General Assembly’s Crossover Deadline (2025)

May 8, 2025, was the “crossover” deadline in the NC General Assembly. What happens now? 

Although there were an unusually large number of bills filed to address housing, land use regulatory authority, etc. Virtually none crossed over. That means that absent extraordinary procedural maneuvering by House and Senate Leadership, these bills will take longer to percolate within the halls of the legislative building. As anyone familiar with public policy knows, the legislative process is a marathon, not a sprint. While some may be disappointed that more of this legislation did not advance, the sheer volume of bills related to housing and land use regulatory reform is cause for optimism. It just means that more work will need to be done to build coalitions to support efforts to pushing for legislative reform. There is momentum building, but more work is required to keep the momentum up through this legislative session and into the next. The General Assembly will be focused on the budget for the rest of the Summer, so movement on any land use reform is off the table until Fall. Our friends at CityBuilder wrote about the status of specific housing bills introduced in the NCGA this session. For those interested in learning more about crossover, continue reading.

Understanding “Crossover” in the North Carolina General Assembly

In the legislative process of the North Carolina General Assembly, the term “crossover” refers to a key procedural deadline by which most bills must pass out of their chamber of origin—either the House or the Senate—to remain eligible for consideration during the remainder of the biennial legislative session. For example, a bill introduced in the House must receive a favorable vote and be sent to the Senate by the crossover deadline in order to stay alive.

The crossover deadline typically falls several weeks into the long session of the General Assembly, which begins in odd-numbered years. The specific date is set by joint resolution of both chambers, which was May 8 this session.

However, not all bills are subject to the crossover deadline. Significant exceptions include:

• Appropriations bills (those with a substantial fiscal impact or that deal with the state budget)

• Bills related to taxes or finance, such as revenue bills

• Redistricting legislation

• Constitutional amendments

• Local bills (those that affect only a specific locality or county)

These categories of legislation may be introduced or considered at any time during the biennium, regardless of the crossover deadline.

Bills that fail to pass their originating chamber by the crossover deadline—and are not exempt—are generally considered dead for the remainder of the two-year session. They cannot move forward or be enacted into law unless their content is later inserted into a bill that did meet the crossover requirement or that qualifies under one of the exceptions.

In practice, legislative maneuvering can sometimes preserve policy ideas from “dead” bills by repackaging their language into eligible or already moving legislation. However, missing the crossover deadline usually signals that a bill lacks sufficient support or priority for leadership in that session. Crossover is a critical milestone in North Carolina’s legislative calendar that shapes the scope of debate and narrows the field of legislation that lawmakers will consider for the remainder of the biennium.

Here is a list of all bills that made it through crossover this session.