Legislative session regrets? SC lawmakers have a few

For the last two years lawmakers worked to get as many of their priorities on legislation passed while ensuring legislation they didn’t favor stagnated. From the anti-transgender bill and constitutional carry to raising pay for teachers, Republicans said it was an extremely successful 2023-2024 session.

Democrats, however, say approving constitutional carry and preventing healthcare for transgender people should not be celebrated.

Either way, both parties have regrets on what they didn’t get done. With 228 bills signed into law by Gov. Henry McMaster so far, the Democratic, Republican, Family, Freedom and Black caucuses each have a different outlook. Here’s some of what they wished had happened.

Conservative family-related policies pass

State Rep. John McCravy, R-Greenwood, chair of the Family Caucus, said a lot got done and felt it was very successful considering their main priorities, including passing the Help not Harm bill and six-week abortion ban.

“I think we were very successful in passing bills that helped our children. It helped them in the womb, it helped them after they were born and it protects them from what I would call child abuse after they’re born,” he said.

However, McCravy said there were things he and the Family Caucus wanted to pass. For one, McCravy’s own bill, the Human Life Protection Act, which would not allow the sale of any type of medicine used for an abortion, as well as ban abortion at conception with exceptions.

“We came very close,” McCravy said. “We’re not giving up on that, and we will be back.”

He also said he was disappointed the social media restriction bill did not pass the Senate.

More Republican successes

Rep. Davey Hiott, R-Pickens, said the Republican Caucus had one of the most successful sessions he had ever seen. Hiott cited similar successes as McCravy, including the Help not Harm bill. He added taking care of teachers, school resource officers in schools and tax relief were some other wins.

Judicial reform and energy, however, were not. Hiott said both of these are a big deal for South Carolinians. Both have been assigned conferees, or members of the legislator who will be on the conference committee. A date, however, has not been set for either conference.

State Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, said the past two years, even four years, have been very successful because they were able to move on lots of things that five years ago, no one would have thought they could, like school choice and reducing income taxes.

However, Massey said one of the disappointments was not passing the fentanyl bill (S. 1), which would have created a felony offense for anyone who committed a drug-induced homicide.

“I am a little bit disappointed that we were not able to get S. 1, which was a number one priority, but it dealt with trying to prevent more fentanyl deaths,” Massey said. “I’m disappointed that the House wasn’t able to move that across the finish line.”

Not conservative enough

The Freedom Caucus said it was a very successful session in pushing more conservative legislation, said RJ May, vice chairman of the Freedom Caucus.

“If not for Freedom Caucus members, you wouldn’t have as strong of a bill that we do now,” May said of constitutional carry. “I would also say that, you know, the reason Gov. McMaster signed the Help Not Harm bill today is because of Freedom Caucus.”

May said he was disappointed about closed primaries and universal school freedom not

“Having closed primaries wasn’t even discussed even though it was over 85% of folks during the referendum said they wanted closed primaries. I think that goes to speak to the lack of disrespect that leadership has for the people of South Carolina,” May said.

Republican infighting delays

The Democratic Caucus listed Republican+ infighting that halted progress among their regrets. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, House Minority leader, said the “perfect illustration” was moments before Sine Die, when the Freedom Caucus rejected the health bill because they claimed it would create a “health czar.”

“Last year, their boogeyman was “critical race theory,” something they couldn’t define, they couldn’t show that it was being taught in schools, but they had to ban it anyway,” Rutherford said. “The fact is many Republican legislators are not interested in making progress on the actual issues facing our state and until people stop voting for these Republicans, that will not change.”

Numerous hours were consumed this session with Republican in-fighting between House Republican Caucus members and the Freedom Caucus. Caucuses disagreed on its impact.

“Things got done because of the pressure that the Freedom Caucus put on the establishment,” May said.

Hiott, however, said the Republican caucus passed the legislation that was a priority for them, and they didn’t need any help. They passed what they wanted because they have the numbers to do so.

“We didn’t have any problems,” Hiott said. “I mean we have 72 members in our caucus and 72 can pass anything we wanna pass. We don’t need any help from anybody. We passed everything we wanted to with our members.”

The infighting wasn’t the only issue Democrats cited.

“So what did Republicans do this session? They banned abortion, they banned books, they banned health care for transgender people. We did that in a state that ranks at the bottom of the list for health care, education, you name it,” Rutherford wrote via text.

While Democrats were able to work on policy related to public education and infrastructure, it was not a successful session, he added, because Democrats define success as as passing laws that make people’s lives better. “Certain Republican politicians who want to sell bumper stickers might call it a successful session, but I do not.”

Still no Hate Crime bill

The Black Caucus expressed similar views on success, emphasizing the many things the caucus wished had passed and wish didn’t pass.

Ivory Thigpen, D-Richland, chair of the Black caucus said he was glad about teacher pay, but diversity on the bench is a main concern as well as getting a hate crime law passed.

“I personally believe we were without excuse, especially considering what happened June 16 at Mother Emmanuel ... we should have been one of the first states after such a horrible incident happened on our soil to pass hate crimes legislation,” Thigpen said.

Thigpen said how constitutional will affect communities and law enforcement is a growing concern.