The first day back in session for state lawmakers is usually ceremonial, with little of substance actually happening. That's because bills have to go through the committee process first, so there's not much for the House and Senate to do on the floor until that happens.

But the state Senate took action on the first day of the 2005 session that should mean a lot more will get done this year. Senators voted to change their rules to make it harder for one senator, or even several, to tie up the Senate floor in a filibuster and block action.

Rules Commitee chairman Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, told senators, "Look at all the issues that we've sort of let die on the vine in recent years just simply because we had an 80-page calendar and we absolutely couldn't get to it if our life depended on it. That's what we're trying to accomplish with these rules changes."

The last two years have ended with the Senate in a filibuster, unable to get to numerous important bills on lengthy calendars.

The Senate Republican majority was pushing the rules changes. Democrats fought them, afraid that limiting filibusters would also limit their chance to be heard.

Sen. Linda Short, D-Chester, said, "I just think you are restricting the debate to such a great degree that there are going to be some major pieces of legislation that some of your party, even, may not like, that's going to get passed because there's not going to be an opportunity to debate."

Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, said he thought it was all a partisan effort to help Republican Gov. Mark Sanford get his agenda passed, something he didn't understand based on who was blocking action last year.

"I think if you look at the filibusters that was done last year, the seven that I'm familiar with, six of them was done by Republicans. Six of them was done by Republicans," he said. "But the spin all during the election process was what? Democrats is stopping Mark Sanford's legislation from getting through. That's a lie." 

"It's not an attempt on our part to just willy-nilly run over the minority," Sen. Martin assured Democrats. "You're still going to have substantive, deliberative debate on issues."

Before, it took a vote of 28 of 46 senators to cut off debate and end a filibuster. Senators passed a rules change to lower that to 26, or 60 percent of senators voting in cases where some are not there.

It won't guarantee that the Senate passes more bills. But it should mean that more actually come up for a vote, which didn't happen often last year.