July 2026 Post-Session Legislative Update
It’s been an unusual ‘off-season’ with redistricting debates and a protracted budget debate that is finally coming to a resolution. While the dust settles, we have a couple of updates on where things stand with CVSC’s conservation priorities.
State budget deal reached, including land conservation funding and data center water use reporting
Since July 1, the state of South Carolina has been operating under a continuing resolution, allowing the state government to continue at levels specified in the prior fiscal year’s budget until a budget deal could be reached. After months of deliberations, the House and Senate were finally able to reconcile their differences in conference committee and reach a deal on the state budget.
For conservation, this budget deal means that the historic investment ($85M+) in land conservation projects allocated to state agencies like the South Carolina Conservation Bank is no longer in jeopardy, which is great news. This year’s budget marks a record level of investment in protecting South Carolina’s natural heritage and represents a major step toward the state’s new and ambitious goal of protecting seven million acres of land and water.
The conferees also came to a decision on three data center provisos included in the budget by the Senate. Conferees approved a budget proviso requiring data centers to report the source and monthly amount of water they use to the Department of Environmental Services. This reporting requirement will enable our state to assess how data center development affects vital state water resources, which is particularly crucial at this moment with the majority of South Carolina experiencing an extended drought this summer. Even though budget provisos only provide a temporary solution, this represents a major advancement for transparency, which will guide comprehensive data center reforms in the upcoming legislative session.
Unfortunately, the two other provisos, which required reporting on state tax exemptions claimed by data centers and a prohibition on the Department of Commerce from offering financial incentives to attract data centers, failed to make the final budget. While we urged the adoption of all three of these data center measures as very reasonable steps to promote transparency and accountability in data center development, we are happy to see some forward progress.
Now that a deal has been struck in conference committee, both the House and Senate will meet in the coming weeks to provide final approval of the budget.
Compromise reached, regulatory reform package signed into law
The sweeping regulatory reform bill (H.3021), or “Small Business Regulatory Freedom Act,” has been a major defensive issue for conservation this year. The original bill included sweeping changes that would have threatened long-standing protections for South Carolina’s environment, public health, and safety. Thanks to thoughtful changes by the Senate, the most concerning provisions were removed from the bill. In the final days of session, the House added two new and concerning provisions, causing disagreement between the chambers and sending the bill to a conference committee.
In June, the conference committee agreed to keep one of the two new provisions added by the House. The final bill includes a new cost-review requirement for some regulations but does not include a much broader proposal that could have forced entire sets of agency regulations to expire unless reapproved.
While the new cost threshold will require close monitoring to ensure it isn’t used to delay important new environmental regulations, the final bill is a significant improvement over where it started. Most importantly, South Carolina’s existing regulatory protections for our air, land, and water remain intact, a major defensive victory for conservation.
In the months ahead, we’ll monitor the final state budget agreement and what it means for land conservation funding and data center oversight while setting the stage for next year’s legislative session.