CHARLESTON, S.C. — Local and national preservation groups are warning that a permitting overhaul now queued in Washington could shrink the say communities have when federally backed projects touch historic ground in South Carolina.
Senate bill S. 5653 — known as the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act — lands on the Nov. 9 calendar inside a broader funding package. Charleston’s Preservation Society is pressing Gov. Henry McMaster along with Sens. Tim Scott and Darline Graham to reject the rewrite of Section 106 in the 1966 historic-preservation statute.
Today that review requires agencies spending federal dollars to talk with people who may be affected. Critics say the draft would let those talks become optional, cutting out neighbors, tribal governments and preservation shops.
Advocates point to South Carolina work that leaned on the current process: cemetery work in Florence, conservation around the Hunley submarine, and battlefield protections at Fish Dam Ford in Chester County.
A national coalition opposing the draft cites volume and speed: roughly 120,000 federal undertakings face Section 106 each year, only about 2% end with adverse effects, and typical reviews wrap in about 16 days. They say bottlenecks more often sit inside agencies than in consultation.
Organizers here say the text can still be fixed and want the Section 106 rollback removed before any House vote.
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