COLOMBIA, SC (AP) – A bill that would grant lawmakers the chance to change or end a prolonged state of emergency for South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster was approved by the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
The COVID-19 pandemic that lasted more than 10 months exposed some problems with South Carolina’s emergency law, which had not been changed in almost 60 years, except to add the words “public health emergency” in 2002.
Under current law, McMaster can only issue an emergency declaration for 15 days before the General Assembly has to consider it. To avoid this, the Republican governor issued different statements with incremental changes every two weeks or more. He issued the 22nd order of this type on Friday.
The bill would allow the General Assembly to weigh in 30 days. They could end or continue a state of emergency with one vote from each chamber or change it through a longer process. If not, the emergency declaration will last as long as the governor wishes.
The current emergency law was created at a time when people were thinking more about hurricanes and less about pandemics and modern governments that demand continuity and quick reactions, whether they be stoppages or rapid vaccine launches.
2020 also showed that the unthinkable could just happen, like a disaster at the Savannah River site near Aiken, which once made nuclear weapons and now stores tons of nuclear waste, said MP Russell Fry.
“We are thinking in terms of hurricanes and the pandemic. But what will happen if the Savannah River location has a problem or what will happen if the state assembly is not here, ”said the Republican from Surfside Beach.
The governor said his aim was not to avoid legislative oversight, but to keep the government operating in the pandemic emergency because he could not wait for the legislators to meet when they tried to remain separate.
McMaster supports the account.
“It was also probably never considered that a future General Assembly would not be able to meet and conduct business for such a long period of time,” said the governor in his State of the State address earlier this month.
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