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

ANNA FUDER/Daily

Wildlife in the Midwest mostly consists of birds, squirrels and rabbits; with a zoom lens, the often overlooked beauty can be seen. 

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New series from The Michigan Daily highlights important pieces of legislation from past weeks

JULIA FORREST
Daily Staff Reporter

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