Michigan Democrats' Plans For Lame Duck Sessions

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Topic starter November 12, 2024 3:13 pm

The Michigan Democratic Government Trifecta will continue for another 52 days, after which the Republicans will take control of the State House. Clara Hendrickson of The Free Press posted an article today which lays out the various issues which Democrats wish to legislate without Republican interference. The health care issues paragraph towards the end of the article has been highlighted:

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/11/12/michigan-democrats-have-long-list-of-policy-priorities-left/76195671007/

Michigan Democrats have long wish list before losing state House majority
By Clara Hendrickson - November 12, 2024

Michigan Democrats have a small window to take action on outstanding policy priorities before they lose their majority in the state House, but what they plan to tackle remains unclear and their wish list is long.

In 2022, Democrats made history when Michigan voters reelected Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and flipped the state House and Senate from GOP control, delivering the first Democratic trifecta in 40 years. But in the election last Tuesday, some Democratic incumbents in the state House lost to Republican challengers, ushering in another era of divided government in Michigan starting in January.

But before then, Democrats are gearing up for a busy lame-duck session to push through policies Republicans oppose before their majority disappears.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer delivers her State of the State address on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing.
"Michiganders expect their elected officials to work with Governor Whitmer to continue lowering costs in the face of inflation, bring good-paying jobs to our state to grow the economy, build more affordable housing to drive down prices, and protect our rights and freedoms," said Bobby Leddy, Whitmer's communications director. "We hope Republicans will join us in getting a head start on next year’s agenda."

Lame duck is the period between an election and the new legislative session when outgoing lawmakers still hold power. This year's lame-duck session gives Democrats one last chance to wield their legislative majorities and overcome GOP opposition. But Democrats' agenda for the rest of the year is still taking shape.

House Speaker Joe Tate, D-Detroit, is working with Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, and Whitmer to prioritize, according to Tate spokesperson Amber McCann. Brinks told reporters last Thursday she's looking at a long list of priorities. "It's the art of what's possible. I can't say that enough. That has been really the true lesson of being in the majority too. There's a long list of things a lot of people would like to get done that at the end of the day, it's not as easy as it looks from the outside," she said.

This past summer, Whitmer praised Democrats for fast-tracking bills to extend corporate subsidies and launch a new transit fund. Whitmer has repeatedly made economic development a key pillar of her administration. Several bills to create a new innovation fund and a research and development tax credit were listed on House lawmakers' agenda for Tuesday.

Democratic lawmakers have also shared a laundry list of their own top priorities for bills that touch on a range of issues: water affordability, policing, driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants, charter school transparency, polluter accountability, community solar, voting rights, lobbying and financial disclosure laws, guardianship, human trafficking, consumer protection, updating the legal name change process and more.

The last lame-duck session in which the party that lost trifecta power in Michigan engaged in one final burst of activity was in 2018. That year, Republicans introduced and passed bills watering down voter-initiated paid sick leave and minimum wage legislation in a move the Michigan Supreme Court this year ruled illegal. Now business groups and Republicans in Lansing want to see lawmakers intervene to stop a court-ordered increase in the minimum wage for tipped workers and changes to the state's sick leave law.

"I think this is the biggest thing in the state right now to face in lame duck," said incoming Republican House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township. It's unclear whether Democrats will turn their backs on their political allies in the labor movement — who don't want lawmakers to touch the law — and take Hall up on his offer to work together to preempt forthcoming changes to Michigan's minimum wage and paid leave policies.

The fate of other key legislative proposals remains unclear. In the summer of 2023, Whitmer called on lawmakers to pass a paid family and medical leave policy that would allow workers to take time off to take care of a newborn or sick relative. Democrats have introduced paid leave legislation, but it hasn't received a hearing. Whitmer has also previously called on lawmakers to create a prescription drug affordability board, a proposal passed by Democrats in the state Senate but not the state House yet.

One major bipartisan package has also stalled out in the state House: legislation to expand Michigan's Freedom of Information Act to the state Legislature and governor's office. Lawmakers in the state Senate passed the legislation, but it was referred to the House Government Operations Committee known as a place bills often go to die.

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Topic starter November 25, 2024 11:15 pm

Lame duck is not going well in the Michigan Legislature. The Trifecta will go out with a whimper:

https://www.michiganpublic.org/politics-government/2024-11-22/democrats-are-struggling-to-pass-legislation-in-lame-duck-whats-really-going-on-in-lansing

Democrats are struggling to pass legislation in lame-duck: what’s really going on in Lansing
By Zoe Clark, Rick Pluta | November 22, 2024

You’d think Democrats would make the most of their final weeks of undivided power in Lansing before Republicans take control of the state House next year. But that doesn’t appear to be the case.

“The coalition of 56 is breaking down…” Democratic Representative Rachel Hood told us this week, referring to the Democrat’s tiny House majority. In a chamber with 110 members, one or two absences has left House Democrats unable to move bills and Hood is so frustrated she said she’s ready to stop showing up to Lansing during the final weeks of session.

The mood in the Democratic caucus is “toxic,” she says. “Last week, the Sergeant at Arms had to separate a member who was yelling at me on the floor. That's not professional behavior and I won't tolerate being a part of that.”

The Democrats’ first full grip on legislative and executive power in four decades appears poised to end with whimpers and grumbles following a dramatic start to the session with big, history-making votes (think the repeal of right-to-work and adding LGBTQ protections to the state’s civil rights act.)

But after that burst in early 2023, the pace quickly slowed. As Bridge Michigan’s Jordyn Hermani told us in this week’s podcast, even before lame-duck, House lawmakers have met this year the fewest number of times since Governor Gretchen Whitmer took office in 2019.

Whitmer, the third leg of the Democratic triad, shared earlier this month that she still has a legislative wish list. “Our job remains the same no matter who is in the White House or the state House,” said Whitmer Communications Director Bobby Leddy earlier this month. “Michiganders expect their elected officials to work with Governor Whitmer to continue lowering costs in the face of inflation, bring good-paying jobs to our state to grow the economy, build more affordable housing to drive down prices, and protect our rights and freedoms.”

But Whitmer seems unwilling - or unable - to get Democrats to take up those priorities. And, even if he wanted to, Democratic House Speaker Joe Tate also doesn’t carry the same power he once did. He declined to run again for caucus leader after Democrats lost House control on his watch. Democratic Representative Ranjeev Puri will serve as the minority leader in the upcoming session.

Compare this year to lame-duck 2018, that’s when Republicans were about to lose their majority with then incoming Governor-elect Whitmer. The GOP muscled through more than 300 bills in lame-duck alone, including controversial bills regarding Enbridge Line 5 and dark-money legislation.

At the time, Governor-elect Gretchen Whitmer expressed frustration from the sidelines as Republicans worked to thwart her agenda even before she moved into her Capitol office. In 2018 she told WOOD-TV that “Lame-duck is really a dangerous time… There are a lot of legislators who are not accountable to the public anymore. There’s not transparency or full debate.”

Issues surrounding accountability and transparency might not matter all that much as now, in the final weeks of power, House Democrats are seemingly hobbling themselves even before they head into the minority in Whitmer’s final two years as governor.