By Andy Brack | State legislators introduced 91 new bills over the last week. That’s a pretty typical number. Just as typical is that about half — 42 from three recent legislative days — have little to do with governing the state.
Instead, lawmakers introduce resolutions to recognize constituents for 100th birthdays, a long and fruitful career, or a particular public service. One state representative even introduces resolutions to recognize each youth in his district who becomes an Eagle Boy Scout.
There are bills to recognize state champion swim teams, volleyball teams, football teams and everything under the sun. Many of these groups also get recognized on the floor of the House or Senate if they visit, which further clogs the legislative process and interrupts the business of governing.
Some wags say slowing the process isn’t a bad thing — that it’s better for legislators to do less than more. But while these measures are nice and polite, they essentially are deadwood — political detritus to give politicians cover in home districts to keep voters happy and allow them to have pretty, framed resolutions hanging on walls.
It’s gotten out of hand, especially if you realize there are hundreds of memorial or congratulatory resolutions among the approximately 3,000 bills introduced since January 2015. Just dealing with these bills causes a lot of extra staff work and time that could be better used.
Hidden in plain sight, however, are bills that are serious-sounding proposals that never will pass and are nothing more than blatant time-wasters intended to score political points in the media and among voters to push partisan agendas.
That’s not unexpected — it’s politics, right? But do we really need a bill requiring a registry of journalists from S.C. Rep. Mike Pitts, R-Laurens, just because he’s mad at reporters for not reporting stories about gun rights the way he wants them to? Pitts even admitted to the S.C. Radio Network that he wouldn’t actually vote for his own bill (H. 4702): “Would I vote for that vote to pass to actually enforce this? No, because that’s what Hitler and Stalin, who some people have accused me of being, actually did.”
And then there’s H. 4544, the bill from Democratic state Rep. Mia McLeod of Columbia that would regulate prescriptions of drugs for erectile dysfunction. This so-called Viagra bill was introduced to try to force aging men (the dominant demographic in the legislature) to consider how they would feel about a law that to regulate what they can do with their bodies as they continue to introduce abortion-related legislation to tell women what to do with their bodies.
“Many lawmakers treat the state law code as if it were just another social media platform,” observed Barton Swaim of the conservative S.C. Policy Council. “For them, it’s a medium through which they can crack jokes, score political points and promote their careers. But come on – surely there ought to be something dignified in the way we create laws to govern ourselves. It’s a serious thing. It’s not there so politicians can show off.”
It doesn’t take long to find examples of elaborate and frivolous bills that take up time in the legislature that could be better spent fixing roads, educating children, improving health care or, maybe, finding the courage to make real ethics reform.
Legislators have introduced measures that would require schools to teach awareness about the Second Amendment and to use a website to report bullies. There’s a measure to require schools to display the national motto, “In God We Trust,” in the lobby of each public school. Here’s a good one — a bill to memorialize Congress to provide debt-free higher education (like Congress isn’t dysfunctional enough already).
Perhaps our favorite is the Senate proposal (S. 952) to make it illegal to make loud noises. But two similar bills, the Pastor Protection Act, come in second. H. 4446 and H. 4508, which are potshots at the whole gay marriage controversy, would keep a minister from being sued for not performing a marriage that he or she didn’t want to.
Ever heard of “Just say no?” That’s what needs to happen with most of the legislature’s time-wasting, frivolous bills.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!