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Senate committee amends bill to broaden Child Fatality Advisory Committee membership and allow designees
Summary
The Family and Veteran Services Committee voted Feb. 11 to report S.B. 845 favorably to the Senate floor after adopting a committee amendment that updates an agency title and allows certain officials to appoint designees to the Child Fatality Advisory Committee.
The Family and Veteran Services Committee voted Feb. 11 to report S.B. 845 favorably to the Senate floor after adopting a committee amendment that updates agency titles and clarifies who may appoint designees to the state Child Fatality Advisory Committee.
The bill, explained by committee staff, would add the executive director of the South Carolina Commission for Community Advancement Engagement to the advisory committee and allow the state child advocate, a county coroner, a medical examiner and a solicitor to appoint a designee to serve in their place. Committee counsel said the amendment replaces a reference to the director of the Department of Health and Environmental Control with the director of public health to reflect current language.
Sarah Knox, with Children's Trust of South Carolina and vice chair of the Child Fatality Advisory Committee, told the committee that agency heads commonly send designees because of scheduling demands. "It's not necessarily that the spots aren't filled," Knox said. "Because all of the agency heads are on the committee, sometimes they are busy and so we have designees for almost all of them to send in their place." She said extending an explicit designee privilege would help ensure meetings have appropriate representation.
Chair cited a supporting letter from Dr. Mary Fran Croswell of Prisma Health Children's Hospital, who chairs the state Child Fatality Advisory Committee, and said the bill was filed after she raised suggested changes with committee staff. The letter was included in the committee packet (tab 4) and was described as explaining the proposed changes and supporting the measure.
After discussion, the committee adopted the amendment by voice vote with no recorded opposition and approved a motion to send S.B. 845 to the full Senate as amended.
The committee did not record a roll-call vote in the transcript; the measure was reported favorably to the Senate floor. The next procedural step is consideration by the full Senate.
