Copper Dome Chronicle: 2023 Session Week 5

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, February 6-10, 2023, is different by flipping the order. Bill introductions get top billing this time followed by some brief updates. This week’s edition is 1,029 words or a 4 minute read.

1. Bill Introductions

S.505 - Introduced by Sen. Tom Davis, the bill would reduce some restrictions on the practice of pharmacy for trained pharmacy technicians and interns, allow pharmacy technicians to administer vaccinations, and create the Joint Pharmacist Access Committee under the Board of Medical Examiners. 

S.520 - A bill introduced by Sen. Nikki Setzler and 24 other Senators, including 12 out of 17 members of Senate Banking & Insurance and 3 out of 5 members of a subcommittee that will hold a public hearing on February 15. This is a good example of an industry bill, meaning it primarily impacts only one industry. In this case the industry group are companies called pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). PBMS are intermediaries between insurance companies, pharmacies, and drug manufacturers and their activities influence the prices paid by consumers for prescription medications.

The bill creates new law to regulate organizations called pharmacy services administrative organizations (PSAOs). These are organizations that provide back office and administrative services for local and independent pharmacies. It is a membership organization, meaning a local or independent pharmacy pays a fee to join the PSAO as a member. PSAOs act as an intermediary between its members and PBMs, but don’t have influence over the prices paid by consumers for prescription medications.

Because of the large role prescription medications play in today’s health care system, other interest groups monitoring this bill likely include the medical association (representing physicians), the hospital association (hospitals order many prescriptions), pharmaceutical manufacturers (they manufacturer the medicines), health insurance carriers (they pay a portion of prescription costs through their health plans), the plaintiff and medical malpractice bars (attorneys always are interested in who is responsible for what), patients/consumers, and lastly state government because of government-managed health insurance programs like Medicaid. 

S.523 - Introduced by Senate Judiciary Chair Luke Rankin, Senate President Thomas Alexander, Senate Finance Chair Harvey Peeler, Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, and Senate Finance Ranking Member Nikki Setzler, is a bill with significant political power behind it. The crux of the matter is Central Electric Power Cooperative, a group representing twenty electric cooperatives, announced it would not purchase energy generated from a new natural gas plant partially operated by the South Carolina Public Service Authority (Santee Cooper). The bill adds only two sentences to the code but those two sentences are pretty powerful: Central Electric “submit all proposed contracts or other plans for procurement of electric generation to the Joint Bond Review Committee, the State Regulation of Public Utilities Review Committee, and the Public Service Commission of South Carolina for approval prior to execution of any long-term power contract.”

H.3879 - Introduced by Rep. Bill Chumley and others, this bill would enact Daylight Savings Time year round. This has become a hot topic across the country with 29 state legislatures introducing measures on the topic in 2022.

H.3881 - Introduced by House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, this bill increases the number of seats on the Court of Appeals from nine to fifteen judges, including the Chief Judge. Increasing the number of judges in the state’s court system is a long-running debate. In 2022 Act 232 became law, adding four circuit judgeships and three family court judgeships in circuits with excessive caseloads. 

H.3933 - Introduced by Rep. Mark Smith and 43 other Representatives including House Majority Leader Davey Hiott, this is a tort reform bill to address joint and several liability. Addressing this legal doctrine has been a priority of the South Carolina business community for nearly 20 years. 

According to Forbes contributor Christy Bieber, J.D., joint and several liability is a legal doctrine that applies when multiple people or companies are responsible for damaging or harming someone. Each person or entity who is responsible for causing harm is called a tortfeasor. A plaintiff can sue tortfeasors to recover compensation for losses. Under joint and several liability rules, any tortfeasor can be responsible for providing up to 100% of the plaintiff’s compensation regardless of what portion of responsibility that tortfeasor bears.

2. State Supreme Court Finale

February 8 came and went without any surprises in the election for State Supreme Court Seat 4. The Honorable Gary Hill won election with 140 votes with only 8 no votes; congratulations Justice Hill on your election! This ends quite a saga for the General Assembly and the lobby will be watching to see if any of the judicial reform bills introduced will be debated, let alone enacted, this session.

3. Abortion Bill Consumes Senate Time

The Senate, with the exceptions of judicial elections and some local legislation, spent the entire week debating S.474, a bill to regulate abortion in South Carolina after the State Supreme Court ruled current abortion laws unconstitutional on a 3-2 vote on January 5, 2023. The Senate consumed 9 hours, 39 minutes of floor time on the bill, which passed on a 28-12 vote and was sent to the House on February 9.

The full House will debate H.3774, their primary vehicle to address abortion laws, beginning on February 14. The House Judiciary Committee spent nearly 2.5 hours on February 7 debating the bill, which received a favorable report on a 16-7 vote. It is likely H.3774 will consume significant floor time this week on February 14 and February15 as several committee meetings are scheduled for February 14 after the floor session.

4. House Passes Transparency And Integrity In Education Act

The House spent 5 hours, 45 minutes on February 8 debating H.3728, a bill titled the South Carolina Transparency And Integrity In Education Act. The bill received a second reading on a 83-34 vote and a third reading on a 79-30 vote. It was sent to the Senate and referred to the Senate Education Committee.

More commonly known as the anti-CRT bill, the legislation requires more transparency regarding instructional materials and curriculum used in public schools, as well as prohibits content or teaching seven concepts. CRT is an acronym for “critical race theory.” One can use their search engine of choice and find CRT has been controversial in many state legislatures and school boards across the country.

Thanks for reading; we welcome your feedback and commentary!