Vice President Mike Pence says U.S. Sen. Tim Scott's persistence is to thank for a law that gives federal tax breaks to people who invest in economically distressed areas.

Pence came to South Carolina on Thursday to tour The Meeting Place Church and a movie theater at the Columbia Place Mall the church invested in through the Opportunity Zone program.

Scott wanted to show his fellow Republican the investment in a mall that was in danger of being abandoned.

Church founder Bishop Eric J. Freeman bought the land in 2016 and along with the church and movie theater also built a banquet and conference center and a clinic for kidney problems.

Scott insisted on getting the Opportunity Zone plan into the 2017 tax law changes backed by President Donald Trump.