Brack: Smith has leadership opportunity to quell sideshows

Word that newly-elected House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, is going to make House members write bills better sounds like a good idea at first blush. But is poor draftsmanship what’s really ailing the House or is it the need for bold leadership to calm down the crazies?

Smith this week told the Associated Press that he’s been frustrated in his two decades in the House by a plethora of “poorly written bills that don’t get a thorough review in committees because members aren’t experts or don’t put in the work,” which leads to proposals needing wholesale changes or ending up as bad laws.

He’s got a point. It’s well-known in Statehouse lobbying circles that if you want to get something done for your client, you get it introduced in the House, where it will be quickly sent to a committee. Then the committee chair promptly sends it to a subcommittee for review. But the way that the twisted legislature often works, the folks in the subcommittee believe they are under pressure to get bills out of subcommittee pronto. So they move things through quickly — without much of the very scrutiny Smith is complaining about. The subcommittee’s unvoiced logic is that the bill will get more scrutiny when it is taken up in full by the whole committee.

But when bills return quickly to the whole committee, they often figure they need to move quickly because the speedy return was the “will of the subcommittee” to move things along. So they also rush bills through to the House floor because they think that’s what they’re supposed to do. And by the time these often sloppy bills get to the floor, things have gone so far that they’re hard to slow down.

That’s why the House is often a legislative racetrack and Smith is right to try to slow things down. Not only do subcommittees need to take more time on bills. Full committees do, too.

But to blame what’s happened only on poorly written bills isn’t where to point the finger. Rather, turn toward the need for old-fashioned leadership. Strong chairmen of committees should be able to stop nonsense that creeps into bills and fuels the continuing partisan culture war in our state.

Fortunately, Smith has juggled committee chairmanships — to a degree — to generally put Republican moderates in control. Or what passes these days in South Carolina for moderates.

Also in the process of reassigning members to committees, he’s put in place his own people, not chairmen he inherited from past Speaker Jay Lucas. That boosts loyalty and if the new speaker is seeking more scrutiny for bills, the new chairmen should deliver. Also, Smith has the final say on which committee each of the chamber’s 123 other members sit on. That should keep some folks in line.

But Smith has a tough job because he also has to control the agenda-setting House GOP Caucus, now 88 members strong after picking up a handful of seats in the 2022 elections. In fact, the House has more new members — 27 — than in recent history. Democrats have a historic low of 36 House members.

The House Republican Caucus is markedly more partisan than it was 20 years ago, polarized by gerrymandering that pitted some extremist candidates against moderate ones in a climate where extremism is rewarded. This polarization too often results in wacky ideas and the continuation of the culture wars that focus on hot-button issues that aren’t truly a big deal but are blown out of proportion to keep crazies back home drooling in support.

Smith should do more than just assign members to committees led by loyalists who will demand bills that get better scrutiny. He should also use the power of the speaker’s office to insist that the House GOP Caucus not focus first on political red meat and, instead, work on big problems like improving public education, boosting access to health care and reducing poverty.

Fixing a tired process is one thing. But focusing on what really matters instead of sideshows is where Smith can make a real difference in the quality of legislation that passes to the House.

Andy Brack is editor and publisher of the Charleston City Paper and Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@charlestoncitypaper.com.