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The State House Gavel
The State House Gavel shares updates about the South Carolina General Assembly, including legislative actions, debates and discussions. Featuring news and interviews, so you have access to the latest developments in policy and decisions that shape South Carolina’s future.

The State House Gavel: House rejects Senate changes to hemp bill, senators grind through budget debate

South Carolina Public Radio | By Maayan Schechter,
Gavin Jackson
Published April 23, 2026 at 6:01 AM EDT
Rep. Greg Ford, R-Dorchester, in the House chamber at the South Carolina Statehouse on April 21, 2026.
GAVIN JACKSON
S.C. Rep. Greg Ford, R-Dorchester, in the House chamber at the South Carolina Statehouse on April 21, 2026.

It's Thursday, April 23.

Not only is it the final day of the South Carolina legislative week, it is also the annual Seersucker Day. That means we expect to see everyone's seersucker best because our cameras will be out.

The House and Senate both gavel in at 10 a.m.

You're reading The State House Gavel, your daily reporter notebook by Maayan Schechter and Gavin Jackson that previews and captures what goes on at the South Carolina Statehouse.

Notebook highlights:

  • Debate over consumable hemp unravels as the bill heads to the negotiation table, with reaction from House and Senate GOP leaders
  • Senate inches closer to passing its version of the $15 billion spending plan that now includes measures over liquor liability insurance and name, image and likeness contracts at colleges and universities
Reporters Maayan Schechter and Gavin Jackson, host of This Week in South Carolina and the SC Lede podcast.
Andre Bellamy/SCETV
Reporters Maayan Schechter and Gavin Jackson, host of This Week in South Carolina and the SC Lede podcast.

Hemp headaches

The hemp-derived THC consumable regulation debate might be the messiest sausage-making process so far in this legislative session.

And it's not quite over.

On Tuesday, it was apparent there wasn't a clear majority consensus — whether between Republicans or Democrats, or within the House GOP Caucus —that could agree on a response to Senate changes over H. 3924, legislation sponsored by Lexington Republican Rep. Chris Wooten that at its center banned hemp products from being sold to anyone under 21.

Those divisions spilled out in the chamber Wednesday as the chamber searched for a path forward on an issue that has split the House all year.

After multiple failed attempts to amend the bill or kill it for the year, the House agreed to a proposal by Greenwood Republican Rep. John McCravy that completely bans the sale or consumption of hemp-derived products tied to definitions tucked into a federal funding bill passed in November to reopen the government.

It's a provision that, if Congress doesn't unwind it, opponents say will tank the multibillion-dollar hemp industry.

Then, after more rounds of amendments were voted down, the House eventually agreed to add back the core of the original bill, a ban on the products to anyone under age 21.

State Rep. Greg Ford, a Dorchester Republican who has grown, processed and sold hemp — products he says helped save his son’s life — told reporters he wants to see the industry survive and thrive.

"What we did today was set the industry up for failure,” Ford told reporters. "I think the Senate bill was better than what we were working on from the House, but (it) still cuts out every CBD shop that sells the products right now.”

In short, the House bill bans the products outright, but also bans the possession and use of the products by anyone under 21. Confused? There's a reason why.

"We weren’t making law today. We were posturing to go to conference," House Judiciary Chairman Weston Newton, R-Beaufort, told reporters after the House adjourned. "Somewhere, perhaps in the middle is where we find that acceptable regulatory structure through the conference committee process."

What's next?

The bill now goes back over to the Senate, which is expected to reject the House changes and send the legislation to a committee of three House and three Senate lawmakers to negotiate a compromise between the two versions.

For reference, in the Senate version, the bill would:

  • Allow retailers with beer and wine and hemp licenses to sell up to 5 milligram single-can 12-ounce THC drinks, which would be kept behind the counter
  • Require any beverage over that milligram amount to be sold at licensed liquor stores
  • Require that gummies with up to 40 milligrams of THC per package to be only sold at liquor stores. Like the retail rules, store inventory must be kept behind the counter
  • Ban on-premise consumption at bars and restaurants
  • Create a DUI offense for anyone who drives a car with 5 nanograms or more of THC per milliliter found in the blood
  • Keep CBD products legal and under current state regulations

Reporters spoke to Sen. Michael Johnson, a York Republican who helped shepherd the THC legislation through the upper chamber, about where the Senate stands after the House vote.

Johnson said the option of exclusively sticking to what the original bill intended to do — largely banning the use and sale of hemp-derived products to anyone under 21 — is not going to sail easily through the Senate.

But "nothing is off the table," he said.

Hear more below from reporters' interview with Johnson, who hinted at what may be the upper chamber's strategy and where a ban on on-premise consumption could go:

S.C. Sen. Michael Johnson, R-York, on hemp legislation 4.22.26

What's on the Thursday agenda?

House Majority Leader Davey Hiott, R-Pickens, said the House will continue to work through the calendar, currently at 33 pages, with the expectation that the chamber will start a likely dayslong debate over roads legislation on Tuesday.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Weston Newton, R-Beaufort, speaks with Rep. Randy Ligon, R-Chester, in the House chamber at the South Carolina Statehouse on April 22, 2026.
GAVIN JACKSON
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Weston Newton, R-Beaufort, speaks with Rep. Randy Ligon, R-Chester, in the House chamber at the South Carolina Statehouse on April 22, 2026.

Senate grinds through $15B SC budget

Typically, Thursdays at the Statehouse are quick floor work days.

That may not be in the case in the upper chamber today, when the Senate returns this morning to continue working through its version of the $15 billion general fund budget that includes millions of dollars to raise state employee and teacher pay, fix roads and other infrastructure and to help pay for health care-related needs.

Staff said there are about 42 proposed amendments still left on the desk after Senate Finance Chairman Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, cut off any more amendments after 5 o'clock Wednesday.

Amendments attached to the budget already deal with:

  • The Police Officers Retirement System, and how much officers can earn toward their paycheck when they return
  • Additional in-district pay legislators receive per month
  • How doctors can supervise telemedicine
  • A restriction of state dollars, tuition or other student fees going toward student-athletes' name, image and likeness contracts with colleges and universities
  • The Senate's version of the homestead exemption property tax expansion bill, which senators added to the budget (which also includes money for it in the Senate version) as the fate of the bill in the House remains uncertain
  • Last year's law over liquor liability insurance, and the minimum insurance coverage requirement for bars and restaurants

What didn't the Senate attach?

  • A measure to provide free school breakfast for public school students that was included in both Gov. Henry McMaster's executive budget and the House's version of the budget. That amendment, proposed by Sen. Russell Ott, D-Calhoun, was defeated 22-20

Read more:

Sen. Shane Martin, R-Spartanburg, in the Senate chamber at the South Carolina Statehouse on April 22, 2026.
GAVIN JACKSON
Sen. Shane Martin, R-Spartanburg, in the Senate chamber at the South Carolina Statehouse on April 22, 2026.

Statehouse daily planner (4/23)

SC House

SC Senate

SC governor

  • 7:30 a.m. — Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette to participate in Toast N’ Topics with the Anderson Chamber of Commerce
  • 1:15 p.m. — Gov. Henry McMaster and state schools Superintendent Ellen Weaver to announce the South Carolina teacher of the year

Editor's Note: Statehouse schedules can change daily. To keep up with the House and Senate meeting schedules, click here.

Statehouse clips from around the state

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Maayan Schechter
Maayan Schechter (My-yahn Schek-ter) is a news reporter with South Carolina Public Radio and ETV. She worked at South Carolina newspapers for a decade, previously working as a reporter and then editor of The State’s S.C. State House and politics team, and as a reporter at the Aiken Standard and the Greenville News. She grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and graduated from the University of North Carolina-Asheville in 2013.
See stories by Maayan Schechter
Gavin Jackson
Gavin Jackson graduated with a visual journalism degree from Kent State University in 2008 and has been in the news industry ever since. He has worked at newspapers in Ohio, Louisiana and most recently in South Carolina at the Florence Morning News and Charleston Post and Courier.
See stories by Gavin Jackson