Copper Dome Chronicle: 2023 Session Week 8
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 February 27-March 3, 2023, is 1,288 words or a 5.5 minute read. Thanks for reading; we welcome your feedback and commentary!
1. Senate Whittles Away Its Calendar
The Senate spent the week whittling away at its calendar, which by the end was 5 pages slimmer than the beginning of the week. The Senate was efficient with its floor time working 3 hours on Tuesday, and 1.75 hours each on Wednesday and Thursday, ultimately sending 16 bills to the House. Some bills passed included: S.123 (First Steps permanent reauthorization); S.124 (school district pilot program authorizing noncertified teachers); S.203 (school safety drills); S.256 (authorizing sunscreen use by students in schools); S.259 (structured settlements); S.520 (pharmacy benefits managers); and some elections law cleanup bills.
2. House Passes Bond Reform Bill, Blaine Amendment Repeal
The House calendar began the week with two bills on it: H.3532 (bond reform) and H.3591 (repeal Blaine Amendment). The House spent 2 hours, 27 minutes debating H.3532 before giving it a second reading by a bipartisan vote of 92-20. According to the fiscal impact statement, this bill “provides that persons who commit certain additional crimes while on pretrial release on bond are subject to a sentencing enhancement of an additional, consecutive term of imprisonment for 5 years. “The bill also “prohibits the court from setting bond for a person who is on pretrial release on a personal recognizance, financial surety bond, or other form of pretrial release when he (1) is charged with a general sessions offense and has a prior conviction for one of the offenses listed above if a period of not more than five years has elapsed since the date of conviction or release of the person from imprisonment, whichever is later, or (2) has a general sessions offense and is charged with committing another offense” associated 5 year sentencing enhancement.
H.3591 is a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the state constitution and requires a 2/3 vote of the members elected in the chamber, which for the House is 83 “Aye” votes. The joint resolution repeals what is commonly referred to as the “Blaine Amendment,” which many states adopted into their state constitutions in the late 19th Century due to an effort to amend the U.S. Constitution with similar language. The intent of Blaine Amendments was to prohibit public funds from being used to directly support sectarian organizations, such as a school affiliated with or operated by a religion. Example: schools operated by or affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church have existed since the Colonial Era. There is historical evidence that some Blaine Amendments were adopted due to discriminatory tendencies against immigrants who were members of the Catholic faith. For a report presenting diverse perspectives on the history of Blaine Amendments, click here to read a 2007 report on the subject from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
As to the South Carolina Blaine Amendment, it does not use the sectarian language found in other Blaine Amendments and instead uses the term religious. Article XI, Section 4 of the South Carolina constitution states: “No money shall be paid from public funds nor shall the credit of the State or any of its political subdivisions be used for the direct benefit of any religious or other private educational institution.” The joint resolution would repeal this section of the state constitution.
The House debated the joint resolution for 2 hours, 52 minutes before it received the required 2/3 vote (83-27). The joint resolution was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee after a perfunctory third reading. A 2/3 vote of the membership of the Senate - 31 “Aye” votes - is needed for the joint resolution to be enacted and the constitutional amendment placed before the voters at the November 2024 General Election. A simple majority vote (50% + 1 vote) would be required to approve the constitutional amendment and repeal South Carolina’s Blaine Amendment.
3. Bill Introductions
S.576 - Introduced by Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey and a bipartisan group of 15 senators, this bill would limit land ownership to 1,000 acres by corporations controlled by a “foreign adversary.” More than a dozen states are considering such legislation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The foreign government most commonly targeted is China.
S.581 - Introduced by Senate Education Committee Chair Greg Hembree, the bill makes the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) the state’s official carnivorous plant. It is native only to the coastal bogs of North Carolina and South Carolina, specifically within a 60 mile radius of Wilmington, North Carolina. Horry County is home to the only native habit in South Carolina for the Venus flytrap. Just remember what happens when you feed one.
S.583 - Introduced by Senate Ethics Committee Chair Sean Bennett, this bill is in the vein of anti-ESG (environmental, social, governance) legislation that has been introduced in dozens of state legislatures. The intent of the bill is to limit, if not eliminate, the use of non-pecuniary factors when regulated entities make financial decisions. The bill creates three terms with clear definitions: material, pecuniary factor, and non-pecuniary factor. The rest of the bill then states how pecuniary factors (those that have a material impact to a financial risk or investment rate of return) factors or non-pecuniary factors (those that don’t have a material impact to a financial risk or investment rate of return) are to be used or not used by various entities. That list includes the state Retirement System Investment Commission and regulated entities such as insurance companies, banks, trusts, and credit unions.
S.594 - Introduced by Senate Labor, Commerce, and Industry Chair Tom Davis, this comprehensive bill makes several reforms and revisions to Chapter 7, Title 63 regarding child protection and permanency, including some revisions to Daniel’s Law and family court proceedings to increase clarity and decrease wait times in some adoption cases.
H.4060 - Introduced by House Speaker Murrell Smith and many others, this bill targets reforms to workforce development initiatives in South Carolina high schools. Several reforms contained in this comprehensive bill include: requiring students to complete the FAFSA form (free application for federal student aid used to pay for higher education costs); creating a statewide policy for dual enrollment (a high school student takes a course for credit towards a high school diploma and for a higher education credential); requiring school districts to provide remediation courses in literacy and mathematics for 12th grade students; and transferring responsibility for the state’s educator preparation program report card to the Department of Education from the Commission on Higher Education.
H.4048 & H.4070 - Both bills, introduced by Rep. Heather Crawford and many others, seek to regulate the Central Electric Power Cooperative. H.4048 mirrors S.523; both add 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.4070 is more expansive by requiring Central Electric to submit its integrated resource plan to the Public Service Commission. An integrated resource plan is a forward-looking document about an energy entity’s future demand and supply, types of generation technology used to generate energy (i.e. nuclear, natural gas, solar, etc.), and the costs of future energy generation. If enacted, H.4070 would create a new level of government regulation for Central Electric, which supplies energy to twenty electric cooperatives in South Carolina. Many observers point to Central Electric’s decision to not purchase power from a new natural gas power plant partially owned by the Public Service Authority (Santee Cooper) as one reason for the two pieces of legislation.
