The following article explains
five bills that have been introduced,
passed or signed into law by the
Michigan state legislature or Gov.
Gretchen Whitmer from Feb. 25 to
March 11.
On the second and fourth
Fridays of each month, The
Michigan Daily will publish
a compilation of bills being
floated around in the Michigan
state legislature for students
at the University of Michigan
to know about. This is the first
installment in this series.
1. Michigan COVID-19
Recovery Plan
House Bills 4047 and 4048
Status:
Signed
into
law
by
Whitmer with a line-item veto of
two sections.
Whitmer signed this package
of bills into law on March 9.
The package allocates more
than $2.5 billion in COVID-
19 relief and is a key part in
Whitmer’s pandemic recovery
plan. The legislation contains
a $2.25 per hour wage increase
for direct care workers through
September,
$223
million
in
emergency rental assistance and
roughly $665 million in funds
for vaccine distribution, testing
and contact tracing efforts.
Gov. Whitmer vetoed certain
parts of the bill that aimed to
strip the state health department
director’s powers and limit her
executive powers in handling
the pandemic. As a result of
her vetoes, close to $1 billion
in funding will be lost from the
bill, as Michigan Republican
lawmakers
tied
limiting
executive powers to this funding.
This lost funding includes $100
million for non-public schools
and summer school programs,
$405
million
in
property
and tax relief for businesses
and $150 for unemployment
insurance all being vetoed. The
vetoes leave about $2 billion in
federal COVID-19 relief money
delegated to Michigan up for
grabs.
In
a
letter
to
Michigan
lawmakers, Whitmer critiqued
Republican lawmakers for trying
to strip her of executive rights
to handle the pandemic, saying
it was “a reckless idea, poorly
executed and poorly timed.”
“I note that this legislation
leaves more than $2 billion in
federal money unappropriated,”
Whitmer said. “As Michigan
goes all-out to finally beat back
this awful pandemic and turn
the page to recovery, we need
every last dollar going to work
for us before the Legislature
takes its Spring Break.”
Daire Rendon, R-Lake City,
said in a statement that he
believes
the
legislation
will
have a negative impact on small
businesses and those who are
unemployed.
“Federal money was set aside
to help shuttered businesses
and devastated families through
the worst crisis of their lives,”
Rendon
said.
“Instead,
the
governor has chosen to play
partisan
politics,
choosing
winners
and
losers,
rather
than extending hope to all
Michiganders. This failure is
just the latest in her continuing
claims that the administration
is doing everything possible to
save lives.”
2. Election Reform Package:
Addressing Findings From
Auditor General Report
House Bills 4127-4131
Status: Passed by MI House,
headed to state Senate.
This election reform package
aims to improve the absentee
ballot process to accommodate
the greater demand for absentee
voting, and helps sift through
existing Michigan voter files
to remove people who have not
been voting or do not have their
birthdate on their registration.
Before
cancelling
people’s
voter registration, H.B. 4127
requires the Secretary of State
— currently Jocelyn Benson — to
send voters a postcard notifying
them a placeholder birth date
is on their voter file and they
have to change it to the correct
birth date. If a postcard is not
returned or able to be delivered
and if the individual does not
engage in voting-related activity
by the second general election
after the notice was sent, their
voter registration is canceled.
The bill passed 61-48.
Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor,
voted nay.
H.B. 4128 would cancel a
voter’s registration if they have
not voted since the 2000 general
election — which would affect
over 300,000 Michigan voters.
To prohibit the cancellation,
voters would have to fill out a
card they receive by mail and
send it back to the election clerk’s
office. Their voter registration
would still be canceled if they
do not participate in a voting-
related activity — such as casting
a ballot or updating their voter
registration — within the next
two general elections.
The bill passed 66-43.
Again, Ann Arbor’s state Rep.
Rabhi voted nay.
H.B. 4129 requires a list of
the names of county and local
clerks who are not up to date
on their election training to be
published on the Secretary of
State’s website.
The bill passed 87-22.
Rabhi voted in favor.
H.B. 4130 and H.B. 4131
both work to ensure clerks
consolidate
precincts
by
increasing the number of voters
assigned to one precinct and
to keep an up-to-date list of
absentee voters. The bills also
require cities and townships
with two or more precincts to
create absentee ballot counting
boards to process and count
absent voter ballots.
H.B. 4130 passed 79-30 and
H.B. 4131 passed 104-5.
Rabhi voted in favor of both
bills.
3. Bill Aiming to Divide High
Schools Sports by Biological
Sex
Senate Bill 0218
Status: Introduced in the Senate.
Introduced
by
state
Sen.
Lana Theis, R-Brighton, and
sponsored by 12 other GOP
lawmakers,
this
bill
was
introduced with the intent of
requiring high school students
to compete on high school sports
teams solely based on their
biological sex. The legislation
defines biological sex as ‘the
physical
condition
of
being
male of female’ as said on the
individual’s birth certificate.
Theis said in a statement
that she thinks the bill is a
way to uphold the legacy of
Title IX, a federal law that
protects students from gender
discrimination in educational
programs.
“Something must be done to
preserve the legacy of Title IX
— a staple of American society,”
Theis said. “So, very simply, my
bill will ensure that, in school
sports in Michigan, student
athletes will compete against
one another according to their
biological sex — females against
females,
and
males
against
males.”
The
bill
also
comes
as
Republicans across the country
set out to prevent transgender
women
from
competing
on
female sports teams. Democrats
have strongly opposed such
legislation on the basis that it is
a strong attack on transgender
students and transgender rights.
4. Drunken Driving
Expungement for First-time
Offenders
House Bills 4219-4220
Status: Passed by the House.
Sponsored
by
state
Reps.
Tenisha
Yancey,
D-Harper
Woods,
and
Joe
Bellino,
R-Monroe,
these
two
bills
would
expunge
first-time
drunk driving offenses from
individual’s records.
H.B. 4219 allows drivers who
were convicted of driving while
intoxicated
to
remove
their
first offense from their record,
granted the offense did not
cause death or serious injury to
another individual. The erasure
of offenses applies to violations
of local, state and federal laws, as
well as violations that occurred
on Native American territory.
H.B. 4220 gives first-time
offenders the opportunity to
apply for expungement from a
judge.
The MI House passed the
piece of legislation 93-17.
Rabhi voted in favor of both
bills.
5. A Resolution to Keep
Daylight Saving Time All Year
Senate Bill 231
Status: Introduced.
This bill, introduced by state
Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor,
aims to keep Michigan on the
same time system all year round,
eliminating
daylight
savings
time. The bill does not specify if
Michigan would be on daylight
saving time or standard time.
This coming weekend, Michigan
will “spring forward” and lose
an hour of the day starting 2 a.m.
Sunday, March 14. Clocks will
revert back an hour on Sunday,
Nov. 7 at 2 a.m.
Irwin said he has been a long-
time supporter of the removal
of daylight saving time and
released a statement saying
daylight saving time causes
heart
attacks,
strokes
and
general crankiness.
“Twice a year, we volunteer
Michiganians
for
more
car
accidents and injuries at work,”
Irwin said. “We see lower
productivity and an increased
number of heart attacks and
strokes, as well as a noticeable
uptick in general crankiness.
The twice a year time change
has no benefits for our state,
and we should stop doing it
immediately.”
The bill was introduced on
March 11.
Daily Staff Reporter Julia
Forrest
can
be
reached
at
juforres@umich.edu.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
2 — Wednesday, March 17, 2021
5 bills to watch in the State
Legislature: Feb. 25 - March 11
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New series from The Michigan Daily highlights important pieces of legislation from past weeks
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