Pertinent Prefiles in the Palmetto State: Part 4
The 125th South Carolina General Assembly is officially underway and legislation prefiling is finished. In South Carolina there are four days, two for the House and two for the Senate, when legislators can prefile legislation. This year those dates were November 30 and December 7 for the Senate, while the House dates were December 8 and December 15.
Today we took a quick look at some Senate prefiled legislation statistics. In Part 1 of this series we examined what prefiling means in the South Carolina General Assembly and why legislators prefile legislation; Part 2 and Part 3 examined some House statistics and trends.
Senate bills begin with number one (1) and there were 317 Senate bills filed during the prefiling days. Unlike the House, the Senate members did not stand for election in 2022; each member serves a four year term that began in 2021 (or special election, as applicable).
There is no limit on the number of bills a Senate member can prefile. Thirty-seven (37) Senators prefiled at least one bill, representing 80% of the membership. Basic arithmetic shows us nine (9) Senators did not file a bill (20%). The South Carolina General Assembly website has a search feature to find primary bill sponsors; we encourage readers to check it out.
When removing those Senate members who did not prefile legislation from the number set, we find per Senator the median number of prefiled bills was five (5) and the average number of prefiled bills was eight (8, rounding down from 8.56).
When examining the number set by party affiliation, the results are 150 prefiled bills by Republicans (47%) and 167 prefiled bills by Democrats (53%). The partisan split in the Senate is 65% Republican/35% Democratic Senate members.
Lastly, we’ll examine individual Senate members who led the Senate in prefiled legislation with the number of bills in parentheses:
Overall
First: Sen. Gerald Malloy (48)
Second: Sen. Mike Fanning (28)
Third: Sen. Darrell Jackson (26)
Fourth: Sen. Chip Campsen (23)
Fifth (Tie): Sen. Mia S. McLeod (21)
Fifth (Tie): Sen. Greg Hembree (21)
Republicans
First: Sen. Chip Campsen (23)
Second: Sen. Greg Hembree (21)
Third: Sen. Wes Climer (18)
Fourth: Sen. Katrina Shealy (14)
Fifth: Sen. Michael Johnson (12)
Democrats
First: Sen. Gerald Malloy (48)
Second: Sen. Mike Fanning (28)
Third: Sen. Darrell Jackson (26)
Fourth: Sen. Mia S. McLeod (21)
Fifth: Sen. Brad Hutto (14)
In Part 5 of this series we’ll take a look at the subject areas of the Senate prefiled legislation, identifying any trends as the 2023 session begins January 10, 2023.
