Dear Friend of South Carolina,
Today, the SC Senate voted to adjourn early in order to block a motion to recall H3047 from committee.
See below to find out how your Senator voted and hold him accountable!
H3047 is the bill that will require each Senator to record how they vote on every new law that is passed and on every section of the budget. Most Senators want to avoid voting against H3047 directly by voting on procedural motions to keep the bill from being considered. They think they can hide their opposition to transparency behind a procedural vote.
Today, Senator David Thomas told the Senate he intended to make a motion to recall H3047 from committee. However, Larry Martin (from Pickens) moved to adjourn before the motion could be made. The Senate voted 27-17 to adjourn. Let Senator Thomas know you appreciate his intentions, but next time it might be better if he doesn’t warn the Senate leadership beforehand.
Please read below to see how this motion to adjourn was abnormal in its timing and a clear tactical move to prevent a motion to recall H3047. Remind your Senator that any vote that keeps this bill from passing un-amended is a vote against the bill itself. Look at the list below and if your Senator voted to block the motion to recall H3047 by adjourning then contact him and hold him accountable for voting against transparency. The Senate should not have adjourned before the motion to recall H3047 could be made by Senator David Thomas.
We need to make sure the Senate knows we are serious about holding them accountable for every vote that prevents this bill from passing! If your Senator voted against adjournment, let him know that you appreciate his vote, and let him know that you will be watching him on all future votes. Don’t let him think that one good vote is enough. He needs to be voting on the right side every single step of the way.
This is likely a test to see if we are still watching and if we really will hold them accountable for using procedural votes to keep the bill from being heard.
Let’s not fail this test!
You can find your Senator and his contact information by clicking here and entering your zip code.
Here are the details:
The Senate, according to rule 32, has an Order of Business that is followed each day. They start at #1, “Called to Order by the President”, then follow with #2 “Prayer by the Chaplain”, and then continue on with #3 and so forth.
Here is the daily order of business for the Senate:
RULE 32.
A.
Order of Business
1. Called to Order by the President
2. Prayer by the Chaplain
3. Pledge of Allegiance
4. Receipt of Communications
5. Introduction and reference of new Bills and Resolutions
6. Call of the Uncontested local Third Reading Calendar
7. Call of the Uncontested local Second Reading Calendar
8. Call of the Uncontested statewide Third Reading Calendar
9. Call of the Uncontested statewide Second Reading Calendar
10. Motion Period
11. Acts returned by the Governor
12. Reports of Committees of Conference and Free Conference
13. Bills and Resolutions returned from the House of Representatives
14. Interrupted Debate
15. Adjourned Debate
16. Special Order
17. Call of the contested statewide Third Reading Calendar
18. Call of the contested statewide Second Reading Calendar
19. Call of the contested local Calendar
Item #10 is the “Motion Period”. This is where the motion to recall H3047 will be made. It is not allowed anywhere else in the Order of Business for the day.
So, while the Senate was on item #9 Senator Larry Martin made a motion to adjourn the Senate for the day. I’ve never seen the Senate adjourn before the motion period. This was clearly a tactic to prevent anyone from making the motion to recall H3047. In fact, when Senator Larry Martin made the motion to adjourn and before the vote was taken on his motion, Senator David Thomas made sure that the entire Senate knew that adjourning would prevent them from considering H3047.
A role call on the motion to adjourn was demanded by Senators Thomas and Shane Martin. The vote to adjourn passed 27 – 17. The results are below. Make sure you contact your Senator and hold him accountable if he voted to adjourn. If he voted against adjourning, tell him thanks and make sure you remind him that any vote that prevents this bill from passing will be counted as a vote against the bill itself.
27 Voting to adjourn (and to block the motion to recall H3047):
- Alexander
- Anderson
- Campbell
- Campsen
- Cleary
- Coleman
- Hayes
- Hutto
- Jackson
- Knotts
- Land
- Leatherman
- Leventis
- Lourie
- Malloy
- Martin, Larry
- McConnell
- McGill
- Nicholson
- O’Dell
- Pinckney
- Rankin
- Reese
- Scott
- Setzler
- Sheheen
- Williams
17 Voting not to adjourn
- Bright
- Bryant
- Courson
- Cromer
- Davis
- Elliott
- Fair
- Grooms
- Martin, Shane
- Massey
- Mulvaney
- Peeler
- Rose
- Ryberg
- Shoopman
- Thomas
- Verdin
Please, contact your Senator and hold him accountable for voting to block the motion to recall H3047 by adjourning and ask him to demand an immediate recall of H3047, the true transparency bill! Thanks for everything you are doing!
You can find your Senator and his contact information by clicking here and entering your zip code.
Also, please donate now to help keep the fight for accountability funded by clicking here.
Best regards,
Talbert Black, Jr.
Click here for my twitter account
Click here for South Carolina’s Campaign for Liberty
Take time to read this Letter to the Editor written by my 17 year old nephew, Reese Thompson, in response to this article by Senator Larry Martin. Reese had the chance to sit down with Larry Martin for nearly an hour to talk about roll call voting. This, is what Reese sent The Greenville News in reply to Senator Martin:
On Tuesday, April 20th, I went to the State House with a group of people interested in accountability to lobby for H3047 (aka the “roll call” bill). It recently passed the House with unanimous consent. When the bill came to the Senate, Sen. Glenn McConnell, Senate Pro Tempore, sent it to Sen. Larry Martin’s Judicial sub-committee. The sub-committee, dubbed the “death committee” by many, is supposedly where Sen. Glenn McConnell sends bills he wants killed. The sub-committee consists of Sen. Larry Martin of Pickens (chairman), Sen. Robert Ford of Charleston, and Sen. Jake Knotts of Lexington.
After arriving at the State House, I met with Steve Isom, Cayce City Councilman, who has been instrumental in making roll calls mandatory for all legislation in Cayce. We found Sen. Larry Martin in his office, and told him that we would like him to support H3047. He said that he couldn’t support the bill because it might go against the state constitution. When asked if he would support a bill to amend the state constitution to make transparency constitutional, Sen. Martin replied that he didn’t think we needed to amend the constitution. There is a Senate rule, Sen L. Martin explained, that requires a roll call vote for any tax changes.
In 2009, only 15.6% of all Senate legislation was recorded with a roll call vote. Only 1% the preceding year. Also, tax bills H3452, H3482, H3018, and S278 came to the floor recently, and passed with no roll call vote, in violation of that senate rule. Is abiding by senate rules arbitrary? Just another reason that mandatory roll call votes should be not a rule, but a law that can not be changed by one’s whim.
Then, Senator Martin said he didn’t want to get bogged down with roll calls on every piece of legislation. He said “that’s not how things are done down here”. Perhaps it’s time to change ”how things are done down here”. He did say though, that he could be very easily persuaded to support the bill if they had an electronic roll call board like the House.When asked if he would introduce a bill to get an electronic roll call board, the Senator replied that he wouldn’t do that either. It became apparent that Sen. Larry Martin was not going to support this bill.
Afterwards, we went to Senator Jake Knotts’ office. Steve Isom spearheaded the talk with Sen. Jake Knotts, who like Sen. Larry Martin, claimed it was unconstitutional. Senator Knotts also refused to support legislation to amend the state constitution. Isom then asked if Sen. Knotts thought the people should know how their Senators vote. Isom quoted Jefferson in saying ”information is the currency of democracy”. Isom went on to explain that the people wanted transparency. He reminded Senator Knotts that he had an obligation as a servant of the people, to uphold their right for transparency. Sen. Knotts haughtily replied that he did not “serve the people”. I was aghast.
George Washington, among other Founding Fathers, often referred to themselves as servants of the people. To actually hear Senator Knotts claim otherwise, seemed to me at least, contradicting the Founding Fathers. If he doesn’t work for us, then for whom does he work?
Isom asked if Sen. Knotts would support getting an electronic board for roll calls. Knotts replied that no, he would not. Sen. Knotts then said he would place a “minority report” on the bill, which would put it on the contested calender, essentially killing it. Senator Jake Knotts looked straight at Isom and said ”this bill will never get passed”. We discontinued the day’s dreary debate in a demeaning debacle, destitute and downcast, definitely disappointed but not deterred or defeated.
April 22nd, I listened to a Senate session in which Sen. Knotts said that “transparency will destroy every branch of government.” My question is, how can knowing how the legislature votes destroy them? Does our legislature want to retain their status quo to be able to tell us what they want us to hear at election time? Why would Senators Larry Martin and Jake Knotts be afraid of allowing the full senate to debate transparency and accountability? Are the “good ole boys” going to win again?
