Amendments.

How do Conference Reports work?

When the second chamber hearing a bill makes changes to it that the originating chamber disagrees with, the originating chamber may vote to not concur in the changes.

  • At this point, each chamber can appoint its members to a Conference Committee created to work out the differences between the chambers.
  • If a majority of members from each chamber can jointly reach an agreement on what the changes should be, the Conference Committee will produce a Conference Report that specifies those changes.
  • Each chamber must then adopt the Conference Report for the bill to proceed to become law or be sent to the Governor.

What is the difference between a long session and a short session?

Although the General Assembly technically meets in a single biennial session that begins in January of each odd-numbered year, historically, the body has followed a pattern of meeting in two separate periods during the biennium.

  • Long Session: During odd-numbered years, the General Assembly typically meets from January through mid-summer/early-fall in what is called the Long Session.
  • Short Session: During even-numbered years, the General Assembly typically meets from late spring to mid-summer in what is called the Short Session.
  • More recently, this pattern has changed so that the General Assembly is often in session for longer periods of time punctuated by briefer periods of adjournment.

What is a "skeleton session"?

At various times during session, one or both chambers may not have substantive legislative business to attend to for a period of a few days or weeks.

  • During such periods, the House and Senate may jointly adjourn to a future date, or an individual chamber may adjourn for a period of not more than three days.
  • When the chambers do not want to jointly adjourn to a future date but also do not want to violate the three-day rule, they will hold “skeleton sessions” where only a limited number of members are present and carry out pro forma or administrative actions, rather than substantive legislative action.
  • This practice satisfies the three-day rule while allowing the chambers to essentially pause until they are ready to resume substantive legislative work.

What does "crossover" mean?

Crossover or the Crossover Deadline is the date by which certain bills must have passed at least one chamber in order to remain eligible for consideration during the rest of the session.

  • The Crossover Deadline is established in the House and Senate Rules at the beginning of each session and will be the same date in each chamber’s rules.
  • For example, during the 2025 biennium, the Crossover Deadline is May 8 (Rule 31.1 of House Bill 1 and Rule 40.2 of Senate Bill 1).
  • The Crossover Deadline rules also specify which types of bills are exempt from the Crossover Deadline, such as tax or appropriations bills.

What does "adjourn sine die" mean?

Sine die, which is Latin for “without a day”, is the day on which the General Assembly adjourns without a date specified for the General Assembly to reconvene during that biennium.

  • Adjournment sine die is typically the date that the General Assembly ends its session for the biennium, although there are processes for both the General Assembly and the Governor to call the General Assembly back in to an extra session.
  • The NC General Assembly does not have a set time for sine die adjournment like many other states.
  • The NC General Assembly itself sets the date of sine die adjournment in a bill called the Adjournment Resolution.

What happens when the NC General Assembly is not in session?

The period when the General Assembly is not in session is called the Interim.

  • During the Interim, members return to their districts to hear from their constituents.
  • Members may return to the General Assembly periodically throughout the Interim for study commission and oversight meetings where they learn about different policy areas and government programs and agencies.
  • A list of the study and oversight committees can be found here.

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