Welcome Back to the State House
After a mostly ceremonial first week at the State House, we are entering the second week with a lot of action on conservation issues. This second week is one of organization. Committees in the House and Senate will be meeting to discuss bills and vote on bills to pass out of committee and move onto floor debate and votes. The real action and discussion on bills happens in sub-committees and full committees. This is particularly important for our conservation community because this is the point in the process when we can testify in front of Senators and House members about good and bad bills. It’s also useful to remind Senators that we started scoring committee votes on conservation issues last Year and will update scores this Year accordingly.
This Wednesday, Jan 21st, will be a busy one for us. We’ll start the morning with our Senate briefing: Conversations with Conservationists at 10 am in 105 Gressette where experts will present on the hot topics of the Conservation Coalition. After the briefing, we’ll be hosting a drop-in lunch catered by Spotted Salamander at the CVSC office at 701 Whaley St, Suite 207. I hope you can join us.
Unfortunately, at 10:30 am on Jan. 21st in 308 Gressette (yes, at the same time we’ll be briefing Senators in 105 Gressette), the Senate Medical Affairs sub-committee will be reviewing two important bills (S.228 and S.229) that intend to erode citizens’ rights to clean-up past pollution and review DHEC permit decisions. We will be covering both meetings and testifying in front of the sub-committee.
We may be calling you to action as we move forward this Year protecting the South Carolina you love. Please stay tuned for more updates on bills we are tracking and the conservation priorities of the Conservation Coalition.