Senate Bill 474, titled “The DAVE Act,” was passed by a 29-17 vote with Sen. Dan Blue, D-Wake, the lone Democratic supporter.
The bill has been sent to the state House for consideration.
Several Senate Democrats have criticized SB474, claiming Senate Republican leaders want to establish an N.C. version of the controversial federal DOGE initiative being led by billionaire Elon Musk.
The acronym DAVE stands for Division of Accountability, Value and Efficiency, which would be housed in the State Auditor’s office of Republican Dave Boliek.
Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, the primary bill sponsor, has said he expects the language to be inserted into the 2025-26 state budget bill because of the need for additional state Auditor’s Office job positions.
“Funds sent to state agencies come out of the pockets of North Carolinians,” Berger said in a statement.
“Requiring a review of state agency operations and staffing is the right thing to do to ensure that those tax dollars are not wasted.”
Sen. Caleb Theodros, D-Mecklenburg, said there needs to be firm restraints and transparency on the use of artificial intelligence in evaluating the performance of agencies and their employees.
Berger said legislators will employ artificial intelligence as a tool in determining funding appropriation levels and whether state funds are being wasted or not.
“Your comments point out exactly why we need something like this,” Berger said.
According to a news release from Berger’s office, the legislation is designed to “get a complete picture” of how state agencies are utilizing taxpayer funds “and determine if the agency should continue to exist.”
Bill sponsors say the key areas for state agency review — so far — include: amounts spent, including the entities receiving funds and the intended purpose of the amounts spent; effectiveness of any amount spent in achieving the intended purpose of that spending; and duplicative spending.
Each agency is to report all job positions that have been vacant for six months or more. Agency reports would have an Oct. 1 filing deadline.
SB474 was amended to establish a sunset that was not specified, but to occur after the 2028 general election, and to allow Boliek to request annual reports.
Senate Democrats said the sunset could serve to prevent a victorious Democrat state auditor candidate in the 2028 general election from wielding the same authority.
Berger said SB474 “facilitates the auditor’s ability to move forward on examining how monies that are appropriated by the General Assembly ... are actually deployed ... effectively deployed and whether or not there’s a failure on the part of an executive agency to utilize the funds as directed by the legislature.”
Boliek has claimed that SB474 is needed in part because previous state auditors provided “bread and butter financial audits that are a 30,000-foot views that does not — quite frankly — give members of this body the type of information you need and you expect ... to make competent, judgmental decisions as they run their agencies.
“My commitment is to do this in a nonpartisan way that’s data-centric ... not emotion. The proof will be in the pudding.”
Sen. Lisa Grafstein, D-Wake, said the auditor’s office focuses on accounting functions and is not meant to be a program evaluator of the work of state employees and “whether they are necessary.”
Berger responded by saying Boliek “has no authority to discharge anyone. He has the authority to identify problems in any discharge.”
“Any elimination of positions would be left up to the General Assembly.”
Senate Democrats expressed concerns that state departments and agencies, already are dealing with staffing vacancies reaching 20% to 25%, could have their workforce experience more cuts based on assessments from artificial intelligence algorithms.
The bill is likely to join the growing list of Republican-sponsored bills that may serve as the first test of Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s ability to sustain a veto vote.
Senate Republicans hold a 30-20 supermajority that gives them the votes to override a Stein veto.
However, House Republicans are one vote shy of a supermajority at 71-49.
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