A look at what went down at the State House:

PUBLIC SAFETY NOMINEE WINS FIRST APPROVAL

State lawmakers cleared the way Tuesday for the Senate Judiciary Committee to consider Gov. Mark Sanford’s appointment to head the Public Safety Department. James Schweitzer, the FBI’s special agent in charge for South Carolina, would replace Boykin Rose, who was appointed by former Gov. Jim Hodges, a Democrat.

The department is in charge of three statewide law enforcement agencies — the Highway Patrol, the Bureau of Protective Services and the State Transport Police — as well as the state Criminal Justice Academy.

Schweitzer, 51, faced about an hour of questions Tuesday before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee considering his nomination.

Operating within an ever-shrinking budget is the biggest challenge facing the agency, which is responsible for training every law enforcement officer in the state. “It’s critical that the academy be given the resources so that they can provide the best training possible,” Schweitzer said.

A 33-year FBI veteran, Schweitzer has served as an instruction chief for the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., and was chief of the bureau’s new agents training program. He worked for years in counterintelligence, drug and anti-fraud investigations.

Schweitzer’s nomination now moves to the full Senate Judiciary Committee. Lawmakers had to pass a special bill just to be able to consider the nomination. Sanford was supposed to pick someone by Dec. 1, but did not make his choice until February. Sanford signed the special bill Tuesday that puts the nomination before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

BILL WOULD REQUIRE TEENS ON ATVS TO WEAR HELMET

Strict safety measures for children who want to operate or ride an all-terrain vehicle got key approval in the House on Tuesday. All South Carolina children age 16 and younger would have to earn a safety-training permit and wear a helmet and glasses to get on an ATV, under the bill approved 54-45.

South Carolina was ranked 35th nationally with 50 ATV-related deaths from 1982 to 2002, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Hawaii, and Mississippi do not have any laws in place that regulate safety or mechanical aspects of ATVs, according to the Specialty Vehicle Institute of America.

The institute, which said research has shown the majority of ATV crashes result from inappropriate use, supports state-imposed restrictions to increase safety and provides training classes.

The bill also would require all ATV owners to pay $30 every three years to register their vehicles, which is the same for boats and jet skis, with the state Department of Natural Resources. The fee would pay for safety training classes, offered free to children.

NEW INTERNET CHILD PREDATOR LAW

State law enforcement finally has a law that can be used to prosecute Internet child predators before any physical contact takes place. South Carolina is joining 29 other states by making it illegal to stalk, lure or entice a minor for abduction or sexual assault, said Laura Hudson of the South Carolina Victims Assistance Network. Gov. Mark Sanford signed the bill into law Monday.

“It’s a progressive statute, I believe, because it builds in ... the elimination of a defense that the person you’re talking to is not actually a minor but might be a law enforcement officer,” said Debra Tedeschi, an assistant state attorney general assigned to the Internet crime children’s task force.

The law mandates a 10-year sentence for each offense, which Attorney General Henry McMaster said can multiply if there are several online contacts before an arrest. McMaster said that previous child predators have been prosecuted in South Carolina once an assault or meeting has taken place but that this legislation would “stop them before they got that far, to catch them before they caught the child.”

The state previously had to rely on federal laws, which carry a minimum five-year sentence, to prosecute child predators before physical contact occurred.

From Staff and Wire Reports