DUI Reform Passes. The Roads Bill Rolls. Kratom Gets Complicated. And Someone Picked a Fight with an HBCU.
- Alpha Strategies
- May 3
- 5 min read
ALPHA STRATEGIES | LEGISLATIVE SESSION UPDATE | WEEK 16
Week of April 27, 2026 | South Carolina General Assembly, 126th Session
The House passed a sweeping DUI reform bill unanimously. The massive transportation overhaul cleared the House and immediately hit a wall in the Senate. Kratom regulation took a sharp turn on the floor. Hemp went to conference. A commencement speech turned into a funding threat. And the Senate reminded everyone that South Carolina’s farmers are running out of time.
Here is what Week 16 actually means.
S. 52: DUI REFORM CLEARS THE HOUSE, 108-0
After years of false starts and one session of carry-over, the DUI reform bill passed the House floor Thursday with a unanimous vote. 108-0. In a chamber that struggles to agree on lunch, that tells you something.
The bill is the most significant overhaul of South Carolina’s DUI laws since 2008. It creates a new felony DUI second degree for crashes causing moderate bodily injury, tightens blood and breath testing procedures, increases license suspension periods, requires DUI victim impact panels, allows first-offense DUI expungement after ten years, and raises the caps on Alcohol and Drug Safety Action Program costs. The House made substantial changes to the Senate version, including preserving the existing video recording framework, retaining the requirement that ignition interlock devices not be required until a contested case hearing is upheld, and adding provisions for out-of-state offenders.
The bill now goes back to the Senate for concurrence or conference.
S. 831: THE ROADS BILL PASSES THE HOUSE
The House passed the Senate’s transportation modernization bill Wednesday, 114-0, after a strike-and-insert amendment that reshaped the bill. The Senate nonconcurred and appointed conferees.
The central conflict: the House version abolishes the DOT Commission entirely effective January 1, 2027, and makes the Secretary of Transportation a gubernatorial appointee. The Senate version kept the commission.
Beyond governance, the bill authorizes public-private partnerships, creates a “choice lane” framework (the House renamed “turnpike facilities” to “choice lane facilities” and swapped “tolls” for “usage charges,” a distinction doing a lot of rhetorical work), and establishes a $15 million annual pothole mitigation program. The House removed the Senate’s proposed EV registration fee increase, which proved too divisive, and stripped the provisions incentivizing counties to take over maintenance of state-owned non-essential roads.
H. 4641: KRATOM, NOT QUITE WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE
The kratom bill arrived on the House floor looking like a Schedule I ban. It left looking like something else entirely.
The Judiciary Committee had already softened the bill from an outright ban to a tightened consumer protection framework. The amended version passed second reading 87-7 on Wednesday. It bans the sale of kratom products containing fully synthetic mitragynine, 7-hydroxymitragynine, or other fully synthetic kratom compounds. It also raises the purchase age to 21, sets residual solvent standards consistent with U.S. Pharmacopeia thresholds, requires compliant labeling, and adds synthetically derived kratom compounds to the Schedule I controlled substances list.
The takeaway: natural kratom stays legal in South Carolina, but the consumer protection framework just got significantly tighter, and synthetically derived compounds are heading toward a controlled substance classification.
HEMP: CONFERENCE COMMITTEE APPOINTED
H. 3924, the hemp-derived consumables regulation bill, formally entered conference after the Senate nonconcurred with House amendments. Both chambers want a regulatory framework rather than a ban, but they disagree on wholesaler licensing, THC thresholds, and enforcement.
SC STATE, LT. GOV. EVETTE, AND THE BUDGET THREAT
Outside the formal legislative calendar, one of the week’s most visible stories was the SC State University commencement controversy. After student protests and a petition that gathered over 20,000 signatures, the university rescinded its invitation for Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette to deliver the spring commencement address, citing safety concerns. Evette, who is running for governor, referred to the protesters as a “woke mob” and doubled down on her positions.
Nine Republican House members, none in leadership, sent a letter to Ways and Means Chairman Bannister requesting that SC State receive zero funding in the next budget.
The political reality: nine members do not control a budget. The letter is a messaging document, not a fiscal one. But SC State’s appropriation is now a line item with a political target on it.
THE FARM CRISIS: FUNDING AWAITS CONFERENCE
The Senate had already included $35 million in emergency farm relief when it passed H. 5126 on April 23. The House introduced H. 5569 the same week to provide $50 million through the Contingency Reserve. Both chambers are aligned on the need. The House adjourned debate on the Senate budget amendments until May 5.
WHAT ELSE MOVED
S. 270, the attempted murder restructuring bill, passed the Senate with amendment and headed to the House. The bill divides attempted murder into first and second degree offenses based on whether the act was premeditated and creates corresponding sentencing structures. It is a substantive change to violent crime prosecution and will draw House attention.
H. 3034, known as Fargo’s Law, passed the Senate and expands criminal protections for police dogs and horses. The bill also creates a State Accident Fund benefit for K-9s killed or injured in the line of duty. It cleared with broad bipartisan support.
H. 4248, the shrimp labeling bill, passed the Senate with amendment and would require restaurants and retailers to disclose country of origin for shrimp products. The bill matters far beyond the Lowcountry. South Carolina’s domestic shrimp industry has been pushing this issue for years against imported product flooding the market, and the bill gives consumers actual purchasing information.
S. 717, the Mothers and Preborns Act, passed the Senate and creates a Healthy Mother and Healthy Newborn Ombudsman within state government. The bill also inserts “preborn human” language into existing pregnancy statutes and requires distribution of brochures on available assistance programs to pregnant women. It heads to the House for committee referral.
S. 416, the educator safety and classroom authority bill, was amended on the House floor to include the full text of the Educator Safety and Classroom Authority Act, establishing educator removal authority, administrative response procedures, and reasonable force protections. It was carried over on requests for debate.
THE MATH
Two weeks. May 14 at 5 p.m. Sine Die.
AT ALPHA STRATEGIES, THE REAL WORK STARTS WHEN THE GAVEL FALLS.
Sine die is not the end of the legislative cycle. It is the beginning of the next one.
The bills that did not make it across the finish line this year do not disappear. They get rewritten, repackaged, and refiled. The conversations that shaped them continue through the summer and fall. Interim committees meet. Study commissions issue reports. And the relationships that determine whether your priorities advance in 2027 are built between now and December.
If your organization wants to be on offense next session rather than reacting to bills already drafted by someone else, the off-season is when that work happens: strategy development, coalition building, agency engagement, drafting, and getting the right legislators in the room. That is the work that moves outcomes when session reconvenes in January.
Alpha Strategies works with clients year-round to track what is moving, what is being negotiated when no one is paying attention, and what to position for next session. If 2027 matters to your organization, the planning starts now.
Let’s talk.
Alpha Strategies tracks South Carolina’s legislative process week by week to help organizations understand not just what happened, but what it means and what is coming next.
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