Ethics reform bill dies on last day of SC session

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A bill resulting from a two-year effort to strengthen South Carolina’s ethics laws is officially dead.

The legislative session ended Thursday without the Senate voting on a compromise measure that senators who took the podium to run out the clock denounced as too watered down.

Republican Sen. Wes Hayes of Rock Hill urged his colleagues to pass an imperfect but good bill, saying the Legislature can push for more next year.

But GOP Sen. Tom Davis of Beaufort argued the bill’s passage would allow legislators to incorrectly say they had accomplished real reform, and the issue wouldn’t be revisited for another two decades.

The compromise did nothing to change the current system of the House and Senate overseeing their own members’ ethics filings. Critics have called for independent investigations.