NEWS

With 170 members making up the South Carolina General Assembly, representing diverse constituencies and featuring a wide range of view points, it’s notable when a lawmaker successfully collects enough votes to see a bill they’ve sponsored become law.

State Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, was the most productive based on the number of bills she originally sponsored that passed into law. Shealy, who was elected to the Senate in 2013, is the longest-tenured of the five women in the body. This year, she saw 11 of 29 of her general bills clear both chambers.

Senator Katrina Shealy will attend the 2023 Lexington County Peach Festival on July 4th in Gilbert, South Carolina and invites you to join her in walking in the Lexington County Peach Parade!

Walkers are encouraged to arrive at 8:45 a.m. on July 4th at the corner of Harmony Street and Broad Street in Gilbert and look for Senator Katrina Shealy's walking crew. 

The parade will begin promptly at 9:30 a.m. traveling down Hampton Street and turning right onto Main Street. If you're just attending the parade as a attendee, be sure to give Senator Shealy a big wave!

The Student Identification Card Suicide Prevention Act requires public high schools and all colleges to put the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number and another crisis resource on the back of student ID cards.

Bill sponsor Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, said the struggles teenagers deal with were top of mind when she was working on this piece of legislation.

“If we can save just one life through this act then it would all be worth it,” Shealy said.

South Carolina now has a law that gives financial service firms and securities regulators in the state new tools to find and prevent the financial exploitation of vulnerable adults.

“With this legislation, South Carolina joins a growing list of states creating additional layers of protection for its most vulnerable residents. We are proud to play a role championing this effort in a state that LPL calls home,” John Cronin, LPL’s head of state government relations, said.   

In particular, the broker-dealer says it appreciates the support of State Sens. Thomas Alexander (R-Oconee), Katrina Shealy (R-Lexington) and Tom Young (R-Aiken), as well as State Rep. Bill Sandifer (R-Oconee).  

The Power List represents the people in the Columbia region known for their sway, clout and impact.

16. Katrina Shealy - The state senator from Lexington remains South Carolina’s first and only Republican woman to lead a regular Senate committee, as chairwoman of Family and Veterans’ Services. Shealy also sits on the Senate’s powerful budget-writing Finance Committee and on the Corrections committee that handles criminal justice issues.

State senators voted 34-4 to send Gov. Henry McMaster a message to fire the director of the Department of Juvenile Justice, saying they have no confidence in his ability to turn around an agency where employees and children fear for their safety.

GOP Sen. Katrina Shealy made the motion, saying private conversations with McMaster’s office have not produced the immediate change in leadership needed.

At Lexington County Sen. Katrina Shealy's request, state auditors will investigate a troubled SC agency.

The state Legislative Audit Council has approved a request by Shealy and 4 other senators to investigate the Department of Disabilities and Special Needs. The agency serves people with special needs at the Babcock Center and other Lexington County facilities.

After a tumultuous few weeks for the Department of Juvenile Justice, a subcommittee of state senators voted unanimously to give a vote of no confidence to the department’s director.

The Senate Corrections and Penology Subcommittee held a hearing and invited public commentary in the aftermath of several high-profile incidents which have brought increased scrutiny to the department.

Sen. Shealy said she is concerned about the whole agency.

“Union has a myriad of problems. I have some contacts there that are sending information every day where children are assaulted and they turn in the reports and then the reports are not forward it to anybody else,” said Shealy (R – Lexington County), “You know, they don’t get the follow up that’s necessary. So for somebody to go to that length to get attention... it’s a travesty.”

Security guards, educators and support personnel at the Department of Juvenile Justice walked out in protest, citing 24-36 hour work shifts due to understaffing and low pay.

On Thursday, the General Assembly passed a bill designed to spread the availability and knowledge of a lifesaving and overdose-reversing medication.

Senate Bill 571, sponsored by Sen. Katrina Shealy (R-Lexington County), passed unanimously in the House after securing unanimous support in the Senate as well.

South Carolina businesses will no longer be able to pay people with disabilities less than the minimum wage under legislation approved April 8 by the Senate.

Advocates for people with special needs pushed the measure as closing a discriminatory loophole in federal labor law that dates to 1938, decades before other laws added protections and opportunities for them. 

“I believe it’s a civil rights violation,” said its sponsor, Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, chairwoman of the Family and Veterans’ Services Committee, noting a half dozen other states have already barred their employers from participating in the waiver program.

A Senate Education Subcommittee voted in favor of "The Student Identification Card Suicide Prevention Act" (S.231) Wednesday morning, a bill in which public and private schools would place suicide prevention hotline numbers on the back of the student's ID cards.

Republican Senator Katrina Shealy of Lexington County, the sponsor of the legislation, is optimistic the bill will pass on the Senate floor this year.

A proposal that would require opioid prescribers to also prescribe an overdose reversal medication was approved by the South Carolina Senate Wednesday. Supporters say Senate Bill 571 would expand availability of the emergency medication naloxone, commonly called Narcan.

“The opioid crisis has reached an epidemic level across the country and South Carolina has not been immune from seeing increased deaths due to opioid addiction. This bill, when passed will save lives,” S.C. Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington.

State leaders are coming together to support an important step in curbing deaths from overdoses by expanding access to potentially lifesaving overdose-reversal medications such as naloxone for at-risk patients.

Subcommittees in the S.C. House and Senate this past week gave approval to legislation introduced by S.C. Sens. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, and Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, in the Senate and Rep. Russell Fry, R-Horry, in the House that would require opioid prescribers to co-prescribe an overdose-reversal medication such as naloxone for the most at-risk patients.

State Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, served with Brown on that committee.

“Carl and Mary have worked tirelessly with the Foster Parents’ Association and changed the lives of so many children,” Shealy told The Post and Courier in a statement. Carl will be greatly missed by the many who knew him and the many children he brought into his home as his own.”.

Sen. Katrina Shealy aims to see that disabled workers are paid fairly. Her joint resolution would end sub-minimum wages for people with disabilities. The Lexington County Republican partnered with the disability non-profit Able South Carolina advocacy group.

Georgetown County delegation chair Sen. Stephen Goldfinch Jr, Sen. Luke Rankin, Sen. Dick Harpootlian, Sen. Gerald Malloy, Sen. Katrina Shealy and Florence Finance Committee Chair Hugh Leatherman all put their names on the bill as sponsors joining the consistent proponents of the legislation: Sen. Tom Davis of Beaufort and Brad Hutto.

The Republican governor indicated he’s confident Woods’ nomination will go smoother, and two GOP senators at the announcement confirmed they see no problem with his approval sailing through. Sens. Mike Gambrell, R-Belton, and Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, both sit on the Senate committee that will screen Woods.

State Senator Katrina Shealy has received the endorsement of the Conservation Voters of South Carolina for her efforts as a consistent voice for protecting the air, land, and water of South Carolina. The endorsement highlighted Shealy's work of advancing clean energy, supporting energy reform and transparency efforts, reauthorizing the Conservation Bank, and standing firm against offshore drilling.

A new popup COVID-19 testing event will be held in Lexington County Wednesday.

Testing will be held at Brookland United Methodist Church, according to a news release from Lexington Medical Center, which is conducting the testing along with the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. The testing was arranged at the request of state senators Nikki Setzler and Katrina Shealy, hospital officials said.

Democrat Darrell Jackson of Richland and Republican Katrina Shealy of Lexington want to give $1,000 one-time bonuses to up to 15,000 state employees. They will push lawmakers, who return to work mid-September to craft a state budget, to spend at least $15 million of the state’s federal CARES Act money on the bonuses. The Legislature has more than $600 million left over to spend in the federal coronavirus money.

"All these children need their back-to-school supplies and it’s a blessing really to see how many children are excited just to go back to school I think," says Senator Katrina Shealy who helped give out supplies and even brought children's books to give away.

At the request of Senator Katrina Shealy, Lexington Medical Center and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control are working together to provide free COVID-19 testing at Willow Ridge Church, located at 104 Sycamore Tree Road in Lexington, on Tuesday, July 28, 2020 from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

South Carolina State Senator Katrina Shealy has been re-elected as the Chair of the Human Services & Public Safety Committee for the 2020-2021 term by members of the Southern Legislative Conference of The Council of State Governments.

At the request of Senator Katrina Shealy, Lexington Medical Center and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control are working together to provide free COVID-19 testing at Willow Ridge Church, located at 104 Sycamore Tree Road in Lexington, on Tuesday, July 28, 2020 from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Lexington County senators are working on safe school reopening plans.

Sen. Katrina Shealy of Lexington will chair a Senate committee to inquire into how the state is progressing.

“It’s always been a kind of agency put to the side,” said state Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Shealy, who chairs the Senate’s Family and Veterans’ Services Committee and with eight other senators requested the audit. “Now, I hope it’s going to be a more cohesive agency where it can build on that. One of the reasons I wanted this audit was to see what the problems were and to move forward from there.”

At the request of Senators Katrina Shealy and Nikki Setzler, Lexington Medical Center and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control are working together to provide free COVID-19 testing for residents of Pelion, Swansea and other nearby communities.

Free covid-19 tests will be available at Batesburg-Leesville Elementary School Tuesday, June 23rd from 10 am - 3 pm.

The testing is being done by Lexington Medical Center and the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control at the request of Sen. Katrina Shealy.

The South Carolina Emergency Management Division (SCEMD), the South Carolina Department of Health Environmental Control (DHEC) and the state Department of Administration testified before a panel of lawmakers. They talked about the challenges they faced while working to secure PPE.

At the request of Senator Katrina Shealy, Lexington Medical Center and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control will provide free COVID-19 testing at White Knoll High School next week.

South Carolina no longer stores medical equipment like masks and gowns, but some in Columbia want to revive a stockpile following the struggle to obtain vital supplies in the pandemic. 

The SC Suicide Prevention Coalition would like to remind South Carolinians of the signs and symptoms of distress to watch out for and how to find help in these difficult times. “Now more than ever, we need to pull together to keep one another safe and healthy,” said State Senator and Coalition Co-chair Katrina Shealy. 

"Symptoms like depression, substance use, anxiety, and thoughts or comments about self-harm are signals that a person is in need of help," said South Carolina Department of Mental Health State Director and Coalition Co-chair Kenneth Rogers, MD. "We are in this together, so we must also watch for these signs among our family members, friends, coworkers, and neighbors, not only ourselves. Help is available to you, 24/7, at no cost. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at (800) 273-8255 or text ‘HOME’ to 741741 to reach a counselor at the National Crisis Text Line. If you are concerned for yourself or someone you know, reach out - err on the side of life."

“If you’re living with anxiety, depression, or just need to talk, non-emergency resources are available, as well. If you are in need of mental health services, the SCDMH remains operational statewide, with clinical teams available on-site for emergencies and nursing services, as well as counseling and psychiatric consultations by video or phone. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, call the SCDMH Community Crisis Response line at (833) 364-2274.” said Jennifer Butler, LISW-CP-S, SCDMH director of the Office of Suicide Prevention. “No matter where you seek help, if you are struggling, find someone you trust to talk to – maybe your pastor or rabbi, or your family’s general practitioner. Remember, you are not in this alone.”

The South Carolina Suicide Prevention Coalition, comprising leaders of non-profit, public, and private organizations, including the SCDMH, the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention-SC, Mental Health America-SC, the National Alliance on Mental Illness-SC, and more, formed in 2016 to address the suicide epidemic in South Carolina and develop a State plan. In late 2018, the Coalition published the SC Suicide Prevention Plan 2018-2025, a guide for all South Carolinians to prevent suicide. Co-chaired by Senator Shealy and Dr. Rogers, the group meets quarterly to share and examine data, monitor progress of projects, and develop strategies to implement the Plan.

A charitable organization founded by South Carolina state senator Katrina Shealy has doled out more than $18,000 to families in need during the coronavirus shutdown

SC Senator Katrina Shealy of Red Bank wants her constituents to know that although she’s having to follow social distancing rules like everyone else, her office is still open for business if you need her.