With the legislative session ending June 7, members of the South Carolina General Assembly don’t want “work” to interfere with their summer vacations. However, they still have a lot to do. So House Speaker Bobby Harrell today announced that he is forming a pair of “Bulldog” Committees to complete work on tax cuts and government reform before the session ends.

But Harrell vowed to “work all summer if necessary.”

The speaker named Majority Leader Jim Merrill and Rep. Annette Young to head a conference committee on DOT reform and Chairman Harry Cato and Rep. Nikki Haley will will push the Senate for a pro-business workers’ compensation reform package.

“These assignments reflect the commitments we have made to our fellow South Carolinians,” Speaker Harrell said in a press release sent-out Friday. “Our conferees will take a strong stand, will work to bulldog these important reforms through and will cut into the fat of this budget. We are sending a message to the people of our state that we will fight vigorously for the ideals we share.”

House Republican leaders said Friday those two bills – along with a grocery tax cut and an income tax cut – must be passed before the House can go home for the summer.

“House Republicans are prepared to work all summer if that’s what it takes,” Merrill said. “The people of South Carolina did not re-elect a Republican majority last fall to approve budgets laden with pork and short on tax relief. I will not vote for anything resembling the Senate’s budget. The additional $250 million in the Senate budget must go toward our tax cuts and there is simply no reason why it can’t.”

The clock is ticking, and we’re interested to see if they can get all this done. They likely will, but if they can’t, watch for a lot of finger-pointing – mostly toward the Governor’s Mansion.