COLUMBIA — State Representative Joe White will hold a press conference on Monday, April 27 at 11:00 a.m. on the second floor of the South Carolina Statehouse to directly challenge two major transportation bills moving through the House — S. 831 and H. 5071.
White says the bills are being sold as solutions, but in reality, they fail to fix the core problem.
“You can spend more money, you can rearrange the chairs, but if you don’t fix the structure, you will not fix the roads.”
Floor debate on these bills is expected to begin Wednesday.
White, who has spent the past three years studying the South Carolina Department of Transportation and comparing it to top-performing states, says the current legislation does almost nothing to create real accountability.
“These bills sound good. They read complicated. But when you strip it all down, there is almost nothing in them that actually changes how DOT operates.”
White will outline why he believes the legislation fails — and what real reform would look like.
He will also present his own reform proposals — H. 5362 and H. 5363, currently in the House Ways and Means Committee — which focus on restructuring DOT and implementing measurable performance standards.
“If you want better roads, you need accountability. If you want accountability, you need structure. And right now, that’s exactly what these bills don’t deliver.”
White has prepared more than 30 amendments aimed at fixing what he calls a fundamentally flawed approach.
“I’m not here just to criticize. I’m here with solutions. But let’s be honest — this is a bad bill, and it needs serious work.”
He is inviting members of the media to attend, ask questions, and hear a detailed breakdown of both the problem and the path forward.
“The people of South Carolina deserve to know the truth — why their roads aren’t getting fixed, and what it’s actually going to take to fix them.”
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