LANSING — On the first day of another Michigan legislative session Wednesday, newly elected House Speaker Matt Hall’s voice quaked as he stood on the rostrum holding the gavel and celebrating GOP victories last fall that flipped the chamber he now leads from Democratic control.
The Richland Township Republican said GOP lawmakers defied expectations last November. “And it was hard, and if you think about it, it was a pretty broken party when we started, and not a lot of people thought we could win. And so we had to go and work really hard to do it. And so I just want to tell everyone here that was part of that, that we did it,” he said, prompting loud applause from his side of the chamber.
When state lawmakers kicked off the first day of the 103rd Michigan Legislature Wednesday, they ushered in a new era of divided government. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer still has two more years in office, and Democrats still control the Michigan Senate. But GOP control now of the state House means any bills that land on Whitmer’s desk must have at least some Republican support.
Wednesday’s session day in the House began with an invocation from President-elect Donald Trump ally Detroit pastor Lorenzo Sewell calling for unity before a crowd of lawmakers and their guests bowing their heads in prayer. It ended with speeches from the Senate leaders on the other side of the Capitol rotunda vowing to work together.
“I have every expectation that together with Gov. Whitmer, we will be able to accomplish great things for our state,” Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, said.
With their first policy moves, lawmakers set the table to preempt court-ordered changes to Michigan’s minimum wage law with a debate over whether to leave intact a schedule that would eventually eliminate the lower pay rate for restaurant servers and bartenders.
House Republicans picked up where they left off at the end of last year, reiterating their demands to stop pending changes to Michigan’s minimum wage and paid sick leave laws made by the Michigan Supreme Court set to take effect in February.
The court ruled last summer that Republicans in 2018 acted illegally when they adopted policy proposals introduced by voters — preventing a statewide vote on them — and then watered down the minimum wage and sick leave laws later that year. House GOP lawmakers boycotted the end of the Democratic-led lame-duck session last year in an effort to force a vote on minimum wage and paid sick leave legislation.
Some Democrats have expressed openness to changes on the minimum wage and paid sick leave, but it remains unclear whether lawmakers can reach a bipartisan agreement. Democrats introduced related bills in the Senate.
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The first bills introduced in the state Senate seek to end Michigan’s status as a national outlier when it comes to government transparency. The legislation would expand the state’s Freedom of Information Act to subject the governor’s office and state Legislature to public records requests, bringing Michigan in line with most states. The proposal isn’t new. For years, bipartisan bills have sought the change. The Senate voted on similar bills last session. But they never came up in the House for a vote when they died along with many other policies that became lame-duck casualties amid the attendance issues that plagued the House in the final days of Democratic control.
But before lawmakers could start voting on policy, the House had to adopt rules for the legislative session. New ones crafted by House Republicans dramatically expand the power of the House Oversight Committee by giving it new subpoena power and signaling a potential escalation in oversight initiatives targeting Whitmer’s administration.
“I’m certainly not ok with that,” Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri, D-Canton, told reporters when asked about the new subpoena power. “I obviously understand the need for accountability and transparency in government but creating artificial witch hunts and politicizing the committee structure is not the way to get it done.”
Hall seemed to preempt the allegations of political gamesmanship in his speech to lawmakers expressing his hope that Michigan would not become a microcosm of national politics. “You know, we’ve been able to keep all that Washington, D.C. stuff out of here,” he said.
Contact Clara Hendrickson at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: GOP takes control of Michigan House at start of new session