March 20, 2026 | This Week in Government: After Months of Dysfunction, House and Senate Reach Deal on Medical Compact

The House and the Senate reached an agreement after months of squabbling over what lawmaker would receive the public act to extend Michigan’s involvement in the interstate medical licensure compact.

Next week, the Senate will pass HB 5455, Rep. Rylee Linting‘s legislation to address the compact.

The House passed SB 581, sponsored by Sen. Kevin Hertel, D-St. Clair Shores, which would allow Downtown Development Authorities to include one or more separate and distinct geographic areas in a business district if the municipality were located on the mainland and one or more islands and a body of water.

The bill passed 98-2. Rep. Steve Carra, R-Three Rivers, and Rep. Dylan Wegela, D-Garden City, voted no.

House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, took credit for the agreement.

“I’m very proud to announce that once again, I’ve successfully negotiated a deal up here at the Capitol,” Hall said during a press conference Thursday evening. “We were facing a deadline where 8,000 doctors were going to lose their license to practice in Michigan because our membership in the compact was going to expire.”

Two bills that would extend the medical licensure were stalled in either chamber of the Legislature.

SB 303, sponsored by Sen. Roger Hauck, R-Mount Pleasant, is stalled in the House. HB 5455, sponsored Linting, R-Wyandotte, is in the Senate.

Hauck’s bill passed the Senate unanimously last May. It was taken up by the House Health Policy Committee in June and then referred to the House Rules Committee, where it has yet to see action. Linting’s bill, which was introduced in January, passed the House last month, 102-2.

Linting previously introduced another bill that would have addressed the compact, HB 4032, but that bill retained language for a sunset provision. It passed the House last year in March 106-1. HB 5455 and SB 303 eliminate language providing for a future repeal and created a new act.

“We had to make sure that we remained in this compact that we’ve been in since 2017 with great success, and so it would really just be a shame,” Linting said at the press conference. “It would be devastating if we let political games get in the way of supporting our communities all across Michigan.”

The House tie barred SB 581 to HB 5455.

Hall said that he was working on the deal and brushed off the fact that the bills have been sitting the Legislature for almost a year. He said it was not a sign of dysfunction in Lansing.

“We got the deal this morning,” Hall said. “This is much better way to work than going the other way where members are blocking other members’ bills for political reasons. … We got a deal, and the doctors are going to get their licenses.”

He credited Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, for getting the deal done.

“Leader Brinks stood up and got the job done on the Senate side,” he said. “The Senate is going to act on Tuesday, so I thought it was pretty good.”

Brinks in a statement said the issue could have been addressed months ago, placing the blame on Hall for the delay.” The resolution we achieved today means that thousands of people will receive uninterrupted care and physicians will be able to continue to practice in Michigan,” Brinks said. “While the House speaker says we had a ‘crisis’ on our hands, I want to be clear: this never should have become a crisis. This could have been easily settled months ago with the Senate’s bipartisan legislation, but it became clear that the speaker was unwilling to take that path.”

Brian Peters, Chief Executive Officer of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, thanked the Legislature for reaching an agreement in a statement.

“The MHA thanks state lawmakers for reaching a deal on the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact. Leadership in both chambers identified and prioritized protecting Michigan patients and preserving care in our communities,” Peters said. “We’re eager to see this important piece of legislation advance to Gov. Whitmer and look forward to her swift signature.”

Senators voted Wednesday in broad bipartisan support of a proposed change of the state’s primary election date from August to May, a move that supporters have said would put the state more in line with others.

Members voted on a bill package that would affect the primary election date change, with opposition over providing for regular February elections due to lower turnout and many seniors living out of state during the winter months.

The primary election date from August to May would occur under SB 691. A primary election would also be able to be held on the February election date. Currently, the state only holds February elections if there is a presidential primary. The bill passed 29-4.

Sen. Sam Singh, D-East Lansing, told reporters the bill package is in response to what lawmakers have heard from local clerks. He said with all the changes made to the voting process in recent years it has become difficult for clerks to complete the tasks of the August elections and shift to the November elections.

“They’ve been asking for a number of years for us to move the primary date,” Singh said.

Singh added that it is tough for election officials to work within a tight timeframe in which absentee ballots for the general election must begin to be sent out weeks after the primary.

Sen. Jonathan Lindsey, R-Coldwater, unsuccessfully offered a floor amendment that would tie bar the bills before the chamber on Wednesday to HB 4583 and HB 4854. The bills passed the House last week and would require votes on local millages to happen only in November, which supporters said would ensure higher turnout.

Lindsey also offered a substitute to eliminate the proposed February election option.

“I don’t believe that this new February election is warranted,” Lindsey said. “This amendment is an attempt to, again, protect the taxpayers of Michigan by keeping them from being saddled with increasing taxes.”

Sen. Thomas Albert, R-Lowell, said there were February elections years ago which were removed through legislation signed in 2015. He said it was eliminated in part because many seniors are not in Michigan in February.

“They should have a fair say of what their property taxes are going to be, and we shouldn’t have an election where a good portion of our tax paying residents are not able to vote on it,” Albert said. “There was a good purpose for it to be removed, and it was in fact removed.”

Five of the bills in the package (SB 692, SB 693, SB 694, SB 695, and SB 696) would revise various statutes to align with the election date changes proposed in SB 691.

Under SB 697, the required petition signatures necessary for those seeking statewide office would be reduced from 30,000 to 60,000 signatures to 15,000 and 30,000 signatures.

Changes in SB 698 would require all committees to follow the same campaign finance disclosure statement schedule.

Senators also passed SB 814 and SB 815, which would amend the financial disclosure deadline for candidates for elected office and public officials from May 15 to April 15.

Members voted 29-4 for SB 814. For SB 693, SB 694, SB 696, SB 698, and SB 815 members voted 28-5. For SB 692, SB 695, and SB 697, members voted 27-6.

Singh, when asked about opposition to the bills, did not see there being a major concern over having the option for February elections.

“We are now moved completely to a significant number of our residents voting absentee,” Singh said.

When asked if he might be open to negotiating with the House over its proposed changes to when millages can be on the ballot and the Senate package, Singh said he is willing to entertain conversations.

Michigan for Responsible Data Centers, a coalition that hopes to provide Michiganders with access to accurate information they believe is lacking surrounding the data center industry launched Thursday.

The new group’s focus, shared in a virtual press conference Thursday, is uplifting the positive effects of data center development while also looking to break through some of the general disdain for development popping up across the state in droves, including the first hyperscale project planned in Saline Township with OpenAI.

Jim Holcomb, president and chief executive officer of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, a member of the new coalition, emphasized the goal of spearheading independent research on Michigan-specific data on best practices in developing data centers. Those best practices include environmental and economic considerations as well as how to balance the utility system with more need for electrical infrastructure.

Holcomb said he knew the centers were generating generally negative buzz and concerns, finding it imperative communities have verified information.

“We want communities to be able to evaluate opportunities based on data and not online noise,” Holcomb said.

Jeff Jaros, president and chief executive officer of NTH Consultants, addressed environmental concerns, which have been a significant drawback for some critics, saying the state “is not starting from scratch” and has a well-established regulatory framework.

He said while he has not operated data centers, he has seen how complex facilities are evaluated and permitted, and many of the concerns surrounding noise, water and energy demand are already governed by existing federal, state and local regulations.

Jaros highlighted that closed-loop cooling systems many data centers are opting for could limit discharge of water. These systems have been questioned by environmental groups to Gongwer News Service previously on if they are effective in their goals.

He also said Michigan’s policy has reinforced the standards, tying tax incentives to responsible design. However, Jaros did not address concerns from environmental groups claiming the standards are contradictory in how they evaluate utilities that data centers contract with and the data centers themselves. Still, he said data centers have incentives to be better environmental stewards.

Also, none of the data centers planned in the state have signed up for the state tax sales and use tax exemption yet. The exemption includes the requirements on clean energy usage.

Another criticism of data centers is the lack of permanent jobs after the construction phase is over as the centers don’t require many bodies to man operations.

When it comes to jobs on the table, Craig Wright, president of Michigan State Utility Workers, said it could lead to the most significant infrastructure investments coming to the state with huge opportunity for skilled trades and that job opportunities could remain long after construction is over, strengthening labor agreements across the board.

Tyler Theile, vice president and chief operating officer of the Anderson Economic Group, spoke of findings in their recent study on hypothetical scenarios in the state to develop an idea of what the economic activity from hyperscale projects could look like in the state. In the model, Theile said the report found after the major job gains from construction, it also affected supply chain jobs and other businesses in the area hiring more workers to accommodate the jump in population from new jobs facilitated by the data center.

However, she also recognized some of these facilities will not provide all net new jobs.

Theile also rejected the idea the projects lack impact from permanent jobs, saying large employment announcements in the automotive manufacturing sector “has affected our perspective” on hiring numbers.

She said even if the data centers only support 12 new jobs, with the compensation level of the workers, it adds another $1 million in payroll for the local community to be spent and paid in taxes.

Holcomb also added that the development may provide new infrastructure like renewed roads or sewer systems to attract new businesses, providing the foundation for more jobs.

Consumers Energy and DTE Energy Company representatives also took questions on how to explain to critics their claims extra costs on energy use from data centers will not be passed down to customers.

Lauren Snyder, senior vice president and chief customer and growth officer at CMS Energy Corporation and Consumers Energy Company, said rates will come down due to requirements on large loan customers like data centers to pay for incremental supply and distribution, paying both the industrial rates and additional costs to cover their needs, including infrastructure costs, as well as fixed costs across the entire system.

Snyder also said the grid is not overtaxed and has enough capacity to serve all their customers now and creating an integrated resource plan to provide the anticipated load on the system.

In questions about how data centers affect property values around the area, Randy Thelen, Chief Executive Officer of The Right Place, said communities with data centers actually see more infrastructure investment with a better tax base, seeing more investment in parks and schools, making the communities more attractive for homeowners.

The coalition said they were not focused on advertising for data center development but are focused now on advising local governments on the developments.

The coalition includes the Anderson Economic Group, Consumers Energy, Detroit Regional Chamber, DTE Energy, Lansing Economic Area Partnership, Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce, Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Michigan Pipe Trades Association, Michigan State Utility Workers Council, NTH Consultants, Ltd., Northern Midwest Regional Council of Carpenters, Operating Engineers 324, The Right Place, Utility Workers Union of America Walbridge and West Michigan Plumbers, Fitters and Service Trades Local Union No. 174.

Bills to mandate LETRS training for all Michigan teachers and teacher preparation programs didn’t clear a House panel this week as Rep. Nancy DeBoer had hoped, but after initial stakeholder conversations and substitutes adopted, sponsors are optimistic they can hit the ground running when lawmakers return from spring break in three weeks.

HB 5646, sponsored by Rep. Tim Kelly, R-Saginaw Township, and HB 5697, sponsored by DeBoer, R-Holland, both saw substitutes adopted by the House Education and Workforce Committee on Wednesday. DeBoer, who chairs the committee, had set a goal last week to have at least her bill, which would mandate LETRS training for the state’s teachers, moved from committee before the House left town this week but didn’t seem defeated by not meeting it.

More work is needed, DeBoer said, to ensure HB 5697 fully considers the time it takes teachers to complete LETRS training and includes provisions to assuage concerns from superintendents, teachers’ unions and school districts about how they might balance instructional time with a large-scale professional development undertaking and compensate teachers adequately for participating.

“If there’s anything like the dedication we’ve had over the past week, we can continue that and come to better definition of the amount the teacher will be rewarded for pursuing this certification,” DeBoer said after the committee met. “Even if it is mandatory, it’s going to help them.”

The H-1 substitute for HB 5697 makes some of the changes education groups floated in committee last week, like specifying that the LETRS requirement need not apply to individuals with a temporary teaching certificate and allowing for a phased-in rollout of the training with a deadline of the 2030-31 school year for full compliance, instead of the initial deadline of next school year.

The substitute for Kelly’s bill would remove explicit mentions of LETRS training and replace them with the definitions of a literacy training program used in DeBoer’s bill, with which LETRS would be compliant. It would also provide a definition for the term “science of reading.”

DeBoer said she hasn’t yet asked House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, about a timeline for getting the bills on the board if they’re passed out of committee after the break, but that she’s spoken to him before about LETRS training and has been “telling him this is coming.”

She said she anticipates cooperation to continue as it has so far across the aisle – cards submitted in support of the bills came from groups which are almost never on the same side of education issues, which DeBoer quipped was the “real Michigan Miracle,” referencing the much-lauded “Mississippi Miracle” that used science of reading techniques like LETRS to drastically improve early reading proficiency in the state.

All parties involved seem to want to make this work, DeBoer told Gongwer News Service, especially given the focus on literacy writ large that’s colored the year in politics so far.

“If we can’t get out of our muck in order to say we want the children to read, what are we here for?” she said.

An ideologically diverse group spanning union leaders to business advocates said Thursday they are joining the effort to encourage a no vote on the Constitutional Convention question set to appear before voters in November.

The Michigan Chamber of Commerce, the Michigan Education Association, the Business Leaders for Michigan, the Michigan AFL-CIO, the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, and the League of Women Voters of Michigan are joining the Protect MI Constitution from Special Interests, which is the organized opposition to Proposal 2026-1.

The question is the automatic ballot proposal voters face every 16 years of whether to call a Constitutional Convention. The last convention was in 1961-62, with voters narrowly passing the proposed constitution in 1963. Voters have rejected the three previous proposals to call a convention. Nearly 70% of voters rejected it in 2010.

“A Constitutional Convention is a long, drawn-out process that risks years of uncertainty and gridlock in Michigan, creating real challenges for job providers who rely on stability and predictability to invest and grow,” Wendy Block with the Michigan Chamber said in a statement. “While there’s room to update our state’s Constitution, most issues can be addressed without reopening the entire document – and there’s no guarantee a convention would deliver better outcomes, particularly given out-of-state and special interest influence or sweeping, single-issue agendas that could stall investment and job growth in Michigan.”

MEA President Chandra Madafferi said the union is asking parents, educators and community members “to stand up for Michigan students and their future,” by voting no.

The organizations argued opening up the Constitution through a convention risks the document being “hijacked,” by special interest groups with specific agendas.

“Michiganders could see their voting access stripped away and their voices silenced if a Con-Con is approved,” Denise Hartsough, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Michigan, said. “A Con-Con would open the door to extremists circumventing the will of Michigan voters.”