The General Assembly returns to work today with one job to do — decide whether to overturn a handful of Gov. Mark Sanford’s vetoes.

Lawmakers sent a flurry of bills to Sanford in the last few days of the regular session, which wrapped up June 2.

Some of the bills Sanford has tried to block from becoming law include:

• Expanding LIFE scholarship eligibility to children of military families and making it easier for students to retain the award

• Adding two more nonphysicians to the medical board that investigates complaints against doctors

• Establishing a commission to study the future of the Francis Marion Trail, named after the Revolutionary War general

Lawmakers have shown little reluctance to challenge Sanford’s vetoes this year, overriding 153 of the 163 spending items Sanford tried to nix in the $5.8 billion budget for 2005-06.

“Some of them we’ll move quickly on, but I expect pretty good discussion on others, like the LIFE scholarship bill,” said Sen. Vincent Sheheen, D-Kershaw.

It takes a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate to override a veto.

Sanford’s efforts to curtail regional projects have not gone over well with some lawmakers.

Senate Finance Committee chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, angrily denounced Sanford last week for vetoing the Francis Marion Trail project.

Leatherman, recently ousted as Senate Majority Leader, suggested Pee Dee area voters should withhold support from Sanford in his 2006 re-election bid.

Sanford spokesman Will Folks replied by saying Leatherman has a “vision of higher taxes and growing government.”

“It’s clear the Senate leadership didn’t share that vision either,” Folks said.

Aside from vetoes, the House Ways and Means Committee is expected to elect a new chairman today to replace Rep. Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, elected June 2 to succeed House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville.

Wilkins will be sworn in June 21 as the new U.S. ambassador to Canada.

Rep. Dan Cooper, R-Anderson, vice chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, is considered the favorite to succeed Harrell.

The election is important because the chairman heads the House’s budget writing team and holds a seat on the state’s Budget and Control Board.

Reach Stensland at (803) 771-8358 or jstensland@thestate.com.