The top priority of the House Republican Caucus this year is improving the economy and helping the private sector create jobs.

Earlier in the session, the House approved new legislation protecting businesses from frivolous and unfounded lawsuits. (The legislation has still not been passed by the state Senate.) This week, the House opened new avenues of funding for our state’s small businesses by passing new tax credits for “Angel” investors.

Angel investors provide critical funding for start-up companies that can’t secure funding from banks. Typically, these are high-risk, but high-reward businesses. For example, Angel investors provided critical funding for Google when it was just a small website with a couple of employees.

The House bill was one of the final projects former Greenville Rep. Bill Wylie was working on when he passed last fall. My colleagues renamed the bill in his honor.

Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy, and Angel investors provide critical capital to get these businesses off the ground. If we can help fellow South Carolinians get their ideas off the ground, we all win.

Those friends and neighbors – the people who have the next great idea in computer technology or biotechnology – have the potential to create dozens, hundreds, or thousands of jobs. If we keep them here in our state, they will potentially create jobs here. These businesses sometimes need as little as $10,000 or $25,000 to fund operations while they search for markets where they can sell their product.

The bill provides a tax credit for people who provide capital to specific types of small businesses in our state – including manufacturing, warehousing, wholesaling, and technology, among others. It specifically excludes investments in other businesses, such as construction, from claiming the credit. Angel investors can claim up to a $100,000 tax credit over 10 years, and only $5 million can be credited by the state each year to all Angel investors. Half of the states in the United States have similar tax credits for Angel investors – including North Carolina and Georgia.

If this bill entices more people to get involved and help our state’s small entrepreneurs, that is a recipe for more businesses and more jobs here in our state.

This week, unfortunately we continued the Voter ID debate.

This week the Senate voted down the “clean” Voter ID bill – a bill that requires voters to present a government-issued picture ID to prove his or her identity when they go to vote. When the bill went back in front of the Senate this week, the Senate insisted on including the same unrelated provisions that killed Voter ID last year.

Voter ID was only one vote away from becoming law. Given the overwhelming Republican majority in the Senate – and the fact that the Senate Republicans have more than enough votes to end a Democrat filibuster – it was shocking to witness a Senate swayed and influenced so heavily by a minority party bent on killing the bill.

The Senate is taking a stand against a bill supported by 4 out of 5 voters in America; took a stand against a groundswell of grassroots support and against our state’s constitution.  An official opinion issued by SC’s Attorney General clearly stated that the Senate’s version of Voter ID is ‘constitutionally suspect’ and gave strong arguments that directly support the House’s clean Voter ID bill. 

Voter ID is about securing our elections, pure and simple. It is a major plank in the South Carolina Republican Party platform, and Chairman Karen Floyd came out this week in support of the House version of the bill.

The Republican Caucus hopes that a compromise can be reached on the House’s constitutionally appropriate clean Voter ID bill.  If the joint conference committee becomes deadlocked because of an insistence on the Senate’s unconstitutional and unrelated additions, this bill will be put on the same fatal track that killed last year’s bill.

For the last two years, there have been numerous discussions about the “Voter ID” legislation. After this week, the bill is one vote away from becoming reality.

The House considered the version of Voter ID amended by the Senate this week. It included numerous, unrelated issues approved to secure votes for final passage in the Senate. The House stripped out those unrelated measures and passed a “clean” Voter ID bill that deals with one issue and one issue only: Requiring a voter to prove his or her identity with a state-issued picture identification. Period.

Next week, the Senate needs to vote to “concur” with the bill so it can go to Governor Haley for her signature. I urge you to contact your Senator and tell him you want him to “concur” with the House bill.

Voter ID is about securing our elections, pure and simple. It is a major plank in the South Carolina Republican Party platform, and Chairman Karen Floyd came out this week in support of the House version of the bill.

In South Carolina, you must present a photo identification to purchase Sudafed.  You must present a photo identification to board an airplane.  You have to present one to cash a check.  If you are of a certain age, you have to have one to buy alcohol or cigarettes.  You have to have one to purchase a firearm.

Currently, you do not need to have a government-issued identification to vote in South Carolina.  We believe that it is critical to the integrity of our election process that you prove who you are when you cast your ballot to elect your public officials.  Voting is a constitutionally protected right – as is owning a firearm – and cannot be abridged. 

My House Republican colleagues believe that “if you can fly with it, you can vote with it.” I believe voting is more than a right.  It is a responsibility of all of our citizens, and it is a responsibility that too many of us do not take seriously.

For the past two years, the House Republicans have ushered through legislation that would require voters to present valid government-issued photo identification when they vote.  Despite the vocal opposition from Democrats, this bill has nothing to do with voter suppression or abridging someone’s right to vote.  This legislation protects the “one person, one vote” right for those of us who are not trying to game the system.  As one Republican lawmaker said, we are ensuring “one person and ONLY one vote.”

Currently, anybody could vote as somebody else, as long as they have that person’s voter registration card.  This is a major hole in our election laws, and one that the U.S. Supreme Court said could be closed. Georgia’s Voter ID legislation has been upheld as legal by the Obama Justice Department. We are on firm legal ground that showing a picture ID is not an undue burden on voting.

The new, clean, House bill removes potential barriers some people may have to acquiring a drivers’ license. The House abolished the fee for anybody who can’t afford an identification card. We also streamlined a process to acquire a birth certificate – of note for people who might have a birth recorded in a family bible.

It is imperative that the Senate approve this bill and “concur” with the House version.

After much opposition by the Democrats, the House passed two bills that protect innocent life.

The first bill will require doctors who perform abortions to provide appropriate medical attention to babies who are born alive after an attempted abortion procedure. Hopefully, this bill will prevent the type of horrific deaths ascribed recently to the abortionist in Philadelphia who allowed babies in this situation to die. The bill also specifies that South Carolina doctors will not be mandated to perform abortions if required by Obamacare.

 The second bill will remove the liability from healthcare providers if they do not provide a service that is against their conscience.