GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2025

H                                                                                                                                                    1

HOUSE BILL 666

Short Title:      Wildlife Resources Commission Term Limits.		(Public)
Sponsors:	Representative Moss. For a complete list of sponsors, refer to the North Carolina General Assembly web site.
Referred to:	Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House

April 3, 2025

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT to amend the wildlife resourceS commission to limit all term lengths to two years and cap CONSECUTIVE appointments to three.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.(a) G.S. 143‑241, as amended by Section 6.1(b) of S.L. 2023‑136, reads as rewritten:

"§ 143‑241.  Appointment and terms of office of Commission members; filling of vacancies.

The members of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission shall be appointed as follows:

The Governor shall appoint one member each from the first, fourth, and seventh wildlife districts to serve six‑year terms;

The Governor shall appoint one member each from the second, fifth, and eighth wildlife districts to serve two‑year terms;

The Governor shall appoint one member each from the third, sixth, and ninth wildlife districts to serve four‑year terms;The Governor shall appoint 10 members of the Commission, one member that resides in each of the nine wildlife districts and one at‑large member.

The Commissioner of Agriculture shall appoint one member of the Commission.

The Governor shall appoint one at‑large member, and the Commissioner of Agriculture shall appoint one at-large member to serve four‑year terms.

The General Assembly shall appoint 10 members of the Commission to serve two‑year terms, five upon the recommendation of the Speaker of the House, and five upon the recommendation of the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, in accordance with G.S. 120‑121. Of the members appointed upon the recommendation of the Speaker of the House and upon the recommendation of the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, at least one of each shall be a member of the political party to which the largest minority of the members of the General Assembly belongs.

All appointments to the Commission shall be for two‑year terms. No Commission member shall be appointed to serve more than three consecutive terms.

Thereafter as the terms of office of the members of the Commission appointed by the Governor from the several wildlife districts expire, their successors shall be appointed for terms of two years each. As the terms of office of the members of the Commission appointed by the Governor and the Commissioner of Agriculture to serve as at-large members expire, their successors shall be appointed for terms of two years each. As the terms of office of the members of the Commission appointed by the General Assembly expire, their successors shall be appointed for terms of two years each. All members appointed by the Governor or by the Commissioner of Agriculture serve at the pleasure of the authority that appointed them and they may be removed by that appointing authority at any time. A successor to the appointing authority may remove a Commission member only for cause as provided in G.S. 143B‑13. Members appointed by the General Assembly serve at the pleasure of that body and may be removed by law at any time. In the event that a Commission member is removed, the member appointed to replace the removed member shall serve only for the unexpired term of the removed member."

SECTION 1.(b)  Notwithstanding G.S. 143‑241, as amended by subsection (a) of this section, the terms of the Commission members serving on the effective date of this act whose terms are set to expire in either 2027 or 2029 shall serve the remainder of their appointment.

SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective June 30, 2025.