Cooper vetoes bills on building codes and digital currency

Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a pair of bills Friday that would have made a series of changes to building codes and banned payments to the state using central bank digital currencies.

Senate Bill 166 would have imposed limits and regulations on how waste water and electrical systems can be installed across the state. It passed both chambers with unanimous Republican support and votes from some Democrats.

Cooper, in a statement explaining his veto, said it would have barred owners from tackling new construction that could save tenants money. The legislation, he said, would have also stripped out key stakeholders from the building code council.

“This bill also removes subject matter experts from the building code council, including architects, active fire service, a coastal expert, local government officials, and public at large membership, and limits the knowledge and practical experience of the body tasked with ensuring all buildings are safely designed,” Cooper said.

House Bill 690, also vetoed by Cooper, would have banned payments to the state using “central bank digital currency.” These digital currencies are similar to cryptocurrencies, but have a fixed value through a central bank and is equivalent to a nation’s fiat currency. The bill passed with just five legislators opposed in the Senate and four in the House.

Cooper said the best path for the state was to await federal guidance and standards before imposing its own.

“This legislation is premature, vague and reactionary and proposes an end result on important monetary decisions that haven’t even been made yet,” Cooper said. “Instead of this bill, the legislature should have passed a budget to provide more funding for cybersecurity threats that actually exist now.”