Jan. 10, 2024 | This Week in Government: 103rd Legislature Kicks Off With Hall Elected Speaker

House Speaker Matt Hall expressed gratitude and looked ahead to balance in government as the 103rd Legislature officially began Wednesday, ushering in a period of divided government after the first Democratic trifecta in 40 years came to an end with the close of last term.

Hall (R-Richland) was unanimously elected by the chamber.

Hall said at the start of last term, Republicans faced long odds.

“It was a pretty broken party when we started, and not a of people thought we could win,” he said in a speech to members. “This is a long time coming, bringing balance back to state government.”

After the 110 members of the House took their oath of office, Hall was nominated as speaker by Rep. Nancy De Boer (R-Holland).

“We can always learn a lot about a person’s character when they are entrusted with power,” De Boer said. “Some reach that achievement before they develop character. Others achieve position after difficult character shaping experiences. We are thankful for all the lessons Speaker-elect Hall has learned in the House through being in the majority, as well as in the minority, and in life up to this point.”

De Boer praised Hall for his even-handed approach to office budgets, committee assignments and the authority of the House as a governing body.

“I am honored to nominate Representative Matt Hall to be the speaker of the House for the 103rd Legislature, not because he drifted into this chamber, but because he has worked hard, faced overwhelming opposition, seemingly impossible odds, and has risen to this opportunity,” she said.

Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton) seconded De Boer’s motion.

“Our actions in this chamber resonate far beyond these walls. They signal to the great people of Michigan that their elected leaders deliver solutions – not divisions. Progress, not partisanship,” he said. “Michigan is a diverse state, and our constituents demand we work together. If we’ve seen anything, bipartisanship isn’t just a buzzword, it’s a necessity.”

Puri encouraged Hall to prioritize pragmatic policy over political games. He highlighted tax relief, the rising cost of living, education and community safety as areas ripe for bipartisan work.

“Representative Hall has an opportunity to lead this body with fairness, respect and a deep commitment to the values that we all hold dear,” Puri said. “His leadership should ensure that the House creates a place where diverse perspectives are valued, and the best ideas rise to the top for the benefit of all Michiganders.”

Hall thanked his family, former Governor Rick Snyder and several other political dignitaries who attended the opening ceremony for the House. In attendance were former Secretary of State Terri Land and former Attorney General Bill D. Schuette, for whom Hall once worked.

He also addressed senior members of the chamber, naming Rep. Curt VanderWall (R-Ludington), Rep. Tyrone Carter (D-Detroit), Rep. Angela Witwer (D-Delta Township), and Rep. Joe Tate (D-Detroit). Hall is beginning his seventh year in the House. He is the first person to become speaker with more than two terms of prior experience since the late former Speaker Curtis Hertel Sr. in the 1997-98 term, the last term before the 1992 term limits law took effect. The 2022 term limits change enables members to stay in the House for up to 12 years instead of the old limit of three two-year terms.

“We’re on top of the seniority, but there are a lot of great people that served with us here over the years. I invited many of them back,” he said. “It just meant so much to me, going through this with all of you, because we built this together.”

The House also adopted HR 1 approving House Rules, HR 2 electing Rep. Rachelle Smit (R-Shelbyville) as speaker pro tempore. The House also elected Scott Starr as the new House clerk under HR 3. Starr was the assistant clerk in the 2023-24 term and had trained under former Clerk Gary Randall during the 2021-22 term. Rich Brown, the House clerk in the 2023-24 term, will move to assistant clerk. He held that role from 2011-22.

Following additional procedural resolutions, the House adjourned for the day. It will reconvene for the first full day of session on Thursday at noon.

In a wide-ranging roundtable discussion with reporters on Thursday, Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland) discussed the term ahead, laying out some of his priorities and his vision to restore the reputation of the House.

“I’m not going to play it safe the next two years,” Hall said. “We’re going to go, and we’re going to be aggressive and bold, and we’re going to do the things we told the people of Michigan we’re going to do.”

Among his priorities, Hall said he wanted to fix the state’s roads, bridges and sewer infrastructure, the state’s water infrastructure, deliver on the Public Safety Trust Fund, and lower the state’s income tax.

If a roads deal is going to happen, Hall said it would likely need to be in place by the time the Legislature is ready to pass the budget in June.

“It’s connected, right? Since I’m proposing that we use a lot of the General Fund that’s not allocated to roads, they probably work together,” he said. “I do think that if the budget’s done and there isn’t a lot money for roads, then we’ll probably know that we missed our window for a while.”

The budget surplus being forecast by the House Fiscal Agency and Senate Fiscal Agency could be used to go towards roads and potentially lower the income tax, Hall said.

As part of the 2015 road funding package, which included tax and fee increases, Republican legislators included a provision that would reduce the income tax should revenue growth exceed economic growth. In the early 2020s, thanks to the COVID revenue surge, that threshold was hit, and the income tax rate was reduced for 2023 to 4.05%. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer‘s administration determined that the language meant the decline was for one year only and raised the rate back to 4.25% for 2024.

“I want to fix our roads, our bridges, our sewer infrastructure, our water infrastructure. We want to do a Public Safety Trust Fund, and hopefully we can still find so room to reverse the Democrat income tax hike,” he said. “That’s going to be a tall order.”

Transparency is another priority for Hall, who cited his oversight committees (See Gongwer Michigan Report, Jan. 7, 2025) and his desire to create a cooling off period for lawmakers before they become lobbyists.

Hall also said that the House rule requiring sponsors for enhancement grants was another measure to increase transparency and that he hopes to end the Legislature’s dependence on conference committees and the lame duck period to run bills through both chambers.

“I don’t think this lame duck period should be a period where you just ram through unpopular votes without committee hearings in the middle of the night after an election,” he said. “As speaker, I would wield that power appropriately, but if we do this overtime and look at what’s the best thing for the institution, what’s the best thing for the people of Michigan – it’s a requirement that a two-thirds vote is required in lame duck.”

Hall said that people shouldn’t expect fast action from him on changes that would make the governor’s office and the Legislature subject to Freedom of Information Act requests.

“For 10 years, these guys have come up with the sales pitch to you in the media that they’re going to do this, and you guys have bought it,” he said. “Don’t get your hopes up … I just told you some transparency things that I’m really passionate about. The difference between me and the rest of these people? I’m actually going to do these things.”

Hall said he expected that the House oversight committees would be very busy throughout the term.

“As we move forward … you saw we had a lot of work on the rule with our legal team to make sure we had really good rules, and we’re going to look very carefully,” he said. “We’re going to need lawyers for subpoenas, and it’s going to be a lot of legal work.”

Former Rep. Andrew Fink is serving as House Republicans general legal counsel.

Hall went on to discuss his working relationships with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) and his desire to restore respect to the House.

“Governor Whitmer is very talented,” he said. “I respect, and I think what my job as speaker is, is for her to start respecting the House again, because this body was basically an extension of her office for the last two years.”

The next two years will likely be both combative and productive, Hall said.

“We’re going to get a lot done,” he said. “If I were Brinks, if I were Whitmer, if I were any of these people, I would prefer someone as the leader of the House who’s a different party if that person could make deals, follow through on those deals, and also set their priorities and make those clear to someone of my own party who led me along.”

Hall said he was done wasting time in the House.

“Nobody here wants to have their time wasted,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do.”

House Republicans established a select committee to hold hearings on HB 4001, which would preserve tipped wage, and HB 4002, which would amend the Earned Sick Time Act.

The committee will be chaired by Rep. Bill Schuette (R-Midland).

“We look at our small businesses, they’re facing a looming cliff,” Schuette said. “The House Republican Caucus is recognizing the seriousness of this issue. That’s why our first two bills were to be addressing this, and that’s why our very first committee action is going to be making sure that … we’re protecting small businesses.”

The Select Committee on Protecting Michigan Employees and Small Businesses will be composed of nine Republicans and six Democrats.

Schuette will be joined by Rep. Ken Borton (R-Gaylord), Rep. Pauline Wendzel (R-Watervliet), Rep. Matthew Bierlein (R-Vassar), Rep. Angela Rigas (R-Caledonia), Rep. Kathy Schmaltz (R-Jackson), Rep. Jamie Thompson (R-Brownstown Township), Rep. Parker Fairbairn (R-Harbor Springs), Rep. Ron Robinson (R-Utica), Rep. Peter Herzberg (D-Westland), Rep. Tyrone Carter (D-Detroit), Rep. Karen Whitsett (D-Detroit), Rep. Angela Witwer (D-Delta Township), Rep. Will Synder (D-Muskegon), and Rep. Matt Longjohn (D-Portage).

“I’m looking forward to robust committee hearings next week,” Schuette said. “I want to make sure that we allow time for testimony, allow the committees to be heard and make sure we get it right.”

Rep. Karen Whitsett (D-Detroit), one of the Democratic members of the committee, said she was excited to discuss the issues.

Whitsett was the lone Democrat to leave session at the end of last term. Her absence, combined with the absence of House Republicans who left the chamber over tipped wage and paid sick leave, deprived House Democrats of a quorum to take any action. Whitsett also advocated for the House to take up the policies.

“People who this affects need to be able to come in and tell their story,” she said. “I’m not going to play with people’s lives.”

Whitsett said she wasn’t coming in with any preconceived notions about the legislation and just wanted the committee process to play out.

“I want to have an open mindset to be able to hear both sides,” she said.

Schuette said he expected people from larger metropolitan areas and more rural areas would be represented in the committee proceedings.

“This is an issue that’s not just facing one select part of the state,” he said.

Senate Democrats introduced bills yesterday related to the policies, SB 8 and SB 15 (See Gongwer Michigan Report, Jan. 8, 2025).

House Republicans said that although they felt the Senate needed to negotiate with them to get to something closer to the House’s legislation, they were optimistic that a deal could be reached.

“Look where we are,” Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland) said during a roundtable discussion with reporters (See separate story). “Their plan a few days about was ‘Pound sand. We’re just going to get things go into effect.’ Now, they have a plan.”

The goal is to act quickly on the legislation, while still allowing it to go through the full committee process, Hall said.

“When you have committee hearings, you learn things and you say, ‘Oh, we’ve got to make some adjustments,’ and that’s what’s going to happen,” he said. “We’ll get a bill through the House in the next few weeks, hopefully when the committee sends it to us, and we’ll be able to negotiate with the Senate.”

The select committee is the only committee created so far by House Republicans. Committee assignments for the term are still being determined.

As the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative enters its 15th year in operation, members of Michigan’s Congressional delegation are spearheading the effort to renew the program for the next five fiscal years and raise its authorization level to $500 million.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) and U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Zeeland), who co-chair the U.S. House Great Lakes Task Force, introduced a bill to extend the initiative’s lifespan and lock down what environmental groups say is critical funding for continued cleanup and preservation efforts in the region.

The bill is cosponsored by nearly all of Michigan’s members of Congress: U.S. Rep. John James (R-Shelby Township), U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Watersmeet), U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit), U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Detroit), U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Caledonia), U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-Grand Rapids), U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Tipton), and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham) all signed on.

They’re joined by a bipartisan slate of representatives from Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New York, Indiana, Illinois, and Minnesota. Dingell emphasized the nonpartisan nature of Great Lakes protection in a Thursday statement.

“The Great Lakes are not only an important natural resource but a critical economic driver that supports communities, jobs, commerce, agriculture, transportation, and tourism for millions of people across the country,” she said. “Since it was established, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has been an environmental and economic success, and is fundamental to protecting, restoring, and maintaining the Great Lakes ecosystem and economy. I’m proud to join my colleagues to fight for robust, bipartisan support and funding for the GLRI to ensure we can protect the Great Lakes, their wildlife, and the communities that depend on them for generations to come.”

Huizenga cited studies from Michigan universities linking the health of the Great Lakes with the economic prosperity of their border states as reason to further support reauthorizing the initiative.

“Studies from both Grand Valley State University and the University of Michigan show how the economic health of the Great Lakes is directly tied to their ecological well-being,” Huizenga said in a statement. “In fact, according to the University of Michigan, for every $1 invested in the Great Lakes through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, $3.35 of economic output is produced. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is the leading federal program designed to clean up legacy pollution, restore habitats, and combat invasive species across the basin.”

Proponents of the initiative noted its efficiency in cleaning up areas of concern in the lakes. Michigan League of Conservation Voters federal government affairs director Bentley Johnson said the initiative’s popularity and effectiveness compared to other major environmental policies of the same period is remarkable.

“The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is the most effective and most popular program for the Great Lakes, period, and possibly one of the most, if not the most popular and effective government program,” Johnson said. “And it started in 2010, so it hasn’t been around all that long, and its results have been incredible.”

Johnson said the proposed funding increase to $500 million from the current $475 million will help future-proof the initiative from losing necessary resources.

“$500 million annually is really important to have, because it just locks in the fact that this is a program that will be around a while. There’s certainty,” he said. “It sends a strong signal to (current and future) legislators that it is the will of previous congresses that it should have robust funding to continue to support those restoration actions across the eight Great Lakes states.”

The Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy echoed Dingell and Huizenga’s statements, calling the program a “valuable resource to address complex, legacy contaminants in the Great Lakes.”

“Since 2010, GLRI has accelerated cleanup of the most polluted Great Lake sites, reduced phosphorous loadings that often cause harmful algal blooms, and helped keep invasive species out of the Great Lakes,” EGLE spokesperson Hugh McDiarmid said in a statement. “Significant work still remains, including at many contaminated sites in Michigan. EGLE supports continuation of a robust and effective GLRI.”

As for the bill’s future during a tumultuous time of transition in the federal government and facing President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration, which has branded itself around cutting government spending and eliminating programming it deems wasteful, Johnson said he’s cautiously optimistic about the initiative being reauthorized.

“We’re not going to take anything for granted. In Trump’s first term, on his first budget, he nearly zeroed out the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, and very quickly, elected officials and people (from Michigan) made it very clear to President Trump and to folks in the administration that that’s a political third rail, and this is super popular,” he said. “It deserves funding. And it was restored, and the funding was maintained at healthy levels throughout (the rest of Trump’s presidency). But that’s not a given, and we know that this administration is focused on deep spending cuts to pay for different priorities, but we feel like we have a really strong position to make the case that this program should be funded, and this reauthorization should go through.”

The fate of nine significant bills from the previous term was thrown into doubt Thursday when House Speaker Matt Hall declared the House would not formally present them to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for her signature while a legal review of them takes place.

The situation was first reported by Gongwer News Service.

Hall (R-Richland) wants the review to examine whether and when the House must send them.

The bills are some of the most controversial pieces of legislation passed during the Senate’s marathon session that took place December 19-20, probably most significantly HB 6058 of 2024, which requires public employers to pay a larger share of the health insurance premium for public employees.

“When I leave the office of Speaker someday, I’m going to make sure that every bill that is passed under my speakership is going to get presented to the governor before I leave,” Hall said. “I stopped. I said we need a legal review. We need to look at all the legal ramifications, and then we’ll make a decision after that.”

The bills have technical errors in the legal language, a source with knowledge of the situation said, speaking on background. Among the problems are errors related to tie bars.

House Democratic leadership rushed the bills out of the chamber, the source said, which was the root of the mistakes, and with the Senate unable to amend them before returning them to the House prior to the end of the term, the errors went unaddressed. The House could not conduct business for lack of a quorum. Had the Senate amended the House bills, they would have remained stuck in the House for lack of a concurrence vote on those changes.

Attorneys are currently reviewing the legislation as well as the requirements for presenting bills passed by both chambers to the governor after the start of a new term.

The goal of the legal review is to ensure that the bills are handled correctly and in a transparent manner, a source speaking on background said.

The House presented 100 bills to Whitmer on Wednesday, but a Gongwer News Service analysis of the bills returned from the Senate to the House and ordered enrolled shows that nine were not among those presented to the governor.

Besides the bill on health insurance premiums for public employees, the bills include three bills that would allow Detroit history museums to seek a property tax millage from Wayne County voters (HB 4177 of 2023, HB 5817 of 2024, HB 5818 of 2024); bills that would put corrections officers into the State Police pension system (HB 4665 of 2023, HB 4666 of 2023, HB 4667 of 2023) and exempting public assistance, disability and worker’s compensation from garnishment to repay debts (HB 4900 of 2024, HB 4901 of 2024).

These bills passed the House and Senate on party-line or near party-line votes.

Article IV, Section 33 of the Michigan Constitution says, “Every bill passed by the legislature shall be presented to the governor before it becomes law, and the governor shall have 14 days measured in hours and minutes from the time of presentation in which to consider it.”

But there is nothing in the Constitution, statute or the Joint Rules of the Legislature stating when a legislative house must present the bill.

The current question is how “shall” should be interpreted legally in the current circumstances.

Usually, bills are presented one to two weeks after final passage. Sometimes, they are rushed to the governor in a day or two or even an hour. Other times, bills have been held in a legislative house for months for tactical reasons before getting presented.

A message left with Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s press office was not returned Thursday.

House Democratic Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton) said his caucus was engaging in every possible option to get the bills to the governor’s desk.

“Our chamber voted in support of legislation to improve health care access, retirement security and financial protections. I am extremely disappointed to see bills that would make such a positive impact on the lives of families and workers be sued as a political pawn by House Republicans,” he said. “House Democrats will do everything we can to get bills to the governor’s desk to support labor policies that build up the working class and Michigan families.”

Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) took a shot at Hall in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.

“A self-proclaimed “constitutional lawyer” should be able to understand a very simple sentence in the Constitution that says bills shall be presented to the Governor.” Brinks wrote.

The remark was a reference to Hall being a self-employed constitutional law attorney since 2018.

Hall responded to Brinks’ comments during a roundtable with reporters on Thursday, saying there is no clear legal timeline of when the bills “shall” be presented.

“You can hold these things a long time,” he said. “I wanted to do a legal review, and we’re going to do a very thorough legal review to look at these bills,” Hall said. “We just want to get this right, and I would hope that Leader Brinks would respect that.”

Rep. Mai Xiong (D-Warren), sponsor of HB 6058 of 2024, said while it may seem like a complicated and unprecedented situation with the bills rolling over into the next session before being presented, the process is still straightforward.

“There is a process … for how a bill becomes law,” Xiong said. “The process has been completed in both chambers and now the clerk has to present the bills.”

Xiong said she is confident the bills will be presented to the governor and signed into law.

“This legislation is very important and it’s going to impact a lot of state employees,” Xiong said.

There is no recent precedent for a legislative house to wait on presenting bills beyond the start of the next Legislature, which took place at noon Wednesday. House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland) and Starr were formally elected to their roles at 12:25 p.m. and 12:35 p.m., respectively, finalizing the transfer of power from Democrats in the prior term to Republicans in this one.

At the end of the 2007-08 term, the Senate ordered a bill enrolled on Dec. 19, 2008. But it was not presented to then-Governor Jennifer Granholm until Jan. 7, 2009. Granholm signed the bill on Jan. 16. But Jan. 7 was before the next Legislature convened on Jan. 14, 2009. And there were no real stakes. The House remained under Democratic control as the new term began with the same speaker and same clerk, and it was halfway through the Senate term with Republican control still in place.

The closest parallel to what is occurring appears to have taken place at the end of the 1981-82 session. Jim Blanchard had won the election in November 1982 to succeed retiring Gov. William Milliken and was set to take office at noon Jan. 1, 1983.

The Senate waited to present four bills, including a pair transferring control of the state library from the Department of Education to the Legislature, until Jan. 4, 1983, three days after Blanchard took office. Milliken had declared his opposition to transferring the library, so then-Senate Majority Leader William Faust waited to have the Senate present the bills. Blanchard signed all four bills on Jan. 17.

The difference, however, is the new Legislature did not convene until Jan. 12, 1983, that year. And the intent was to present the bills, not withhold them indefinitely. But it still underscores the gray area that exists regarding when a house of the Legislature actually transmits a bill to the governor.