By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | The state’s 2020-21 budget and allocation of federal pandemic aid money will loom large over the special session called for the House and Senate next week, which is slated to begin Tuesday for both chambers.
The September session, which will end Sept. 24, was called so lawmakers could finish drafting a state spending plan for the 2020-2021 fiscal year already underway. The 2020 session was disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic that pummeled revenues and halted large gatherings. This mini-session joins others called since April to address the pandemic, including a recent one-day Senate session to expand absentee voting.
In a statement to Statehouse Report, House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, said the House will “certainly ensure that the important work of the people of this state will be done” despite the limited time. Senate President Harvey Peeler, R-Gaffney, did not respond to a request to comment.
Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey of Edgefield said the two-week session will highlight what each senator thinks is important.
“There are a number of things people would like to do … but it’s kind of hard to come up with things that are going to get a consensus to move. We are still working on that,” he told Statehouse Report this week.
Beyond the second allocation of federal aid money for the pandemic, state budget and expanding absentee voting, legislators are also expected to have a joint assembly for elections to the S.C. Public Service Commission and colleges’ board of trustees, Massey said.
House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford of Columbia said the state needs to grapple with rural broadband and rural healthcare, “the two things that Democrats have been banging the table for for years” and exacerbated in the pandemic. But, he said, he hasn’t heard of any other items on the House agenda beyond the budget, federal aid and absentee voting.
On Thursday, Gov. Henry McMaster announced his proposal for spending the second phase of CARES Act money. The governor’s recommendations include $450 million to replenish the Unemployment Trust Fund, $45 million in grants for small businesses and nonprofit organizations that did not receive federal Paycheck Protection Program loans, and $93 million to reimburse the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. The House Ways and Means Committee has been meeting on the second phase of spending in recent weeks.
In other news:
Senate committee looks at pharmacists, prescriptions. The Senate Medical Affairs Committee will convene 10 a.m. Tuesday in room 308 of the Gressette building on Statehouse grounds to discuss two bills that would impact pharmacists. House Bill 4663 would amend existing law that allows pharmacists to administer seasonal flu vaccines to allow the group to give vaccines regardless of a patient’s age. House Bill 4938 would allow practitioners to write prescriptions electronically. Both bills were filed prior to the pandemic.
State vaccine plan announced. State leaders announced Thursday that a plan is in the works for distributing a COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available. They said that while there is no confirmed date as to when a vaccine could become available, the plan will prioritize high-risk individuals, frontline health care workers and critical infrastructure employees when limited doses of the vaccine first arrive, said Stephen White, the state’s immunization director. Read more.
- Previous coverage: Policy questions loom large in future of vaccine plan.
Census count still low in S.C. U.S. Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham said this week just 78 percent of South Carolina’s known addresses have been counted in the 10-year census that helps allocate federal representation and money. The count will end Sept. 30. Read more.
Economic outlook to be explored virtually. The 40th annual Economic Outlook Conference, presented by the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina, has become the Economic Outlook Series as it will be held over two interactive, virtual events Sept. 29 and Nov. 3. The cost is $30 to attend both events or $20 to attend one event. Learn more about the series.
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