SC senators make short work of spending $2B in federal cash

By Jeffrey Collins

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)– South Carolina senators have spent less than two hours deciding how to spend more than $2 billion in federal money coming to the state. About $1.7 billion is in COVID-19 relief money and an additional $525 million are fines paid by the federal government in a settlement after a plan to convert plutonium from nuclear bombs into nuclear reactor fuel was abandoned at the Savannah River Site near Aiken. Senators want to spend COVID relief money on roads, rural broadband and sewage and water plant improvements. The plan for plutonium spending would give Allendale, Barnwell and Aiken counties nearest the site $341 million and spread the rest of the money around the state. The plan now goes to the House.