With 4 weeks left for SC Legislature, which bills made the cut before key deadline?

Banning gender replacement hormones for minors, alcohol being delivered to your doorstep, hunting hogs by helicopter, restrictions on marketing vaping to young children and cracking down on Xylaine usage.

All of these have one thing in common: The South Carolina General Assembly made it a priority to ensure legislation on these topics and more made it through one chamber. Other items, such as the state’s energy needs, the merger of the state’s heath agencies and the ongoing search for where $1.8 billion belongs also consumed the lawmakers time. They also passed Constitutional Carry and Gov. Henry McMaster signed it into law March 7.

However, after 5 p.m. Wednesday, any bill that has not had a third reading in either chamber must have a 2/3 vote to debate after. Bills that haven’t had a third reading after April 10 are pretty much considered dead.

Here’s a look at some of those measures that made the deadline, even though they still have to pass in the other chamber and be signed into law by the governor.

Energy bill

House lawmakers passed a bill that advocates championed as a way to keep the lights on for a wide range of South Carolinians, but critics warn the multifacted bill undoes protections put in for after VC Summer.

Among its many aspects of addressing the state’s longterm energy needs, the bill would allow Dominion Energy and Santee Cooper to build a natural gas fired power plant in the Lowcountry.

The bill passed in the House and Senate judiciary committee, where Sen. Wes Climer, R-York, called out the members for not understanding what they really voted on, The State reported Tuesday.

“We’re talking about a haphazard process on a bill that is ultimately going to touch, I would suspect, tens of billions of dollars in private investment and all five and half million South Carolinians,” Climer said.

Medical Marijuana

The Senate again passed the bill that Sen. Tom Davis had pushed for more than 10 years. Its likelihood of passing in the House remains unclear.

The Compassionate Care Act, S.423, would allow South Carolinians with certain conditions, such as cancer, multiple sclerosis or terminal illnesses to be prescribed certain forms of medicinal marijuana. In 2022, the Senate passed a similar version of the bill, but it failed in the House on a technicality. It also limits the delivery method to topical, oral or vaporized products only. Burning the plant and smoking are prohibited.

Staunch opposition awaits from multiple lawmakers in the House, including Rep. John McCravy. When the bill passed the Senate, McCravy said while he’s not sure whether the House would pass the bill, he did expect there to be a number of amendments filed if the bill was brought up in the House.

“This bill is recreational marijuana part one,” McCravy said. “If this bill we’re talking about was simply allowing somebody that’s dying of cancer to use marijuana or something like that, I don’t think anybody would oppose that. But a lot of people like me see this bill as the first step towards recreational marijuana. And there are a lot of things in the bill that indicate that.”

Transgender care for minors

House lawmakers made a point to take up this bill in the first few days, sparking protests outside the state house and hours long debates inside the chamber.

The “Help not Harm,” bill would prohibit anyone under age 18 from receiving gender reassignment surgery in South Carolina. Any form of puberty-blocking drug or procedure also would be illegal for minors. There is no evidence such surgeries are being performed on minors in the state now.

The bill also includes language that asserts a school employee may not withhold information from the minors parent or legal guardian if the minor’s perception of his or her gender is inconsistent with their sex. The bill passed in the House on Jan. 17.

Age verification for social media and pornography sites

Both of these bills passed in the House. The first would require companies to make commercially “reasonable efforts” confirming the social media account users are at least 18-years-old or get parental consent.

In a Senate committee in March, multiple people testifying urged lawmakers to change the bill’s language and take out the parental consent requirement, specifically citing First Amendment concerns.

The pornography law would make it illegal for anyone to make a pornographic website accessible to people under 18.

Both are in committees in the Senate.

Home alcohol delivery

Anyone 21-year-old and older would be able to order beer, liquor and wine from retailers such as DoorDash and UberEats and have it delivered to their home, as well as options for curbside delivery.

Concerns arose from irresponsible behavior with alcohol use, underage drinking and even robberies, but advocates for the bill insisted the accessibility and keeping up with a modern day economy.

The bill passed in the House and had a favorable committee report in the Senate.

Parental notification of teen medications

This bill passed the Senate after addressing concerns from doctors, parents and women’s health advocates. who brought up conversations about birth control access, children without parents or who are homeless and teen mothers. It now includes exemptions for children considered homeless, children in protective custody and teens mothers. It also lowered the age from 18 to 16, allowing parents to view medical history and give consent for medication.

The bill passed the Senate and is in the House Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs Committee.

Child neglect age raises

South Carolina law requires the victim must be under 11-years-old for charges of killing through child abuse or neglect. Lawmakers want to raise the age to 18-years-old. The bill passed the Senate and is now in the House judiciary committee.

Liquor Liability

Businesses that serves alcohol in South Carolina must have a million dollar liquor liability insurance policy, and includes places that only serve beer and wine. This has driven many businesses to take out loans or even be forced to close.

The bill would establish a program of affordable options for businesses seeking a liquor liability license.

Health agency merger

A bill that would merge six of the state’s public health agencies was met with internal Republican fighting between the House Republican Caucus and the Freedom Caucus. The debate about one powerful leader, irresponsible restructuring, improving the quality of care for South Carolinians lasted more than five hours.

Most of the bills no votes came from the Freedom Caucus. The bill passed in the House and was referred to the committee on Medical Affairs in the Senate.

What failed to crossover by Wednesday?

So what didn’t make it through a third reading in either chamber, and is essentially considered dead?

Lawmakers pushed for legislation going after illegal cellphones in prison, which would add graduated penalties for prisoners found with electronics, but never got it to a vote. Judicial reform was also a key issue that saw movement in some ways, including passing a bill in the Senate which S. 1046, which aims to address concerns related to the fairness and transparency of how judges are elected and the influence lawyer-legislators hold over them.

Similarly, legislation on providing compensation to women who have abortions in S.C., reimbursing medical school debt for doctors who would work in rural South Carolina, requiring recess for elementary and middle school children and more were discussed in committees and some on the House or Senate floor, but never reached a successful vote.