Copper Dome Chronicle: 2023 Session Week 11
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Copper Dome Chronicle, sponsored by Advocatus. We strive for substantive writing with brevity, inspired by the book Smart Brevity; one of the best books about communications and writing we’ve read in years.
This week’s edition, covering March 20-24, 2023, is 1,426 words or about a 6 minute read. The House took its first furlough week so no activity to report. Thanks for reading; we welcome your feedback and commentary!
1. Senate Clocks Laps Towards Crossover Day
In stock car racing, especially on the 2-2.5 mile ovals, there is a concept during these races of simply “clocking laps.” This is when racers are simply running laps during long stretches of green flag racing without much aggressive driving or battling for position. But if you want to be in a position to win the race, a driver and their team have to put in the work and not make mistakes while clocking laps.
The Senate put in 8 hours, 36 minutes of floor time excluding their 70 minute executive session on March 23. Six bills received third reading including five Senate bills. The main bill debated last week was S.576, a bill introduced by Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey. The bill would limit land ownership by citizens of a foreign adversaries or corporations controlled by a foreign adversaries, as defined by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. More than a dozen states are considering such legislation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The bill received 2nd reading on a 31-5 vote with bipartisan support. The current list of foreign adversaries includes: The People's Republic of China, including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (China); Republic of Cuba (Cuba); Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran); Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea); Russian Federation (Russia); and Venezuelan politician Nicolás Maduro (Maduro Regime).
A rare situation occurred on March 21 in the Senate: a tie vote on second reading of S.260, which meant the bill was defeated and removed from the calendar. However, observers of the General Assembly know there is a parliamentary path to revive a bill called the “motion to reconsider.” This when a member voting on the prevailing side, in this case having voted “No” on second reading of S.260, moves to reconsider the second reading vote. If this motion is adopted by the body, the bill is back on the calendar and could be debated again, assuming there is no objection or other parliamentary maneuver to block its consideration. This is what transpired with S.260, though its consideration for a second reading was objected to on March 22 and 23. Just a friendly reminder that knowing the rules of a legislative chamber can be the difference between passage or failure of a bill.
2. Comptroller General Resigns Effective April 30
Embattled Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom submitted a letter of resignation on March 23, ending weeks of speculation about his future. The resignation is effective April 30. Eckstrom has been on the legislative hot seat after a Senate Finance subcommittee launched an investigation into a $3.5B overstatement of the state’s cash balances. Legislation was introduced on March 16 in the Senate, S.645, to remove him from office but that has been rendered moot. The General Assembly will elect a successor to Eckstrom. The Senate went into an extended executive session - 70 minutes - and most of the crowd in the lobby speculated it was to discuss the resignation and next steps. Given the House has 124 seats to the Senate’s 46, if the House votes as a bloc it controls the outcomes of General Assembly elections. The rumor under the copper dome is that former Richland County Republican House member Kirkman Finlay III is the leading candidate to replace Eckstrom. Finlay served three terms in the House including the last three on the House Ways & Means Committee. UPDATE: Finlay officially announced his candidacy on March 27.
3. Bill Introductions
S.654 - Introduced by Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, this local legislation would consolidate the remaining two school districts and career center district in Barnwell County into one countywide school district. In 2021 local legislation was enacted consolidating Barnwell 19 and Barnwell 29, but did not include Barnwell 45 and the career center. As Sen. Hutto stated during introductory remarks about this bill, if this becomes law all the counties in his senate district will have consolidated their school districts into countywide districts during his tenure.
S.671 - Introduced by Sen. Scott Talley, the bill is named the “Language Equality and Acquisition for Deaf Kids (LEAD-K) Act.” The legislation would provide additional support and expertise at the State Board of Education and State Department of Education with regard to parents of children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. The SBE and SDE would be required to select language developmental milestones as resources for parents of deaf or hard-of-hearing children to use to monitor and track certain language acquisition and developmental stages toward the English literacy of their children.
S.673 - Introduced by Sen. Stephen Goldfinch and 13 cosponsors, the bill creates a new scholarships program named the Palmetto Legislative Military Appointment. The scholarship covers all costs for an appointee to attend The Citadel for a maximum of four years. There would be one appointee per county per school year. Upon graduation from The Citadel the appointees would join the South Carolina Army or Air National Guard. The first cohort of scholarships would be awarded in August of 2024.
4. Time Why You Punish Me
South Carolina’s favorite rock band, Hootie and the Blowfish, have a famous song called “Time.” The opening stanza begins with Darius Rucker crooning “Time why you punish me.” This matters quite a bit because time is the one resource no one can ever buy or create more of in this life. And it is particularly applicable to legislative bodies with certain deadlines that proponents and opponents of legislation use every session.
April 10 is the “crossover deadline” for both chambers though the wording is slightly different. For House legislation to remain alive for the current session, the Senate rule states House bills received after April 10 must receive a 2/3 vote to be placed on the Senate calendar (Senate Rule 47). For Senate legislation in the current session, the House rule states Senate legislation must be received by April 10 (House Rule 5.12) or a 2/3 vote is required to waive this House rule and place the Senate bill on the calendar (this also applies to joint resolutions).
April 10, 2023 is a Monday - not a normal session day for either chamber. The last time April 10 landed on a session day was in 2019. This means, using a normal legislative week, that March 28-30 and April 4-6 are the remaining weeks of bills to make the crossover deadline.
However, the week of April 4-6 is the full Senate Finance Committee FY 2023-2024 budget deliberations and the widely-spread talk under the copper dome was the Senate may not hold but one floor session the week of April 4-6. This is all dependent on the status of budget deliberations and no one knows for certain what will happen in committee. But if the Senate Finance Committee deliberations are completed early, the remaining days of the week the Senate could hold perfunctory sessions. In 2022, during the Senate Finance Committee budget deliberation week (week of April 11), the Senate only held a statewide session on April 12. The remaining days were perfunctory.
Perfunctory sessions have limited purposes: introductions of bills originating in chamber holding a perfunctory session, cosponsors to be added to bills, additions or corrections to a journal, and if a motion had been adopted by a chamber (usually the previous day), third reading of bills. The receipt and introduction bills from the other chamber does not occur during perfunctory sessions, confirmed by a review of House and Senate journals. CORRECTION: Bills from the chamber can be received and introduced by the Senate in a perfunctory session. We regret the error in the rules interpretation.
So what does all this mean for observers? First, it means the real crossover deadline is well before April 10. A hypothetical example: if the Senate is holding only one statewide session on April 4, then any House bills must be received by the Senate on April 4 in order to remain alive absent a 2/3 vote in the Senate at some future point in time. Using the same April 4 day for Senate bills, and assuming ordered to third reading on a perfunctory session on April 5, it means April 4 also is crossover day for Senate bills.
Time punishes us all, just like Hootie sang. So good luck to all the advocates as they try to find a path for their legislation before crossover day, whatever day that may be in 2023. But as a caveat, just because a bill doesn’t make crossover doesn’t mean it won’t pass committee and won’t pass its chamber of origin. It just means more than likely final passage of the bill will take place in 2024.
