COLUMBIA - A legislative panel resumed work Thursday on one of the 2007 session's hot topics - drunken-driving legislation - and immediately stumbled upon the same issues that jammed up the bill last spring.

Senate leadership, though, is determined to move ahead with the bill, and quickly, Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, said.

"We don't want to be in February finishing this up," he said.

Mr. Hutto is the chairman of the subcommittee that is discussing H3496, a bill that aims to overhaul the state's driving-under-the-influence law.

The measure would create a tiered penalty system - the drunker the driver, the stiffer the penalty.

Under the current law, "I can be a little bit drunk or stinking falling down drunk and basically be treated the same," said Jeff Moore, the executive director of the South Carolina Sheriffs' Association.

Lawmakers have had few problems with the concept of a tiered system.

But the legislation got hung up in the House last spring over a myriad other details, such as whether law enforcement officers should have to videotape their questioning of a drunken driving suspect.

Some of those issues resurfaced Thursday.

Mr. Hutto said the state might be better off funding more state troopers.

"I think that these people (intoxicated drivers) are making their decisions based not on what the penalties are, but based on their perception that they're not going to be caught," he said.

Said Mr. Moore: "I think it takes the whole package, senator, not just more eyes on the road."

The DUI bill already has passed the House.

To become law, it needs to get through the Judiciary Committee and pass the full Senate. If it's amended along the way, a special committee of House and Senate members will meet to find a compromise between the two versions.

Mr. Hutto said the goal is for the subcommittee to have its proposed amendments drafted by the end of the year so that the full Judiciary Committee can debate the bill as soon as lawmakers return to session in mid-January.