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Legislative Happenings

Published Wednesday, February 03, 2010 9:17 AM

By Rep. David Umphlett
The Gazette

My Agriculture Wildlife Subcommittee has met in the past two weeks on several bills, which were reported favorably to the full Agriculture Committee.

One bill on the point system for hunting and fishing violations, requires the Department of Natural Resources to deduct three accumulated points from a person's record upon a showing that the person successfully completed the department’s instruction program. The bill further outlines that no more than six points can be deducted in this manner in a calendar year.

Another bill that was discussed was legislation exempting military members from a hunter’s education program. This bill outlines that the provision does not apply to active or retired United States Armed Services personnel who can demonstrate to the department that they received weapons training during their military career

We also amended a House bill with the Senate language on a bill that prohibits hunters from using dogs to hunt on property without a landowner's permission, which has passed the Senate. This should give it faster traction.

The bill makes it illegal to use a dog to hunt a property from a road, a right of way, a property line or boundary for which a person does not have written permission. The bill will be amended at the next full House Agriculture meeting by returning the minimum fine to $1,000, which is what it has been since 1984.

An amendment to remove the word “unintentional” for anyone convicted of violating the law also faces a one-year hunting license suspension for the misdemeanor makes no exceptions whether the hunting dog's release is intentional.

I have signed on to a bill as a co-sponsor that has been introduced. This legislation will create the South Carolina Commission on State and Federal Relations.

The objective of the commission is to scrutinize the balance between state and federal law and when to address concerns about federal actions that may impose a burden on the State that the commission considers unduly burdensome or in violation of the United States Constitution.

Please feel free to contact me at my home address, 1145 Highway 402, Moncks Corner, SC 29455, (843) 899-1744, or at my legislative office in Columbia, PO Box 11867, Columbia, SC 29211, (803) 734-2946, or through my email at davidumphlett@scstatehouse.gov.

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