Legislative Updates 2022: April 11 - 15

WEEK 14 IN THE STATEHOUSE

HIGHLIGHTS:

• A quiet week at the Statehouse
• Lobby Day coming up

I’ll make this brief. With the House on Furlough and the Senate’s attention fixed on the budget, it was a quiet week for most of the bills and resolutions we have been advocating for (a welcome break for us in the Conservation Community). Click here for a list of still-viable legislation that made it past the crossover deadline.

Did your legislator take the lead on or co-sponsor any of these bills? Now would be a great time to thank them! You can find your legislator here and use this guide to help craft your message.

Remember that you can find recaps from the first fourteen weeks of the session here.

State Budget Advances

In two full days of meetings last week, the Senate Finance Committee advanced its version of the State Budget (H.5150) and the American Rescue Plan Authorizations Bill (H.4408). As expected, we saw quite a few modifications to the House version of the budget, but we still have a long road ahead – even beyond the last day of the Session on May 12^th – so stay tuned for news and action alerts on budget-related issues. In general, we remain supportive of the principles and programs we outlined earlier this year, and strongly believe now is the time to fund projects that protect drinking water from emerging contaminants and that build resilience against a changing climate.

Coming up

With just 12 legislative days left, both House and Senate are gearing up for a busy week of committee work. You can always find the committee schedules on the Statehouse website here. 

The E-Waste Bill (H. 4775), has a hearing in the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources subcommittee, scheduled for Wednesday at 11:30 am (no live stream available yet). Earlier this month we discussed how this bill authorizes the E-Waste recycling program under DHEC until 2029 and clarifies the process for disposing of certain types of E-Waste to ensure it doesn't end up in landfills. Click here to learn more about this bill.

Budget deliberations on the Senate floor are scheduled for next week (likely starting Monday, April 25^th), which gives the full Senate the opportunity to carefully review the budget that passed out of Senate Finance last week.

Next week: Conservation Lobby Day

If you have registered to attend our Annual Lobby Day and Oyster Roast on April 26th, please contact me so that we may coordinate the Upstate advocates!

This is a free event hosted by the SC Conservation Coalition that provides the opportunity to meet fellow advocates, legislators, and staff who value conservation. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions.

Click here to register and learn more about this event

Until next week...

Megan Chase
State Policy Director

ODDS AND ENDS AND ACTIONS:

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Did your senator or representative do something awesome this week? Tell them! Use this link to find out who represents you, and if you love a bill they are supporting, please let them know. You can also just use the link to tell them what is important to you.