The Weekly Rewind: Week of April 28th

*** This week’s Floor Actions of the SC House of Representatives, prepared by staff. Should you have any questions about my votes on these bills, or would like additional information, please contact my office at (803) 734-2969. **

H. 3924 Hemp Beverages

The Senate did not concur in further House amendments recently made to H. 3924 Hemp Beverages, and insisted upon its version of this legislation that was previously reported. As a result, the House has named Reps. W. Newton, Jordan, and Wetmore and the Senate has named Sens. Massey, Johnson, and Ott to this bill’s Conference Committee.

S. 52 Updating South Carolina Impaired Driving Laws

The House made significant amendments to, and returned to the Senate, S. 52 Updating South Carolina Impaired Driving Laws.
Among the many revisions in this bill’s current version, drivers operating motor vehicles while under the influence of alcohol or drugs [DUI] as well as for driving with unlawful alcohol concentrations [DUAC] would face punishments that could include requiring convicted drivers to attend Victim Impact Panels under this comprehensive reform bill. Drivers required to participate in Victim Impact panels could do so in-person or online.

S. 52 presents significant changes for the processing and prosecution of DUI and DUAC cases in South Carolina. Among many things, this bill sets out that drivers with alcohol concentrations of over fifteen one-hundredth of one percent or more, would face license suspensions for three months. Drivers refusing to submit to any chemical tests could have their drivers’ licenses suspended for nine months. Subsequent offenses increase these suspension periods significantly.

Alcohol and Drug Safety Action Programs [ADSAP] would be administered by South Carolina’s Office of Substance Use Services. This office would conduct a feasibility study on the costs of generating educational materials covering the privilege of driving and consequences of DUI and DUAC convictions.

In a very new development, this bill would allow offenders arrested for listed offenses for a first time to participate in Pretrial Intervention Programs, if a Circuit Solicitor permits a driver to enroll. However, violations more than a first offense of DUI or DUAC would not qualify for this participation.

It also would establish the offense of felony driving under the influence in the second degree, establish penalties, and define the new term of “moderate bodily injury.” This definition removes property damage dollar amounts from the bill language.

A third degree offense is also included in this version. Another new criminal offense, as part of reckless vehicular homicide and reckless driving, would be considered to have occurred when a child is endangered by impaired drivers. Felony DUI and DUAC are added to the list of child endangerment offenses. A new offense of felony reckless driving with attendant penalties is also proposed.
Drivers convicted of felony DUI who have caused the death or total or permanent disability of parents or guardians
could be ordered to pay child support as restitution for the duration of any ordered probation, or while their community service hours are being performed. Survivors of interactions with these impaired drivers would be extended all rights and privileges set out in our Victims’

Bill of Rights.
As part of existing implied consent testing for alcohol or drugs in drivers, this bill adds the circumstances, procedures, and testing sites that can be used when drivers are subjected to tests for alcohol or drugs. Probable cause for blood sampling could be established by a law enforcement officer certified as a Drug Recognition Expert. It also would additionally allow physicians, chemists, laboratory technicians, phlebotomists, emergency medical technicians, and other trained medical professionals to obtain blood samples. They must comply with any warrants served upon them regarding this sampling. Suspension periods for drivers who refuse to be tested, or with specified alcohol concentrations, are also harshened in this bill.

For drivers without a notice of suspension when they request administrative hearings, they could provide the reason it is not in hand, their drivers license information, the state that issued their license, the name of the arresting agency, the arresting officer’s name, and the county they were arrested in when they make their application. Administrative suspensions of drivers’ licenses for refusing to provide a breath sample or registering at 0.15 or higher would get credit for the time they had an interlock device installed prior to an administrative order upholding the suspension. No interlock device installations could be required for datamaster readings between 0.00% and 0.05%. Out of state drivers required to have interlock devices installed would have to work with providers in their state who supply devices that are approved by SC SLED.

Videotaping requirements are modified as to the extent of videotaping to be done and removing any motions to dismiss charges for minor omissions from videotaped stops, arrests, and testing site events. Arresting and testing officers who substantially comply with testing procedures would not have their cases dismissed, and any motions to suppress evidence would have to be made before double jeopardy legal principles attach.
 
A final feature of the current bill version includes a prohibition against any sentencing courts designating felony DUI resulting in death or felony DUAC to be nonviolent offenses. It would become effective one year after it is approved by our Governor. No expungement applications for these convictions could be made for ten years after their case was concluded.

H. 4641 No Kratom Sales to Minors, Limiting Its Manufacture and Sales, and Listing Synthetic Kratom Products as Schedule I Controlled Substances.

The Senate is receiving H. 4641 after the House also passed it this week. It would ban all kratom sales to minors and prohibit making, selling, and distributing specified kratom products.
Any of these products, containing alkaloids, salts, isomers, compounds, derivatives, precursors, homologues, analogues, or other preparations that are substantially chemically equivalent or are identical to kratom including, but not limited to, mitragynine, 7-hydroxymitragynine, or any other synthetically derived compound of the mitragyna speciosa plant, would be listed as Schedule I Controlled Substances.

S. 831 South Carolina Department of Transportation Modernization

The House of Representatives returned S. 831, a bill providing for South Carolina Department of Transportation modernization, to the Senate with amendments that replace the version of SCDOT modernization approved by the Senate with a House version of the legislation. Drawing upon the work of the South Carolina Department of Transportation Modernization Ad Hoc Committee appointed by the Speaker of the House, the legislation restructures the South Carolina Department of Transportation to enhance accountability and makes changes to the ways in which the state’s roadways are planned, financed, and maintained that emphasize expediting projects and making the most of taxpayers’ dollars. The legislation provides for the Department of Transportation to be under the direction of a Secretary of Transportation who is appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate, rather than selected by a governing commission. The Commission of the Department of Transportation is eliminated.

The legislation specifies that the scope of SCDOT’s internal audit services shall cover the entire department, including all the Department’s activities, assets, and personnel. The scope of internal audit activities also encompasses all, but is not limited to, objective examinations of evidence to provide independent assurance on the adequacy, effectiveness, and efficiency of governance, risk management, control processes, and compliance for the department. The Department’s chief internal auditor must be a certified public accountant, a certified internal auditor, or a certified fraud examiner. Every four years the State Auditor is charged with employing an independent external firm to perform a performance and organizational audit on the Department of Transportation.

The position of Deputy Secretary for Planning is established and charged with the duties of developing statewide strategic transportation plans and coordinating these plans with federal and state-funded regional and local transportation planning organizations. The legislation includes authorization for the Department to enter into public‑private partnership arrangements for the purpose of planning, designing, financing, constructing, or maintaining the highways, roads, streets, bridges, public transit, and other facilities that include design‑build agreements, franchise agreements, pre‑development agreements, and performance-based payments agreements. Such arrangements would allow for financing projects through the issuance of private activity bonds and similar instruments. The Department is authorized to make use of phased design-build project delivery arrangements and award highway construction contracts using construction manager/general contractor (CM/GC) procedures that allow for guaranteed maximum price agreements.

Provisions are included to facilitate adding self-funded choice lanes in high traffic areas that afford drivers the option of paying a usage charge to access the restricted lane in order to avoid congestion. No toll or usage charge may be imposed on an existing roadway unless expressly authorized by the General Assembly. Any such structure must be disclosed before the execution of the agreement and must include rate limitations or other mechanisms to protect the public.

The legislation authorizes a revised protocol for addressing National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Assignment Program responsibilities to expedite the delivery of transportation projects. The legislation increases the share of gas tax revenue that is distributed to counties as “C” funds and makes provisions for the county legislative delegation to appoint the county transportation committee, ensuring that the committee includes fair representation from municipalities and unincorporated areas of the county. The legislation provides that all members of the county transportation committee must be residents of the county, and any official or employee of a county transportation committee is subject to the State Ethics Act. Provisions are included to enhance transparency in CTC proceedings. A felony offense is established for members of county transportation committees, engineers, agents, or other employees, acting for or on behalf of committees who make use of their positions to obtain an illicit profit. Those convicted of the offense must be imprisoned for not more than five years and are forever disqualified from holding any office of trust or profit.

A Pothole Mitigation Program is established within the Department of Transportation to allow the public to report pothole locations along the state highway system by telephone, the internet, a website application, or other electronic means. SCDOT must ensure that a pothole is repaired within seven days of receiving notice of its location. In addition to existing funding, SCDOT is to receive a $15 million allocation each year from the Infrastructure Maintenance Trust Fund for pavement repairs of potholes identified through the mitigation program.

S. 715 Oversight of Charitable Solicitations

The House approved S. 715 and enrolled the bill for ratification. The legislation revises the oversight of charitable solicitations by streamlining the process for filing statements on charitable fundraising with the Secretary of State and enhancing transparency requirements for charitable solicitations. The legislation relieves more charitable fundraising efforts that are smaller in scale from the administrative burden of filing registration statements with the Secretary of State. Charitable organizations that solicit, collect, earn, or receive more than ten thousand dollars in a year, rather than the current yearly minimum of seven thousand five hundred dollars, are required to file registration statements with the Secretary of State and organizations whose yearly fundraising activities fall beneath this threshold amount are not required to undergo the filing process. Commercial co‑venturers involved with charitable fundraising initiatives that exceed ten thousand dollars a year are subject to registration requirements, but fundraising that falls below this level does not require their registration with the Secretary of State. The legislation modifies the limits under which certain charitable organizations that have received a letter of tax exemption from the Internal Revenue Service are exempt from filing registration statements with the Secretary of State from twenty thousand dollars in charitable contributions to twenty-five thousand dollars in gross revenue. The legislation provides that, at the initial time of solicitation, a charitable organization, professional solicitor, commercial co‑venturer, or other person engaging in the solicitation of charitable contributions must disclose the legal name and purpose of the charitable organization for which it is soliciting. The legislation prohibits commercial co‑venturers from using registration with the Secretary of State as an endorsement by the state.

S. 718 Relates to Ejecting Unlawful Occupants

The House returned S. 718, a bill that relates to ejecting unlawful occupants, to the Senate with amendments. The legislation establishes a protocol for the removal from a recreational vehicle park of a transient guest who temporarily occupies a recreational vehicle located within the park with the permission of a current or former guest of the RV park but without the permission of the RV park’s operator. The legislation establishes a new protocol for the ejectment of unlawful occupants of a residential dwelling to address a petition from a property owner to remove squatters who detain, occupy, or trespass on property containing a residential dwelling without the permission of the property owner, who otherwise have no legal right to occupy the property under state law, and who are not afforded any protections provided to a tenant under state law. The legislation revises the procedure for staying the execution of a judgment for ejectment of tenants.

H. 4382 Sales of Nonprescription Ephedrine, Pseudoephedrine, And Phenylpropanolamine

The House amended, approved, and sent the Senate H. 4382, a bill addressing sales of nonprescription ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and phenylpropanolamine. The legislation revises provisions governing the sale of nonprescription products containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, or phenylpropanolamine to require that manufacturers of these drugs pay monthly fees to support the data collection system that tracks sales of these products to counter their use in the illicit manufacturing of methamphetamine. Penalties are established for failure to comply.

H. 5216 Building Code Energy Conservation Standards

The House approved and sent the Senate H. 5216, a bill addressing building code energy conservation standards. The legislation makes provisions for adopting updates and modifications to Energy Conservation Code standards, putting them on the same review and adoption schedule as other building codes.

S. 150 South Carolina Rental Kart Age Act

The House returned S. 150, the “South Carolina Rental Kart Age Act,” to the Senate with amendments. This bill revises provisions within the South Carolina Amusement Rides Safety Code that govern the operation of rental karts, which have been referred to as super karts in statutory provisions. The legislation revises minimum age provisions for operators and safety requirements for these open-wheel motorsport vehicles, with or without gearbox or shifter capability, used for racing in excess of fifty miles per hour. In addition to those who are at least eighteen years old, the legislation also allows those who are at least fifteen years old and hold a valid driver’s license or permit to operate rental karts so long as the vehicles operated by these younger drivers are equipped with an occupant restraint system and a rollover protection system. Rental karts may operate, but are not limited to operating, within the containment system of a defined track.

H. 3371 Admissions Tax Exemption for Local Chambers Of Commerce

The House amended, approved, and sent the Senate H. 3371, a bill providing for an admissions tax exemption for local chambers of commerce. The legislation revises admissions tax provisions to exempt admissions charged by a local chamber of commerce that qualifies as not-for-profit organization under Internal Revenue Service criteria.

H. 5488 South Carolina Textiles Communities Revitalization Act

The House approved and sent the Senate H. 5488. This bill makes revisions to the South Carolina Textiles Communities Revitalization Act to provide clarification on qualifying requirements for certain rehabilitation expenses.

H. 5122 Sales Tax Exemption for Internet Access Service Providers and Communications Service Providers

The House, amended, approved, and sent the Senate H. 5122, a bill establishing a sales tax exemption for Internet access service providers and communications service providers. The legislation provides a sales tax exemption, capped at $10 million a year, for all supplies, technical equipment, machinery, and electricity sold to Internet access service providers and communications service providers, for use in producing, broadcasting, or distributing Internet access service, communications services, or any combination of such services.

H. 4270 Erasing Eviction Records

Headed to the Senate, after passing the House this week, is pending legislation to remove past evictions, or actions seeking evictions, of tenants H. 4270. This bill would require all eviction cases five years or older to be purged from public view of any kind. If signed by the Governor, it would become effective January 1, 2027.

H. 5504 Foreign Influence Operations Out of American Education Act

H. 5504, given third reading and sent the Senate, would enact the “Foreign Influence Operations Out of American Education Act” to prohibit public institutions of higher learning from soliciting or accepting certain gifts or travel from foreign adversary nations, foreign principals, or foreign terrorist organizations, to restrict foreign influence on hiring, curriculum, and campus organizations, and to require disclosure of gifts and contracts from foreign countries and foreign principals to the office of the State Treasurer.

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