L e g i s l at i v e U p d at e
GENERAL ELECTION, C O R O N AV I R U S
Bring Many Changes to State House By Neil Rashley, Senior Vice President and Counsel, SCBA
The coronavirus pandemic in 2020 brought many changes and challenges to South Carolina – and the General Assembly and the November election were no exception. In the November 2020 General Election, voter participation significantly increased, with high tens of thousands of voters casting absentee votes. At the State House, the 2020 session was suspended in early March, came back for a few days in May and June, and then for two weeks in September. For banks, many of the elected leaders that strongly support banking remained in office but, even so, with the new legislative focus on the pandemic, there will be many challenges to move bills.
General Assembly Elections
Legislation for the 2021 Session
The Senate was up for re-election in November and there are now six new senators, with three of them defeating long-time incumbents. For the Senate as a whole, Republicans gained three seats and now have a 30-16 majority. Committee chairs critical to banking should remain the same: Sen. Ronnie Cromer, Banking and Insurance; Sen. Hugh Leatherman, Finance; Sen. Luke Rankin, Judiciary; and Sen. Thomas Alexander, Labor Commerce and Industry. In the Senate Banking committee there are two vacant slots to fill and those slots will be filled in 2021 on the first day of session.
Coronavirus shut down the session in 2020 and then re-ordered legislative priorities. When the General Assembly returned in September for a brief session they focused on adopting a budget and passing legislation dealing with the pandemic. As such, many bills and issues that would have been handled in 2020 instead were pushed off until this session, including many SCBA advocated for in 2020. Many of these bills were re-introduced when the General Assembly returned. Here are some of those bills as well as new bills and issues SCBA anticipates:
In the House, sixteen new representatives were elected and Republicans gained one net seat to increase their majority to 81–43. The House met in early December and assigned committees and elected chairs. Chairmen on key committees where most banking legislation goes will be: Rep. Bill Sandifer, Labor Commerce and Industry; Rep. Murrell Smith, Ways and Means; and Rep. Chris Murphy, Judiciary. Rep. Jay Lucas was re-elected the Speaker of the House. There will be six new legislators on the Labor, Commerce and Industry committee.
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W I N T E R 2 0 2 1 • PALMETTO BANKER
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BANK STATUTE MODERNIZATION SCBA was the primary proponent for this issue last session that would modernize South Carolina’s banking statutes. The bill passed the Senate last year but the House had no time to review it. This session both Chairman Cromer in Senate Banking and Chairman Sandifer in House Labor, Commerce and Industry introduced identical bills (S467 and H3583) and both bills will be top priority. The bills main focus is on de novo creation, conversion of non-South Carolina statechartered banks to a South Carolina charter, codifying some of the Board of Financial Institutions’ operational instructions – along with deleting old, outdated language.
