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SC House picks new committee chairs, Senate changes up rules

South Carolina Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Bluffton, left, talks to House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville, right, during a budget debate on Wednesday, May 8, 2024, in Columbia, South Carolina (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins).
Jeffrey Collins/AP
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AP
South Carolina Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Bluffton, left, talks to House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville, right, during a budget debate on Wednesday, May 8, 2024, in Columbia, South Carolina (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins).

Welcome to SCETV and South Carolina Public Radio's newest blog, of sorts, previewing and capturing what goes on at the South Carolina Statehouse.

Happy Wednesday.

It was the last day of the South Carolina Legislature's organizational session. And, similar to the first day, there was plenty of news inside the Statehouse.

New year, new committee chairs

Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, doled out committee assignments Wednesday, one of the toughest responsibilities he said he has as speaker.

You can catch the full list here, courtesy of Gavin Jackson.

Less than 24 hours ago, we wrote that there weren't any seismic shifts, or some massive across-the-board assignment shake ups (though Smith did have to figure out where to put the large freshmen class and he moved some members of the House Freedom Caucus).

Still somewhat true. But we're amending that statement, slightly.

On Thursday, it became public that Greenwood Republican Rep. John McCravy, chair of the Family Caucus and a lawyer, has asked the Speaker to reassign him from the Judiciary Committee, seen as the No. 2 committee in the House. (Hundreds of bills run through the panel.)

"I have come to recognize that my perspective on key issues and values differs significantly from your approach as Chairman," McCravy wrote to Judiciary Chairman Weston Newton, R-Beaufort.

McCravy also sits on the Legislative Oversight Committee.

It was not immediately clear whether the Speaker intends to put McCravy on another committee.

Here were other big takeaways, starting with the House's Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee.

State Rep. Bill Herbkersman, a Beaufort Republican who sat for years on the powerful House budget-writing Ways and Means Committee, will now chair the House LCI Committee.

Maayan Schechter, with other Statehouse reporters, interviewed Herbkersman after his election. He spoke about committee priorities, how the committee will operate (he says more member input and transparency), why he wanted the new role and what his position means for Beaufort County, which has pretty decent representation on other committees in the Legislature in both the House and Senate.

SC Rep. Bill Herbkersman elected LCI Committee chair

On LCI, state Rep. Gil Gatch, R-Dorchester, was elected first vice chair, and Rep. Carl Anderson, D-Georgetown, was elected second vice chair.

The swap comes after former LCI Chairman Bill Sandifer, R-Oconee, lost his reelection bid in the June party primaries. His second-in-command on the committee, former state Rep. Jay West, R-Anderson, also lost his primary in June.

Meanwhile, in another hearing room, Rep. Micah Caskey, R-Lexington, was elected chair of the House Rules Committee. He succeeds former Rep. Anne Thayer, R-Anderson, who did not seek reelection.

Musical chairs

The state budget process starts in Greenville Republican Bruce Bannister’s Ways and Means Committee and its subcommittees.

Bannister welcomed the committee with a joke.

“The Speaker asked me to just make this announcement, 'If anybody does not want to be on Ways and Means, there's a host of people lined up at his office that would like to take your spot.'”

That’s because seats on this committee are coveted and only three seats turned over— Reps. Herbkersman and Craig Gagnon, R-Abbeville, who went to LCI, and and Max Hyde, R-Spartanburg, who did not seek reelection. They made room for Reps. Kevin Hardee, R-Horry; Steven Long, R-Spartanburg; and Richie Yow, R-Chesterfield.

Bannister’s charge for his committee and his third budget he’s set to oversee?

“I would like this committee this year to spend some time really focused on the agencies, efficiency and how effective they're doing the things they're supposed to do for the citizens of South Carolina,” Bannister said. “Not by discarding any that we need, but also by not providing things that we don't need. We're gonna be looking at that and talking about that during this budget year.”

Arguably one of the busiest committees is Judiciary, which Chairman Weston Newton, R-Beaufort, was reelected to lead. With a flood of bills there is often disappointment when some don’t move, a process Newton addressed to the committee and its seven new members, including House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Ryan McCabe, R-Lexington.

“If you have thoughts and ideas about bills that are in the subcommittees, communicate with the subcommittee chairman,” Newton said. “However, there are certainly bills that from time to time, the best thing we can do with them is to make sure that they don't come before this committee, and we will certainly do that when that is necessary as well.”

South Carolina House Education and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Shannon Erickson, R-Beaufort, left, listens to a question from Rep. Russell Ott, D-St. Matthews, right, during a debate about education vouchers on Wednesday, March, 20, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)
Jeffrey Collins/AP
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AP
South Carolina House Education and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Shannon Erickson, R-Beaufort, left, listens to a question from Rep. Russell Ott, D-St. Matthews, right, during a debate about education vouchers on Wednesday, March, 20, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

State Rep. Shannon Erickson, R-Beaufort, made it clear to her Education and Public Works Committee that members are there to work.

“I run a tight ship. I expect you to run a tight ship on the committees that you're on because we serve the people of South Carolina and they deserve nothing less," she said.

She saw seven new members move on to the committee, which is also home to five members of the House Freedom Caucus —Republican Reps. Stephen Frank of Greenville, Thomas Lee Gilreath of Anderson, Chris Huff of Greenville, Jay Kilmartin of Lexington and Jackie Terribile of York County.

Not everyone gets the committee they want and Agriculture Committee Chairman Bill Hixon, a North Augusta Republican, addressed that.

“You might not have asked to be here but I welcome you," he said. "... Hopefully some of y'all will understand that you aren't farmers, but you're on the Ag Committee, and so we have a lot of things to do but that's one of my priorities and hopefully we can try to get some federal dollars and some state dollars to try to help our farmers.”

When it comes to the proliferation of artificial intelligence, Beaufort Republican Rep. Jeff Bradley already has ideas on how it can be used to save taxpayer dollars.

“My vision for the use of AI for productivity and efficiency gains are if we can keep our FTEs (full-time employees) flat like this as the demand for services — state government services — grows, that gap can be met with an AI-type product, then there's potentially a million to 2 million per agency that we can save every year and there's 70 agencies,” Bradley told the Regulations and Administrative Procedures, Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity Committee he chairs.

As for regulating the rapidly-evolving technology that lawmakers have been studying, Bradley wants to let the invisible hand to do its thing.

“My view is that we should take a little bit more of a laissez faire approach to regulating AI and allowing AI to develop before —we really don't know what we don't know," he said.

There are eight potential state entities that Conway Republican Jeff Johnson’s Legislative Oversight Committee is set to review next session.

They include: the state Conservation Bank, Employment and Workforce, Education Department, Insurance, Vocational Rehabilitation, Administrative Law Court, State Law Enforcement Division and Tuition Grants Commission. The latter two entities were already being researched by the previous committee. Agencies and entities are subject to review by Oversight every seven years.

South Carolina senators take the oath of office on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, at the S.C. Statehouse during the Legislature's organizational session.
MAAYAN SCHECHTER
South Carolina senators take the oath of office on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, at the S.C. Statehouse during the Legislature's organizational session.

13 new lawmakers join SC Senate

The South Carolina Senate opened its sole day of its organizational session, welcoming 13 new members — the largest freshmen class anyone can remember. (In 2001, there were 12 new members in the Senate.)

Like the House, the upper chamber held leadership elections.

There were no surprises there.

Senate President Thomas Alexander, R-Oconee, will continue to run the chamber.

Senate tweaks the rules

If you watched the Senate today, you were bombarded with rules. Mainly changes to the rules.

It sounds insider. It sounds like process. But the changes could have a big impact on legislation and debate.

On Wednesday, the Senate by voice vote approved an amended rules package that included dealing with regulations, removing committee chairs and eliminating the dreaded (by lawmakers) April crossover deadline.

“It has created an artificial deadline, that if there is something that we want to get done, we can get it done," Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, said from the floor. "Typically, if there's something that we don't want to get done, we use that as an excuse.”

We spoke to Massey after session ended about Senate GOP Caucus priorities (school choice and energy to name a couple), changes to rules, the large freshmen class and his other thoughts about the upcoming legislative session, officially starting Jan. 14, 2025.

You can listen to the full interview with Massey below:

Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey speaks to reporters Dec. 4, 2024

Statehouse clips from across the state

As a quick reminder: Welcome to SCETV and South Carolina Public Radio's newest blog, of sorts, previewing and capturing what goes on at the South Carolina Statehouse.

The blog is brought to you by longtime Statehouse reporters Gavin Jackson, Russ McKinney and Maayan Schechter.

It will include insider news, important meeting schedules, photos, video, behind-the-scenes interview clips with the state's policymakers and more.

We're still working on the name for the blog/newsletter.

Got ideas? Email us.

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.
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.
Russ McKinney has 30 years of experience in radio news and public affairs. He is a former broadcast news reporter in Spartanburg, Columbia and Atlanta. He served as Press Secretary to former S.C. Governor Dick Riley for two terms, and for 20 years was the chief public affairs officer for the University of South Carolina.