LANSING — The Michigan Legislature may soon be headed to an inter-chamber legal dispute regarding a handful of bills that are ready for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s signature.
The set of nine bills were each passed by the Democratic-controlled Senate and the then-Democratic controlled House, but hadn’t been formally presented to the governor for her signature.
When retaking control of the chamber this year, Republican Speaker Matt Hall instructed non-partisan House clerks to hold the bills, saying he would conduct a legal review before allowing the bills to move.
However, the state constitution says this: “Every bill passed by the Legislature shall be presented to the governor before it becomes law…”
Democratic Senate Leader Winnie Brinks led a resolution saying that the Senate is prepared to sue if action isn’t taken on the bills soon.
“Those bills, the constitution states, are to be presented to the governor, and for some reason, the incoming speaker Matt Hall felt he had the opportunity to essentially veto those bills without sending them to the governor,” Brinks said.
Hall argues that the situation is uncharted territory and says that he’ll continue to hold the bills.
”This almost has never happened before, where the prior speaker doesn’t file his bills with the governor before he leaves,” Hall said. “And so there’s just a lot of legal and constitutional questions, and the more we look into it, the more we find. So we’re going to do a thorough legal review, but the Senate has no role in telling the House what to do.”
The main bills in the set — HB 4665-4667 — would expand the Michigan state police retirement system to include current and new corrections officers.
Richard Cardenas, public safety director of the Michigan State Employees Association, says he’s disappointed to see the policy caught in a political quagmire with no end in sight.
“We were excited and looking forward to see what the governor was going to do, and now this hold up is — it’s just stressful, and I think frustrating is the best word,” Cardenas said. “I’m not a politician, but if they — it’s my understanding these are supposed to be proposed, and hopefully that happens soon.”
Senate Democrats have not yet filed their lawsuit, but say the option remains on the table.
“I’m really hoping that Matt Hall will take initiative and do the right thing without us needing to bring a lawsuit, but we now are poised to do so if we need to,” Brinks said.