2005 General Assembly

The General Assembly returns to Columbia today for a day of pomp and pageantry, historic milestones and important work in the Senate.

On a day normally reserved for lawmakers to smile and make nice with each other — with little heavy legislative lifting — the Senate will mark five years of Republican control with a knockdown fight over new rules.

In the House, where Republicans begin their second decade of majority status, representatives will spend little time on the floor but have a heavy slate of committee meetings this afternoon.

Both houses convene at noon.

In the Senate, Republicans will propose a series of changes to the body’s rules to make it easier to end debate on legislation that has, in the past, lasted for days or weeks and created an insurmountable logjam.

Rules Committee chairman Larry Martin, R-Pickens, said he’s hopeful the Senate will go along.

“We’ve got to move forward,” Martin said. “It’s become a chess game, a stalling game.”

It will take a majority of the 46-member Senate to adopt the rules, which must be settled before anything else can happen.

Senate Minority Leader John Land, D-Clarendon, said he hopes the Republicans, who hold a 26-20 majority, have second thoughts about ending 200 years of Senate tradition.

Current rules require 28 senators to vote to force a senator to end a filibuster. The proposed changes would lower that number to 26, or three-fifths of senators present in the chamber.

The proposal also would take away one of the Democrats’ final pieces of power: appointments to conference committees.

When the House and Senate cannot agree on the same version of a bill, a negotiating committee of three House members and three senators is appointed.

Current Senate rules give Land, as minority leader, one appointment to the committee.

The proposed changes give that appointment to the Senate president pro tem, currently Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston.

In the House, all conferees are appointed by the speaker.

Reach Gould Sheinin at (803) 771-8658 or asheinin@thestate.com.