COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina senators are set to consider a proposal to break up the state’s health and environmental affairs agency into two separate departments.
The Senate Medical Affairs Committee voted Thursday to send the bill that would split up the Department of Health and Environmental Control to the chamber's floor.
The proposal would establish a new Department of Behavioral and Public Health, bundling the state's public health and mental health responsibilities together. The current Department of Mental Health and Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services would be folded into this new agency.
Tasks such as environmental permitting and handling water resources would fall under a new Department of Environmental Services.
Both new departments would be cabinet-level agencies, meaning the governor would appoint their directors.
Dr. Edward Simmer, the current director of the Department of Health and Environmental Control, told lawmakers Thursday that staff would be ready to implement the overhaul. Simmer, who would become the new public health agency's interim director, said that the realignment would allow public health officials to more closely work with colleagues on the state's serious substance abuse problems.
The bill is backed by Sen. Harvey Peeler, the chamber’s longest-serving Republican, who along with other state officials has pushed to restructure the agency for years.
Some have complained that the nearly 4,000-employee agency has become too powerful and unwieldy, as it only indirectly answers to elected officials through an eight-member board appointed by the governor.
Lawmakers also have critiqued the department's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and said its board has lacked transparency at times.
