From a bill making it a crime to set a nondomestic pig loose in the wild to a proposal to give more power to the governor, legislators will scramble this week to decide whether about 40 bills will have a chance to become law this year.

This is the last week before a May 1 deadline to get bills passed through the normal process of the House and Senate. After May 1, General Assembly rules make it far more difficult for new legislation to become law.

As a result, this week will be a kind of marathon for the House, where members plan to spend long hours on the floor debating legislation.

Some bills to be considered would change dramatically state government, including proposed rules, backed by Gov. Mark Sanford, that would require some agencies to justify periodically the existence of certain programs.

“We’re going to attempt to get to as many of these as we can,” said House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville. “We want to afford our members at least the opportunity to get to their bills.”

Sanford has a host of other bills he would like passed, including one to create a school district governing charter schools. Several of his bills will be debated in the House this week.

Wilkins has pledged to help his fellow Republican Sanford by making sure his proposals get a chance to be heard in the House.

But if the bills make it through the House to the Senate, it’s unclear whether the Senate will have time to deal with them.

For weeks, senators have been debating a proposal that would strengthen the state’s seat-belt law. A filibuster by seat-belt law opponents, led by Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, has blocked consideration of some items on the Senate’s agenda.

Senators say they don’t know whether they will be able to move past the seat-belt issue and get other bills over to the House this week.

Even if they do, they may not have time to get to the bills coming over from the House because senators soon will have to take up the state’s budget for its next fiscal year, which starts July 1.

“That’s a real conundrum that we’re in,” said Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens. “If folks continue to do what they’re doing, it will completely stop any future bills.”

Reach Talhelm at (803) 771-8339; jtalhelm@thestate.com