RALEIGH More of Gov. Roy Cooper’s cabinet picks took another step toward officially taking office. Michael Regan and Tony Copeland faced a Senate confirmation hearing to head the departments of Environmental Quality and Commerce, respectively. Regan and Copeland have already been acting in their roles since their nominations in January.Meanwhile, the full senate voted unanimously to confirm Machelle Sanders to head the Department of Administration and Dr. Mandy Cohen as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.”Leading departments that manage a roughly $20 billion budget for the delivery of health and human services and that oversee most day-to-day operations of state government are not easy tasks,” said Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham). “I commend Secretary Cohen’s commitment to improving communication, transparency and accountability in our state’s largest department and Secretary Sanders’ goal to make the Department of Administration ‘the most efficient and effective’ state agency.”On the House side, lawmakers elected six people to the UNC Board of Governors, including former lawmakers Rob Bryan of Charlotte and Leo Daughtry of Johnston County. Wendy Wallace, former chairwoman of UNCW’s board of trustees, Kellie Hunt Blue of Robeson County and Carolyn Lloyd Coward of Asheville were also elected to the board. Doyle Parrish of Raleigh was the lone person re-elected to the board.
NC lawmakers put more state leadership in place
