As lawmakers headed toward the May 1 “crossover” deadline to receive bills from their companion chamber, they introduced few substantive measures over the last week. Of note:
IN THE SENATE
Selecting judges. S. 718 (Corbin) calls for a new process to put people on the Judicial Merit Selection Committees — having two people from each congressional district, with several provisions.
Abortion. S. 719 (Bright) seeks a resolution to propose a constitutional amendment to say life begins at conception and confer rights to fetuses. H 4093 (Chumley) is similar.
IN THE HOUSE
Food assistance limitations. H. 4066 (Gagnon) seeks to require the state Department of Social Services to limit SNAP food assistance benefits to three months out of every 36 with several exceptions.
Charter schools. H. 4084 (Stringer) calls for several changes to school charter schools, including making employees, board members and staff subject to state ethics and accountability requirements, with other provisions.
Pawnbrokers. H. 4090 (Bedingfield) calls for reforms to the state pawnbroker’s law with many provisions.
Department of Environment. H. 4105 (Neal) seeks to split the Department of Health and Environmental Control by devolving environmental responsibilities into a new Department of the Environment, with many provisions.
STEM education. H. 4108 (Rivers) seeks to create the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Pathway Resource Network to promote STEM education, with many provisions.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!