Bills filed during 3/2/21 – 3/4/21

Government Structure

• S.635 – Adding 2 members to the Executive Committee of the (SCRA) SC Research Authority, allowing them to purchase private companies’ debt, and increasing the amount a tax credit a single person can get for donating to the SCRA 
• S.641 – Reserving the right to fire county veterans’ affairs officers to legislative delegations (removes the secretary of veterans’ affairs ability for fire his own officers) 
• H.4020 – Mandating that Jasper County sell certain airport property (upon which privately owned hangers have been constructed) 
• H.4027 – Adjusting appointments to a water commission in the upstate; taking one appointment from the Spartanburg County legislative delegation and giving it to the Greenville County delegation 
• H.4028 – All rights-of-way within a municipality shall belong to the municipality for management of parking
• H.4034 – Creating a study committee on diversity of state boards and committees
• S.630 – Including licensed behavior analysts and their assistants under the same licensing chapter as professional counselors and psychologists and to add two seats to the relevant governing board
• S.631 – Provides regulation and licensing requirements for electronic notary services, gives the secretary of state the power to promulgate regulations for the field 
• S.644 – Moving the Division of Small and Minority Business Contracting from the Dept. of Administration to the Department of Minority Affairs
• H.3989 – Prohibits political subdivisions including local governments from passing ordinances or regulations that prohibit the cutting of trees or heritage trees on private property 
• H.3995 – Offering any president acquitted twice during two separate impeachments the opportunity to be buried at the SC State House 
• H.3997 – Directing Department of Alcohol and other Drug Abuse Services to oversee a recovery housing program for those struggling with drug and alcohol abuse
• H.4007 – Judicial Merit Selection Commission shall release a list to the general assembly of all judicial candidates who are found qualified 
• H.4033 – Requiring the Executive Budget Office to make an online searchable database of the budget available to the public

Regulations

• S.634 – Fifteen dollar minimum wage
• S.623 – Capping certain auto insurance premium increases to twice a year
• S.627 – Allowing S Corporations, LLCs, and partnerships to make pass through corporations at the entity level and to allow them to apply a credit for income taxes paid in a another state to this pass through corporation
• S.629 – The state may not give out off-season permits to harvest oysters
• S.636 – No fees or points may be added to the prepayment of a loan secured by a manufactured home
• S.637 – Allowing certain members of a company selling manufactured homes to be exempt from real estate brokerage licensing and other regulatory requirements 
• H.3991 – Regulating under what circumstances a metal recycler may purchase a used catalytic converter 
• H.3996 – A landlord of a public assisted housing development shall offer tenants to have their rental payment information reported to a national credit reporting in agency
• H.4006 – Moving the expiration for a law allowing breweries and wineries to sell more alcohol for off premises consumption temporarily to 2022, instead of 2021
• H.4008 – Defining and regulating the creation and dissolution of business partnerships
• H.4009 – Regulating when a nonprofit dedicated to stopping or treating child abuse or sexual abuse can disclose information or when they can testify in court 
• H.4029 – Allowing electric car manufacturers to sell vehicles directly to customers unlike the conventional car market which must go through dealerships

Criminal Justice

• H.4019 – Allowing parents to abandon children at designated safe havens who are no older than one year without incurring criminal penalties, currently it is set at up to 60 days old 
• H.4016 – During sentencing, a defendant may request that there be allowed less public access to his/her case under certain conditions (even those convicted of a violent crime could make such a request, with some exceptions)
• H.3992 – Police may not pull over a driver for just an inoperable taillight or separate lamp
• H.3994 – Persons imprisoned on no-parole drug offenses would be eligible for early release at 65% of their time served 
• H.4000 – If emergency management personnel use a nongovernmental vehicle for official business it is defined as an authorized emergency vehicle

Education

• H.3990 – Making each county a single school district
• H.4031 – Allowing college student athletes the right to make money on their likeness but not allowing the universities to pay them 
• S.625 – Ordering the Citadel to remove the confederate flag
• H.3993 – Amending the State Constitution to provide that all students are entitled to a “high quality education”
• H.4015 – Allows student athletes to be paid by agents for the expenses deemed appropriate by the national association responsible for certifying agents
• H.4032 – Mandating that a student body president sit on the board of his/her college or university; would be a voting member only if they are a state elector (eligible to vote in South Carolina)

Taxation/ Spending

• H.3999 – Nonprofits receiving state funds from a state agency must disclose how the funds will be spent; EBO must compile a report on these activities and publish them on their website
• H.4017 – Continuing to mimic the federal tax code for state income tax and applying the federal practices to paycheck protection loans in regards to income taxation

Medicine/COVID

• H.4030 – Medical debt can only be reported to crediting agencies or collected if the company can prove the person accepted all of the costs 
• S.642 – Regulating cost sharing plans on medications; requiring pharmacies to match certain set values in the deduction of cost between these plans but exempts Medicaid and state health systems from the same requirements
• H.3998 – Adding schedule five drugs to the list of drugs that is monitored by DHEC for prescription purposes
• S.624 – Allowing a physician to oversee more anesthesiologist assistants and removing a licensing step that requires the assistants to appear before a licensing board in person 
• S.628 – Pharmacists may sell self-administered hormone based contraceptive to a person with a standing prescription, does not impose a duty of care on the pharmacist
• S.639 – Allowing some nurses (APRN & CRNA) to perform certain medical acts without the supervision of a doctor as long as they follow the written guidelines
• H.4005 – A physician who performs an abortion must provide the fetus to law enforcement for evidential purposes relating to whether the person was raped or the child was concieved in incest 

Resolutions (Highlights) (23 Total)

• S.633 – Resolution asking for a statewide advisory referendum on whether the minimum wage should be raised 
• S.632 – Resolution for the Darlington Raceway
• H.4002 – Making Feb. 28th “Rare Disease Day”
• H.4003 – Recognizing August 31st as “Overdose Awareness Day” 

Road Naming Resolutions 

• H.4018 – DOT to name a road “Vonnie Holliday Way”
• H.4011 – DOT shall name a bridge “George J. ‘Geordie’ Madlinger III Bridge”
• H.4025 – DOT to name a crossing “Angie Lee Crum Crossing” 

Previous bills:

• Filed during 2/23/21 – 2/25/21
• Filed during 2/16/21 – 2/18/21
• Filed during 2/9/21 – 2/11/21
• Filed during 2/2/21 – 2/4/21
• Filed during 1/25/21 – 1/28/21
• Filed during 1/12/21 – 1/21/21