The House of Representatives approved S.105 and enrolled the bill for ratification. The legislation makes revisions to AUTOMATIC STAYS IN ADMINISTRATIVE LAW COURT cases contesting permits, certificates, and other approvals issued by state agencies, boards, and commissions. Under the legislation, any party affected by an Administrative Law Court [ALC] automatic stay could petition for relief from it 90 days after the ALC contested action has been commenced. The hearing on any petition for relief from a stay would have to be held within 30 days after it is requested. These ALC cases must be resolved within twelve (12) months after their commencement unless all parties to the contested case consent to an extension or the court finds substantial cause for an extension. Nothing in this legislation applies to lifting stays on permits or licenses involving hazardous waste operations. Frivolous filings could be sanctioned under the South Carolina Frivolous Civil Proceedings Sanctions Act.

The House amended, approved, and sent the Senate H.3565, a bill addressing ADMINISTRATIVE LAW COURT CONTESTED CASES INVOLVING THE CERTIFICATE OF NEED PROGRAM which requires providers of health care services, such as hospitals and nursing homes, to obtain approval from the Department of Health and Environmental Control for additions to, or significant expansions of, their facilities and services. To allow for consistency in contested matters before the Administrative Law Court, the legislation applies the same twelve-month time period approved in S.105 for resolving a contested case arising from DHEC's decision to grant or deny a Certificate of Need application.

The House concurred in Senate amendments to H.3929, a bill revising permitting provisions for POULTRY FARMS to allow for a more expedited approval process for these facilities and expansions to them, and enrolled the legislation for ratification. The legislation makes revisions regarding setbacks, buffers and other specific requirements for the review and appeal of decisions by the Department of Environmental Control regarding the permitting of a poultry facility or another animal facility, except a swine facility. The legislation changes the distance from two miles to one mile in which an affected person must live in order to appeal the facility's operating permit. The legislation further provides that challenges must be made by an individual affected person and may not be lodged on their behalf. A final decision to issue a permit, license, certification, or other approval of a poultry facility or another animal facility, except a swine facility, may not be contested if the proposed building footprint is located eight hundred feet or more from the facility owner's property line or located one thousand feet or more from an adjacent property owner's residence.

The House took up legislation that draws upon the work of the special House Opioid Abuse Prevention Study Committee that was appointed by the Speaker of the House to examine the growing misuse of prescription painkillers and recommend legislative actions to counter the epidemic of ruinous addiction and fatal overdoses. The House approved and sent the Senate H.4488, a bill ALLOWING OFFICIALS WHO ARE DETERMINING CAUSES OF DEATH TO HAVE ACCESS TO PRESCRIPTION DRUG MONITORING INFORMATION. The legislation expands the list of persons to which the Department of Health and Environmental Control's Bureau of Drug Control may provide prescription monitoring program data so that it also includes a coroner, deputy coroner, medical examiner, or deputy medical examiner who is involved in an official inquiry into the cause and manner of a person's death.

The House amended, approved, and sent the Senate H.4479, a bill revising the process for addressing LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER MISCONDUCT allegations to implement recommendations arising from the House Legislative Oversight Committee's study of the Law Enforcement Training Council and Criminal Justice Academy. The legislation authorizes the Law Enforcement Training Council to appoint attorneys employed by the Criminal Justice Academy to sit as hearing officers for contested case hearings. Under the legislation, no person who has a pending allegation of misconduct may be employed as a law enforcement officer or as a telecommunications operator or perform any law enforcement duties until a decision has been made that authorizes the employment. The legislation also makes revisions to the report that must be made to the Criminal Justice Academy whenever an officer separates from a law enforcement office. Under the changes, the supervising officer making the report would be subject to disciplinary action for submitting intentionally misleading or incomplete information, such as characterizing a situation where an officer is leaving a department due to alleged misconduct as a simple resignation. The changes are offered as a means of reducing the likelihood that a law enforcement officer leaving one police department because of alleged misconduct could be hired by another department without the allegations being addressed.

The House approved and sent the Senate H.4596, a bill authorizing public school districts to create COMPETENCYBASED SCHOOLS that are designed to improve progress towards attaining state education goals through a curriculum that allows students to pursue their own inquiries, take ownership of learning, and master competencies along a personalized and flexible pathway. The legislation allows a school district to establish a competency-based school by obtaining a waiver from the State Department of Education that allows the program to be exempt from certain requirements for the purposes of accountability and accreditation. If a school is selected to become a competency-based education school, the students enrolled in the school are considered full-time equivalent students for the purpose of calculating state financial support, average daily membership, and attendance while participating in the competency-based education program. The Department of Education is charged with developing separate evaluation criteria and guidelines for schools implementing competency-based education and conducting a biennial review of such schools. If the biennial review shows that the goals or objectives of the competency-based school are not being met, the exemptions granted for that school may be revoked. The department is also directed to develop a process to ensure that schools and districts are not penalized for the purposes of accreditation and to ensure that students are not penalized when transferring between schools with and without competency-based systems. The Commission on Higher Education and State Board for Technical and Comprehensive Education must establish policies to provide fair and equitable access to institutions of higher education and technical colleges for students with competencybased credits or diplomas, scholarships, and financial aid for graduates of schools implementing innovative school models and using nontraditional diplomas and transcripts.

The House amended, approved, and sent the Senate H.4672, a bill REINSTATING VISION SCREENING REQUIREMENTS FOR DRIVER'S LICENSE RENEWALS. The legislation provides that individuals will once again be required to satisfy vision screening requirements in order to renew a driver's license by either passing a vision test administered at the Department of Motor Vehicles or providing a certificate of vision examination form executed by an ophthalmologist or optometrist.

The House approved and sent the Senate H.3195, a bill to provide that the nineteenth day of June of each year, which is already designated as "Juneteenth Celebration of Freedom Day" to commemorate and reflect on the freedom of African Americans and their contributions to this state and nation, is also to be recognized as "SICKLE CELL DAY IN SOUTH CAROLINA" in order to join international efforts to raise awareness of the genetic disease and support and encourage research, treatment, and management of sickle cell disease.

The House returned S.955 to the Senate with amendments. The Senate subsequently concurred in the amendments and enrolled the legislation for ratification. The joint resolution extends the screening process for candidates for PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION SEATS 2, 4, AND 6 by directing the Public Utilities Review Committee to resume advertising for these positions and accept additional applications through noon on Monday, March 26, 2018. These applications are to be considered by the Public Utilities Review Committee in addition to those previously submitted.

The committee gave a favorable with amendment recommendation to H.4971, a bill that reduces the CATCH LIMITS FOR RED DRUM FISH from 3 to 2 catches in any one day and not to exceed six in any one day on any boat. In an effort to address the decline in the Red Drum Fish, the bill also outlines that it is unlawful to gig this type species.

H.4976, a bill relating to the ABANDONMENT OF WATERCRAFT, was given a favorable with amendment recommendation by the full committee. Presently, DNR has the authority to address abandon boats in waterways. This bill gives a local sheriff or local government the right to work with DNR to remove abandon boats in their jurisdiction.

After considerable discussion among various agencies and stakeholders, along with the South Carolina Legislative Oversight Committee's review, the full committee gave a favorable with amendment recommendation to H.4644. This bill proposes changes to the Solid Waste Management Trust Fund. It establishes a SOLID WASTE EMERGENCY FUND which will be administered by DHEC. This fund will be used to address environmental releases from solid waste facilities that represents an imminent or substantial threat to human health and/or the environment. As a result, two and one-half percent of the funds collected each quarter by the Solid Waste Management Trust Fund must be transferred to the Solid Waste Emergency Fund. The unencumbered balance of the Solid Waste Emergency Fund shall equal $1.5 million.

The Committee approved, as amended, H.4931, APPLIED BACCALAUREATE IN MANUFACTURING DEGREE which revises provisions that establish the missions of institutions of higher learning, so as to authorize an Applied Baccalaureate in Manufacturing degree (once approved by the Board for Technical and Comprehensive Education and then the Commission on Higher Education).

The Committee passed, as amended, H.4701, "B. P. ACT" ADMINISTRATION. This bill enacts the "B. P. Act", relating to current bullying prohibition policies adopted by school districts, so as to provide procedures for responding to and remediating allegations of bullying, and to require an appeals procedure. The bill adds additional requirements for investigating, reporting, and remedying bullying. Among the new requirements are the following: when bullying is reported to a school, the principal or superintendent designee must investigate the incident, maintain written documentation of the allegations and investigations, and report findings to the district superintendent; parents or guardians of both the bully and the student being bullied must be notified of the incident; the school must provide information regarding actions being taken to protect the aggrieved student, prevent future occurrences, and the findings of the investigation; and the school must develop procedures for remediation that identify the specific nature of the incident and outline a graduated series of consequences for the student who committed the bullying. Alternative discipline measures that may be used to address bullying behavior include parent/guardian meetings, reflective activities, mediation, counseling, anger management, skills building, community service, and in-school detention. The policy must include ways to remediate the incident of bullying to counter negative impacts and reduce the risk of future occurrences.

The Committee passed, as amended, H.4710, PERSIAN GULF WAR VETERAN SPECIAL LICENSE PLATES which deletes the requirement that DMV may retain sufficient funds in a restricted account to defray the expenses associated with producing and administering these special license plates.

The Committee passed S.499, DRIVER'S LICENSES. The bill relates to the identifying code affixed to the driver's license of a person convicted of certain crimes, so as to remove the fifty dollar fee associated with placing the identifying code on a driver's license. The DMV is still required to put the violent offender designation on the license or card.

The committee issued its favorable report on S.340 SOUTH CAROLINA POET LAUREATE. Proposed changes to the selection process for naming our state poet laureate include the South Carolina Arts Commission sending a list of qualified candidates it has identified to the Governor for consideration. Additional reforms include the terms of this office, term limits, duties, and responsibilities for responding to requests from the Governor.

It also gave a favorable report, with amendment, to S.954 BASE LOAD REVIEW ACT MORATORIUM. This proposed joint resolution would prevent the SC Public Service Commission from holding any base load review act-based hearings before November 1, 2018. In addition, orders from any of these hearings must be filed by December 21, 2018. An experimental rate order revising certain, specified electric rates must be issued within five (5) days of the effective date of this joint resolution.

A favorable report, with several amendments, was also made on H.4830 INDIGENCY AFFIDAVITS. If enacted, this legislation would require all affidavits of indigency, and application for counsel forms, to contain certifications that they do not contain any wilfully-provided false information. All forms would have to be notarized. In the event a court, the SC Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services [SCDPPPS], or an appointed attorney discovers that a defendant is financially able to employ counsel or contribute to the costs of employing counsel, a procedure for informing the court and terminating the appointed counsel is set out. Defendants who fraudulently obtain a public defender--or other appointed legal counsel--must pay a reasonable attorney fee to the South Carolina Commission on Indigent Defense. Creates the criminal offense of wilfully providing false, misleading, or incomplete information on an affidavit of indigency and application for counsel form. Also directs the South Carolina Court Administration to revise the affidavits of indigency and application for counsel forms. SCDPPPS would report annually to the General Assembly, by January 15th, on the number of these affidavits both accepted and rejected. As part of this annual report, an explanation of those rejected affidavits, including the grounds for rejecting them, would be made. In addition, existing General Assembly legislative oversight committees would review these reports as part of their regularly scheduled review of SCDPPPS. Appointed attorneys would be held to the requirements of Rule 407 of the Rules of Professional Conduct. This legislation initiates these reforms as a pilot project in six counties: Chester, Colleton, Edgefield, Horry, Lee, and Richland.

Last, the committee issued its favorable report, with amendment, to H.4889 CONSERVATION EASEMENT CONDEMNATIONS. This bill would allow conservation easement holders to contest actions, under specified circumstances, to condemn property restricted by a conservation easement. In addition, when a court determines that a prudent and feasible alternative to condemnation has been presented by a condemnee, or a conservation easement holder, the condemnation proceedings must stop.

The committee gave a report of favorable with amendments to H.3197, a bill PROHIBITING THE CHARGING OF FEES FOR PERMITS FOR CREMATION, REMOVAL, TRANSIT, OR BURIAL OF A BODY.

The committee gave a report of favorable with amendments to H.4628, a bill enacting the "SOUTH CAROLINA TELEPHONE PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT" to replace current provisions for regulating unsolicited consumer telephone calls with updated and enhanced consumer protection provisions relating to telemarketers. The legislation establishes provisions governing the conduct of telephone solicitations that include requirements for a telephone solicitor to provide identifying information, contact information, and the option to be added to the telephone solicitor's inhouse ‘do not call' list. The legislation establishes prohibitions on directing telephone solicitations to telephone numbers that have been added to inhouse ‘do not call' lists or the National Do Not Call Registry maintained by the federal government. The legislation prohibits the practice of falsifying caller identification system information known as spoofing, by disallowing a telephone solicitor from making a consumer telephone call with a telephone number that displays a South Carolina area code on the recipient's caller identification system unless the telephone solicitor maintains a physical presence in the state. A telephone solicitor is also prohibited from displaying the receiving party's telephone number on the contacted party's caller identification system. A private cause of action is established for those harmed by violations. The Attorney General is authorized to investigate and enforce violations.

S.758 HUNTING OF WATERFOWL Sen. Reese

S.888 PAY FOR UNUSED LEAVE AND SICK LEAVE FOR TEACHERS

S.937 DENMARK TECHNICAL COLLEGE Sen. Hutto

H.5018 CHARTER SCHOOLS Rep. Felder

H.5039 TUCKER HIPPS TRANSPARENCY ACT MADE PERMANENT Rep. Putnam

H.5042 SCHOOL DISTRICT FISCAL PRACTICES Rep. Felder

H.5053 ISSUANCE OF GOLF CART PERMITS Rep. Hixon

H.5054 SCHOOL NURSES Rep. S. Rivers

S.812 NONPROFIT CHARITABLE RAFFLES REFORM Senator Hembree

S.1002 STATE FLAG STANDARDIZED DESIGN STUDY COMMITTEE

H.5019 PRESERVATION OF CONFIDENTIAL VICTIM INFORMATION Rep. Robinson-Simpson

H.5025 MARRIAGE LICENSES FOR MINORS Rep. Norrell

H.5027 HABITUAL OFFENDERS ARE NOT DRIVERS FAILING TO PAY TRAFFIC TICKETS Rep. Pendarvis

H.5041 INTENTIONALLY MISREPRESENTING SERVICE ANIMAL STATUS Rep. Robinson-Simpson

H.5043 CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION Rep. Cogswell

H.5055 DEED DERIVATIONS IDENTIFYING CLOSING ATTORNEYS Rep. W. Newton

S.916 ENERGY EFFICIENT MANUFACTURED HOMES INCENTIVE PROGRAM

H.5038 PROHIBITED ACTS FOR A PHARMACY BENEFIT MANAGER Rep. Atwater

H.5045 REPEALING DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCE PROGRAM AND NET ENERGY METERING PROVISIONS Rep. Sandifer

H.5046 GRACE PERIOD FOR RENEWING REAL ESTATE LICENSEES Rep. Loftis

H.5017 ADVISORY COUNCIL ON PEDIATRIC ACUTEONSET NEUROPSYCHIATRIC SYNDROME (PANS) AND PEDIATRIC AUTOIMMUNE NEUROPSYCHIATRIC DISORDER ASSOCIATED WITH STREPTOCOCCAL INFECTIONS (PANDAS) Rep Felder

H.5040 REQUIREMENT OF CERTAIN BUILDINGS AND OFFICES TO BE CLOSED ON MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY Rep. King

H.5044 PHARMACY BENEFIT MANAGERS Rep. Toole

S.911 DEFERRED PAYMENT OF PROPERTY TAXES FOR DEPLOYED

S.917 FUNDING FOR FLOOD REPAIRS AND PREVENTION AT

H.5026 IMPOSING A NEW MUNICIPAL OPERATING MILLAGE Rep. Kirby

H.5049 REMOVAL OF LITTER ALONG STATE HIGHWAYS PRIOR TO MOWING Rep. Yow