SC General Assembly to Convene After Letter from Rep. JA Moore and Marvin Pendarvis

Rep. Marvin Pendarvis

The South Carolina General Assembly will convene on Thursday for an emergency session to address the coronavirus pandemic after Representative JA Moore (D-Berkeley) and Representative Marvin Pendarvis (D-Charleston) sent a letter to Governor McMaster and House Speaker Lucas last week calling for the House and Senate to convene.

“I am grateful for the leadership of Governor McMaster and Speaker Lucas to listen and agree to our request to go into emergency session,” Rep. Moore said. “Now is the time to get to work and make sure that we are doing all we can to protect South Carolinians during this pandemic.”

Rep. JA Moore

Rep. Moore will file a series of bills that will temporarily provide relief throughout the extent of the national emergency by instituting:

• A pause on state student loan payments provided by the Commission on Higher Education and no reporting to credit agencies.
• A six month halt on all evictions and a requirement that landlords not report to any credit bureau if the renter is affected by business closures, quarantine, or illness from the coronavirus. This bill will be co-sponsored by Representative Marvin Pendarvis (D-Charleston).
• A requirement that the state cannot charge interest on loans to businesses affected by this crisis.
• a $1.8 billion stimulus package funded by the budget surplus to go to South Carolina’s workers and businesses to offset the financial burden this crisis may cause.
• A Medicaid expansion to provide access to affordable healthcare to all South Carolinians to help manage the outbreak.

As of Monday afternoon, there have been 19 reported coronavirus cases in South Carolina and one death, but the number of cases is likely to increase as the virus spreads.