Statehouse Report — Week 11

Cleaning Up the Calendar Before Easter The House adjourned Thursday for our traditional two-week furlough for Easter. Before we left town, we had a lot of work to do so we could vote on all of the legislation still pending on the House floor so we may start fresh when we return on April 9th. […]

Statehouse Report – Week 10

The House debated the state budget this week. My Republican colleagues and I pledged to prevent the implementation of ObamaCare in our state by any way possible. House Republicans stuck to our long-standing tradition of holding to the state spending limit that we have approved six times over the past decade. This year’s $6.3 billion […]

Statehouse Report – Week 9

Next week, the state House of Representatives will debate the state budget for 2013-2014. This is the traditional half-way mark in the legislative session and it’s a good time to look back and see what we have accomplished. ELECTION REFORM – Our most recent accomplishment came with the approval of our election reform package. The […]

Statehouse Report – Week 8

Hundreds of good, qualified candidates were booted off the 2012 ballot by the State Supreme Court on what was essentially a technicality. We knew for months that this needed to be fixed before 2014. This week the House approved legislation that expanded access to the ballot and ensured people who want to run for office […]

Statehouse Report – Week 7

Promises, promises. President Obama made billions of dollars in promises during his State of the Union. It brings me back to one huge Federal promise that stuck directly on the backs of the taxpayers in our state – the “Affordable Care Act.” South Carolina’s Democrats make the same promises. It’s been more than a month […]

Statehouse Report – Week 4

It was a very busy week in Columbia as the rubber hit the road on a number of important issues facing the General Assembly. First up, a House Judiciary subcommittee opened the debate on two bills that will block the implementation of Obamacare in our state. This is a Caucus agenda item, and something that […]

Statehouse Report – Week 3

House Speaker Bobby Harrell said this week that the first weeks of the legislative session were like a duck on the water. Above water, everything looked nice and smooth, but below the water, everything was moving fast. In the span of the three legislative days, there were 24 legislative committees meeting in the House office […]