COLOMBIA, SC (AP) – The South Carolina House on Thursday gave fundamental approval to a bill that would guarantee lawmakers the chance to change or end a protracted state of emergency issued by the governor.
By 109 votes to 3, the Chamber approved the proposal that streamlines its intervention procedure and verification of the governor’s powers. After yet another routine vote, the bill will be forwarded to the Senate.
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed problems with South Carolina laws that allow governors to declare emergencies, usually because of hurricanes or other weather disasters. It hadn’t been changed in about 60 years, except to add the words “public health emergency” in 2002.
Under current law, McMaster can issue an emergency declaration for just 15 days before the General Assembly has to consider it. To avoid this, the Republican governor issued statements with incremental changes every two weeks or more. He issued the 24th order on Monday.
The bill approved on Thursday would allow the General Assembly to consider 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 they do not meet, the emergency declaration will last as long as the governor wishes.
A change in the House floor would require the General Assembly to meet in an emergency if at least 10 of the state’s 46 legislative delegations voted to return.
Representative Jonathon Hill was one of three votes against, saying that giving the governor wide-ranging emergency powers violates civil liberties. The Townville Republican called McMaster “King Henry” several times while speaking out against it.
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 said in his State of the State speech last month that he supported the project.
The Senate seems to want to change the emergency powers law as well. In May, when a session in which two months were lost to the pandemic ended, senators voted 17 to 16 to rebuke McMaster for failing to get lawmakers permission to continue issuing emergency decrees.
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