Despite a huge backlog of important bills to deal with, South Carolina senators decided to take Thursday off for Easter. The House is taking the entire week off, but worked through its entire calendar of bills last Thursday to be caught up.

The Senate has been stuck for more than a month in a filibuster over a tougher seat belt bill, and that's what's caused the bills to back up. The Senate calendar of bills to deal with was 59 pages long Wednesday.

Sen. John Drummond, D-Greenwood, has served in the Senate longer than anyone, and says, "I've been in this Senate for 38 years and this is the longest group of just wasted time that I've ever experienced." 

The seat belt bill would give the state primary enforcement, which means a trooper or police officer could stop an adult driver just for not wearing a seat belt. Now, he can issue a ticket for not buckling up only if he stops the driver for another violation first. Police can already stop drivers under 18 if they're not wearing a seat belt, but say the law's hard to enforce, since it's not obvious how old a driver is.

The day off rankled Sen. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken, because he wants to get to a vote on the seat belt bill. Senators agreed to postpone the seat belt filibuster this week to work through some of the bills that are not contested.

Sen. Ryberg says, "We talked about extending the shad season. We talked about the deer season. And we didn't talk about seat belt legislation, and people are dying day in and day out."  

But Sen. Glenn McConnell, the Senate president pro tempore and leader of the filibuster, says there's nothing wrong with taking the holiday. He says senators want to be with their families for Easter, and many have Maundy Thursday services to go to.

But why take a day off when the calendar is 59 pages long and the Senate is backed up? Sen. McConnell says, "Because most of those pages will disappear before the day is out as we go through an uncontested call of the calendar, essentially. And Thursdays are usually short days here anyway, as far as contested bills."

He says if senators did meet Thursday, they'd just be stuck on the seat belt bill again, so it would be a waste of money. By not meeting, they'll save taxpayers $4,370 in per diem.