South Carolina General Assembly ends 2024 session with goodbyes and a flurry of bills

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina General Assembly met for what is expected to be the final day of the 2024 session Wednesday, taking up a flurry of bills and giving several lawmakers a chance to say goodbye.

Legislators sent to the governor’s desk a bill changing the way judges are screened before the General Assembly votes on them and overrode Gov. Henry McMaster’s veto of a bill that required the erasing of the records of people convicted of certain underage alcohol sales crimes.

They also let die a bill that would limit how topics like race can be taught in public school K-12 classrooms.

But before the flurry of legislative action, there were nearly a dozen goodbye speeches between the House and Senate from members who weren’t running for reelection, some who lost in primaries and one likely moving from the House to the Senate.

Goodbye speeches

The chief speech was from Democratic Sen. Nikki Setzler, who decided not to run for reelection after 48 years.

Setzler told stories of the Senate from times before a handful of current senators were born. There were debates that went on for days, budget fights that almost became literal fights and honorable men who laid the path of service and decency that Setzler hopes continues after he is gone.

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«RELATED COVERAGE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true» data-gtm-modulestyle=«List B»> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> RELATED COVERAGE </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> South Carolina’s Supreme Court will soon have no Black justices </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Supreme Court finds no bias against Black voters