Michigan House GOP won’t send stalled bills to Whitmer, plan appeal of court ruling
Michigan House Republicans on Wednesday signaled the chamber won’t be presenting nine bills passed in the previous Legislature to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, despite a recent court ruling partially siding with Senate Democrats’ assertion the pending legislation should have made its way to the governor at the start of the year.
Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, also said the House will appeal Court of Claims Judge Sima Patel’s ruling to the Michigan Court of Appeals. While Patel sided with the merits of Senate Democrats’ argument, she wrote in her Feb. 27 opinion it wasn’t the court’s role to enforce legislative rules and denied the Senate’s request for mandamus relief.
Legal experts previously told the Detroit Free Press that without mandamus relief, the ruling lacked any measure to force the House to present the bills to Whitmer.
Both Senate Democrats and House Republicans have called the ruling a win for their respective causes. A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, previously said the ruling required the House to present the nine bills to Whitmer by March 19, but Hall and the House signaled Wednesday they won’t be doing so.
“Our legal review did identify some uncertainties that have created confusion and ambiguities after the recent court ruling,” Hall said in a statement. “We obviously won the court case, but the House has taken the position that there is value in clarifying those questions for the sake of future precedent and to give the public a unified position. That’s why we will be going to the Court of Appeals to get everyone on the same page.”
House Resolution 41, adopted Wednesday in the Republican-controlled chamber, directs the House clerk to only present bills to the governor passed by both chambers of the current 103rd Legislature.
Democrats had called on Hall to send nine bills passed late last year to Whitmer, arguing the process of presentation was a formality since the bills passed both the House and Senate. Hall and Republicans have said it was the responsibility of previous House leadership to ensure the bills were presented.
The stalled bills include measures to increase public employer contributions to employees’ health care costs, allow corrections officers and other law enforcement personnel to opt in to the Michigan State Police retirement programs, exempt certain public assistance benefits from debt collection and allow Wayne County to ask voters to levy a millage to fund history museums in Detroit.
House Democrats, who lost control of the chamber to Republicans in the November election, opposed the resolution adopted Wednesday.
“At a time when our communities are looking for leadership and solutions for inactions, House Resolution 41 would do the exact opposite,” said Rep. Brenda Carter, D-Pontiac, during a floor speech Wednesday. “I urge this chamber to strongly consider the impact of what this would do for the people of Michigan.”
Contact Arpan Lobo: [email protected]
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan House won’t present bills passed last term to Whitmer
