Columbia, SC (WLTX) - Since the start of the two-year long legislative session, 193 bills were passed and 184 were signed into law. House Speaker Jay Lucas said a highlight was bipartisan legislation focusing on fighting the opioid epidemic.
"About 90 percent of our bills made it through. It's a crisis. It's a crisis that not only affects families in South Carolina, but the work force. We've got to get people to work. We've heard from the Chamber of Commerce. We've got to make a dent in the opioid crisis and I think we did that this year," said Lucas.
However, there's more to be done. House minority leader Todd Rutherford said he thinks the length of session is too short and not enough was covered including gun reform.
"It is disappointing that we didn't have a hearing on it, that we didn't get to talk about those things that are important to many South Carolinians in terms of protecting our schools. We did put in the budget for school resource officers to make sure that those schools that don't already have one could hopefully afford to get one, but we didn't do enough to make sure that children are protected from themselves," he said.
Efforts are still focused on the VC Summer project failure and the state budget. Senate majority leader Shane Massey said both will be the focus when lawmakers come back to the State House this summer.
"I think that the focus on the 23rd and 24th is going to be adopting a budget conference agreement because we still haven't worked out those differences yet between the House of Representatives and the Senate, but I'm confident that by the time we come back on May 23rd, that we will be able to do that and that's going to be the main goal at that point."
Massey said that lawmakers will also meet in June to discuss any possible vetoes by the governor.
