Economic Opportunity, Health and Education, Policy Updates
First Day of Legislative Session
by WREN Communications Team on Jan 10, 2017
Today on January 10th, 2017, South Carolina’s legislators return to the Statehouse for the beginning of the 2017-18 session. While we are excited to get back into the swing of things, we cannot thank our volunteers and advocates enough for their contributions over the past several months, and for more recently assembling our WREN information packets that will be disseminated to legislators this afternoon.
These folders contain information shared last week in our Policy Agenda Webinar. In case you missed the presentation, please note that we used this time to outline information about WREN, provide an overview of important dates this session, and explain our list of policy priorities. The last day for legislation to pass the chamber in which it was introduced and transfer to the other chamber for consideration is Monday, April 10, and the final legislative meeting for the year will be on Thursday, May 11, which means a shorter session than usual.
However, the shortened time frame will not limit the extent of our goals. WREN plans to introduce an Equal Pay Act, a Pregnancy Accommodation Act, and a Healthy Youth Act.
The Equal Pay Act will provide explicit nondiscrimination protections for employees and increase available relief for employees by improving their ability to challenge pay discrimination.
The Pregnancy Accommodation Act will ensure that workers have increased protections, particularly throughout a pregnancy. By guaranteeing that pregnant women and women recovering from childbirth are provided reasonable workplace accommodations, we are ensuring equitable support for the increasing number of women who are continuing to work while they are pregnant and through later stages of pregnancy.
We will additionally continue to support evidence-based health education through the Healthy Youth Act. For complete details regarding the components of these policies, click here.
Outside of these policies, WREN will also be supporting a budget proviso that will further ensure evidence-based health education, and two more provisos that increase access to contraception.
Outside of the Statehouse, WREN is mobilizing advocates to ensure new revisions of the Academic Standards for Health and Safety Education enable students to receive quality health information so they can make informed decisions about their bodies and health.
Building off of the decade of policy and advocacy work of Tell Them and the South Carolina Coalition for Healthy Families, WREN will continue to stand and support access to affordable, high quality healthcare, and privacy in matters of personal health.
Thanks for standing with us. To stay up-to-date with WREN this session, please make sure you have signed up to receive network updates and watch committee and floor proceedings live at scstatehouse.gov.
Our network is stronger because of you.