SC House Approves Ethics Reform

The SC House overwhelmingly approved a package of ethics reforms today that are the biggest change in the state’s ethics laws in two decades.

“While our ethics laws have been touted as the toughest in the nation, they were written before e-mail, the Internet, PayPal, cell phones, and even ATM machines,” said House Majority Leader Bruce Bannister. “We took a big first step earlier this year by changing the makeup of the House Ethics Committee and today we took another major step forward.”

The bill was a compromise after months of study by committees appointed by House Republicans, House Democrats, and the Governor. Some of the highlights include:

• Abolishing the House and Senate ethics committees and replacing them with a new, bi-partisan commission that includes public officials and members of the general public,
• Creating a “Public Integrity Unit” to investigate criminal complaints,
• Prohibiting contributions to public officials from “Leadership PACs”,
• Requiring all lawmakers to disclose all sources of income – public and private,
• Requiring lobbyists to register if they lobby local governments or school districts, but keeps all of the same exemptions for members of the public and “local” organizations such as PTAs, homeowners’ associations, or churches,
• Strengthening criminal penalties for violations of the Ethics Act,
• Eliminating the “blackout period” right before an election when candidates do not have to disclose donors, and
• Expanding when a public official must recuse himself from a vote to include all levels of the legislative process down to the subcommittee level.

“I’m proud of my colleagues for coming together approve these major reforms,” said Rep. Murrell Smith of Sumter, the chairman of the House Caucus Ethics Reform Study Committee. “This is conservative legislation to its core: It strengthens the law, streamlines the complaint process, and makes public officials more accountable to the public.”

The legislation was approved before the May 1 “crossover” deadline and will go to the state Senate after third reading tomorrow. Had the House not dealt with the legislation today, it would have likely had to wait until next year to more it forward.

“It was past time for a change to our ethics laws,” said House Ethics Committee Chairman Kenny Bingham. “It was time for our state to take the lead, raise the bar, and hold our public officials to a higher standard. My colleagues in the House took a big step forward this week.”