School choice, gun bills meet key SC State House deadline to possibly become law this year

South Carolina proposals that would legalize medical marijuana and ban puberty blocking drugs for children will have to wait until next year.

Lawmakers inside the South Carolina State House last week faced a key legislative deadline that causes some controversial bills to fizzle out, at least for now.

Monday marked what’s known as “crossover” in the General Assembly — a deadline lawmakers scramble to beat by racing to get their bills passed out of their own chamber at the risk of their proposals potentially dying for the year. Bills that fail to pass one chamber by April 10 can’t be considered by the other without a two-thirds majority vote.

Several high-profile bills, including a House-backed constitutional carry proposal — that would allow adults to carry a handgun openly or concealed without a permit — and proposed bans on abortion, critical race theory and a hate crimes measure have already cleared the deadline.

Many other proposals, however, including a bill seeking to legalize medical marijuana, and another looking to ban gender affirming care for minors, will likely be put to bed as lawmakers finish up the legislative session in about four weeks.

Because this is the first year of a two-year legislative session, any bills that do not become law are held over and can be considered next year.

Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, said that although his caucus may not have gotten everything through that they wanted, they were successful in passing a number of priority items, like school choice vouchers and a renewed six-week abortion ban. The House also passed a near-total abortion ban this year, again setting up a fight with the Senate’s version.

“We worked very hard the last two weeks that we were here in full session to get as many Senate bills out as we could, and I’m sure there are going to be some individual senators who are disappointed about this bill or that bill that didn’t make it across,” Massey said.

Of those likely disappointed include state Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, who for years has been trying to pass a bill that would allow South Carolina doctors to prescribe patients medical marijuana to treat a range of health-related conditions.

Last year, Davis’ bill — dubbed the Compassionate Care Act — cleared the crossover deadline when it passed the Senate. The measure, however, ultimately died in the House after House Speaker Pro Tempore Tommy Pope, R-York, ruled the proposal out of order, citing a procedural violation.

This year, Davis said that he was confident he had the votes in both the Senate and the House to pass the bill, but the bill has yet to make it to the Senate floor for debate, bypassed instead by other legislation.

Another set of contentious Senate proposals that critics say unfairly targets transgender South Carolinians will likely stall this session.

One Senate proposal — S.623 — would restrict a person’s ability to change their gender on their birth certificate from male to female or vice versa. Another bill — S. 627 — would prohibit children from receiving any type of gender reassignment procedure, including puberty-blocking drugs.

Both measures received considerable attention from South Carolinans around the state, leading some to converge on the State House to voice their opposition.

An additional Senate proposal that would restructure the S.C. Department of Disability and Special Needs by making it a Cabinet agency under the governor will also likely fail this year, despite mounting support and a scathing audit that slammed the commission that oversees DDSN.

House Majority Leader David Hiott, R-Pickens, echoed Massey and said the House GOP Caucus is happy with what they’ve been able to pass before crossover.

“We’ve accomplished three-fourths of our agenda, so I think we’ve done an excellent job in getting things over to the Senate,” Hiott said, adding that there’s only one key measure remaining that his caucus is working to pass in the House.

“We’re still working on the Certificate of Need issue,” Hiott said. “That’s really the only (bill) that I would say is on everybody’s radar to take up before the end of session.”

Under South Carolina’s Certificate of Need program, hospitals must receive approval from the state before any changes or improvements can be made to their facilities.

Proponents of eliminating the program argue that such a restriction limits health care and, in turn, increases costs.

Those opposed, on the other hand, say scraping the program would force small rural hospitals to close as they would be unable to compete with larger, wealthier hospitals that have more leverage in choosing which services to offer.

Legislators, like Hiott, are working to remove the restriction, permitting hospitals to improve and build upon their facilities as they please.

The bill, S. 164, passed the Senate earlier this year and is currently sitting in a House committee, where Hiott said House members will resume working to pass the proposal next week after returning from furlough.

Meanwhile, another bill that would allow horse race betting on smart phones narrowly cleared the House just in time before the crossover deadline.

“What I’m most proud of is that it was just such a complete bipartisan effort that ended up being successful,” state Rep. Russell Ott, a Calhoun Democrat and the bill’s lead sponsor, said of the measure. “I think it’s something to be celebrated when individuals from from different backgrounds and different parties can come together and pass something that we all feel will be extremely beneficial to the state and to the (horse) industry that has a really rich history in South Carolina.”

Although the bill advanced from a full Senate committee this week, Gov. Henry McMaster said earlier this month that he plans to veto the bill should it make it to his desk.

While House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, also celebrated the passage of Ott’s bill, he said having a crossover deadline is “ridiculous” in the first place and limits the General Assembly’s productivity.

“I think it allows very little time for bills to go to committee, and it simply allows the leadership to give what few bills they want and everybody else has to put their bills on a two year process,” Rutherford said, adding that he, along with “70% of South Carolinians,” would love to see a medical marijuana bill clear the House.

Another House proposal, that likely won’t see the light of day, would have allowed consumers to buy alcohol, beer and wine via curbside pickup or home delivery.

Perhaps to the relief of some House lawmakers and advocacy groups, the South Carolina Pre-Natal Equal Protection Act, which would subject women to potentially receiving the death penalty for having an abortion, will quietly die for the year.

“At this point, I’m not really concerned about a crossover problem with anything,” Massey said. Regarding “issues that we wanted to address (but have not), there’s a Senate vehicle in the House or there’s a House vehicle (in the Senate) that we’ll be able to take those up.”