The legislation makes provisions for agencies and other state government functions to continue to receive recurring appropriations during the upcoming fiscal year that are set at the current funding levels laid out the Fiscal Year 2019-2020 state government budget should South Carolina reach the July 1 start of the next fiscal year without a Fiscal Year 2020-2021 state government budget in effect.

The legislation establishes protocols authorizing receipt and expenditure of federal funds for COVID-19 pandemic response. A separate Coronavirus Relief Fund is established to hold federal appropriations received by the Governor on behalf of the state. Protocols are established governing the oversight and accounting of expenditures of funds from various sources for pandemic response efforts.

Appropriations are made from the Fiscal Year 2018 2019 Contingency Reserve Fund: $175 million is sent to the State Treasurer with $20 million of this amount credited to the Disaster Trust Fund and $155 million credited to a new COVID-19 Response Reserve account; $25 million is provided to the Medical University of South Carolina for statewide community COVID-19 testing; and, $1.5 million is allocated to the Department of Administration for oversight and compliance of state spending of federal COVID-19 relief funds.

Authority is provided for the Governor, in consultation with the Joint Bond Review Committee, to direct the expenditure of funds from the COVID-19 Response Reserve Account to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public as a result of the pandemic.

The Governor may direct reimbursement to local governmental entities and hospitals for expenses related to the state's COVID-19 response, to including emergency needs for hospitals to prevent closure or violation of bond covenants. Priority should be given to expenses related to the participation of first responders.

The Governor may direct the expenditure of up to $15 million from the COVID-19 Response Reserve Account to underwrite the cost for protection of the health and safety of voters, poll workers, and employees of a county election commission related to conducting the 2020 primary, runoff, and general elections.

The Medical University of South Carolina, in consultation with the Department of Health and Environmental Control and the South Carolina Hospital Association, is charged with developing and deploying a statewide COVID-19 testing plan within ten days. The plan must emphasize testing in rural communities and communities with a high prevalence of COVID-19 and/or with demographic characteristics consistent with risk factors for COVID-19 such as communities with higher proportions of seniors, African Americans, or individuals with chronic lung disease, asthma, serious heart conditions, severe obesity, compromised immune systems, diabetes, liver disease, or who are on dialysis.

The Department of Health and Environmental Control is directed to provide financial and administrative support to assist with the implementation of the statewide COVID-19 testing plan, including collaboration with hospitals, medical providers and other stakeholders, providing access to information on hotspots and contact tracing, coordination of all testing efforts, and supplementing efforts with resources, testing kits, and other supplies available to the department.

DHEC shall, no later than June 1, 2020, identify no fewer than 1,000 contact tracers through its own staff and/or community partners such as furloughed healthcare workers, students, school nurses, teachers, retirees, faith based organizations, and others with relevant skills or experience.

The Superintendent of Education is afforded authority to exercise certain emergency powers in response to COVID-19 that address: waiving statutory requirements concerning testing, assessments, and reporting; allowing distance learning instruction to fulfill instructional day requirements; and providing maximum programmatic and financial flexibility. The State Superintendent of Education is authorized to promote and encourage districts to use summer reading camps and all other available tools to ensure appropriate time is spent by students to keep them on grade level and satisfy their learning needs.

State agencies and institutions of higher learning are afforded certain financial flexibility provisions during the state's COVID-19 response that includes authority for implementing mandatory furloughs.

Provisions are included to prohibit the South Carolina Public Service Authority (Santee Cooper) from taking actions that would impair, hinder, or otherwise undermine from an economic, operational, feasibility, or any other perspective the ability of the General Assembly to complete its consideration regarding Santee Cooper's status. The legislation establishes the Santee Cooper Oversight Committee, consisting of the Governor, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House, the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Long-term contracts and certain other matters must be submitted to this oversight body.

The legislation allows for the OPTION OF VOTING BY ABSENTEE BALLOT IN THE UPCOMING JUNE 2020 PRIMARY ELECTION DUE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. The legislation establishes a temporary provision, expiring on July 1, 2020, which provides that a qualified elector must be permitted to vote by absentee ballot in an election if the qualified elector's place of residence or polling place is located in an area subject to a state of emergency declared by the Governor and there are fewer than forty six days remaining until the date of the election. The legislation makes TEMPORARY REVISIONS TO ABSENTEE BALLOT PROVISIONS, effective only through the end of 2021, to allow the process of examining the return addressed envelopes containing absentee ballots to begin at 9:00 a.m. on the calendar day immediately preceding election day and to direct the State Election Commission to implement a pertinent software updates to electronic voting machines.

This bill provides that fires regulated by the State Forester do not apply to a fire used for the preparation of food for immediate consumption, or fires burned in portable outdoor fireplaces, chimineas, or permanent fire pits constructed of stone, masonry, metal or other noncombustible material that conforms with all applicable South Carolina fire codes. Also allows enforcement officers to write warning tickets.

This Joint Resolution would allow qualified electors to request absentee ballots on the State Election Commission's website. These requests could be made without an applicant signature. It also would waive the requirement for an absentee ballot applicants' oath to be witnessed for the 2020 primary and primary runoff elections. This Joint Resolution would expire July 1, 2020.

Defines "first responder," "health care provider," "correctional officer," and "isolate"/"isolation." By doing so, this proposal establishes a presumption that a first responder, health care provider, or correctional officer with COVID-19 would be entitled to workers' compensation benefits for contracting an occupational disease. In addition, it would provide temporary total disability benefits for first responders, health care providers, and correctional officers required to isolate due to COVID-19, upon specified conditions first being met.

As proposed, this legislation would designate anyone under a declared state of emergency, or anyone self-quarantining in order to avoid possible exposure to a contagious, communicable, or transmissible disease during an active pandemic or epidemic in this state, to be exempt from any requirement that an absentee ballot applicant's oath to be witnessed.

This bill would establish conditions and procedures for the General Assembly, not our Governor, to declare a state of emergency. Authorities seeking to order crowds to disperse could only do so when they do not infringe on any constitutionally protected rights. Similarly, no person could be quarantined unless they are first adjudicated to be an imminent danger to public health. Any public health emergency measures authority exercised by SCDHEC could be done during a declared state of emergency, and no longer.

Impersonating a law enforcement officer is a criminal offense that could not be charged when citizens make lawful arrests, if this legislation is enacted.

Declared that states of emergency could not continue for more than fifteen days without the passage of a Joint Resolution by the General Assembly expressly approving any extension. The Governor would be required to submit a report to the General Assembly before continuing a declared state of emergency, or declaring a new state of emergency based upon the same or substantially similar facts as the original declaration.

Prohibits state and local governments from ordering the closure of public beaches and public beach access points.

Prohibits state and local governments from ordering the closure of any businesses.

Limits the circumstances when citizens may make an arrest, including taking someone's life. It would also permit the arrest of anyone entering a residence without the express or implied permission of the owner.

This bill establishes requirements for all individual and group health insurance, health maintenance organizations, and the State Health Plan to provide coverage for the cost of telemedicine services.

Any drugs dispensed for use by an inpatient of a hospital or other health care facility that are administered through an inhaler, atomizer, pen, pump, or other device, equipment, or container prescription issued prior to admission to the facility that have not been used at the time of discharge shall be properly relabeled and the patient may take any such unused drugs for outpatient use.

Any vaccination offered by the Department of Health and Environmental Control as part of any mass immunization project to protect against infectious disease or to prevent the spread of a pandemic or a contagious or possibly contagious disease, only may be administered to those individuals who do not opt out of the vaccination based on a medically diagnosed health condition or religious belief or practice.

This bill creates a state revolving loan fund to support businesses in the food and beverage industry during the COVID-19 virus emergency.

This bill enacts the "Medicaid Expansion Act" to provide that, in order to mitigate the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic, an adult under the age of sixty-five years whose income is at or below one hundred thirty-eight percent of the federal poverty level is eligible for Medicaid as provided for in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The legislation provides for the appropriation of certain funds to the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to facilitate the expansion of Medicaid to this population. DHHS is required to ensure coverage of health services provided through telemedicine.

This bill allows a taxpayer, on their 2019 tax return, to deduct a net operating loss that has or will occur in Tax Year 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This joint resolution establishes a temporary Emergency Essential Services Study Committee to determine which businesses and services are essential to the economic well-being or general welfare of the state and whose operation may not be restricted during a state of emergency.

This joint resolution extends certain government approvals affecting economic development within the state in light of the economic downturn experienced during the Coronavirus pandemic.