Michigan House kills hundreds of bills. See what died on final day of Dem control

• Michigan House abruptly adjourned for the year Thursday, stopping hundreds of Senate-passed bills from becoming law
• Government transparency, gun and police reforms, polluter pay and more among the casualties
• Adjournment capped off weeks of dysfunction in the House, where attendance issues prevented meaningful lame duck activity

LANSING — A Democratic governing trifecta that began with a roar ended with a whimper Thursday at the Michigan Capitol, where House leaders abruptly adjourned their last scheduled session day of the year without any votes.

"Everything that was on the agenda today in the House is dead, and the 55 members that did not attend should feel free to own that,” House Speaker Pro Tem Laurie Pohutsky, D-Livonia, told reporters as she fought back tears. 

The spectacular crash, which capped days of dysfunction, came about an hour after House Speaker Joe Tate, D-Detroit, had resorted to an extreme measure: A “call of the House” directing sergeants to force absent lawmakers to return.

Tate ultimately chose to adjourn rather than force holdouts back to the House, where Republicans had walked out last week in protest, and Democratic state Rep. Karen Whitsett had followed suit. 

The House will technically reconvene on Dec. 31 — but only to officially call it a year. The Senate is still passing bills and tentatively set to meet Monday.

Related:

• Michigan lame-duck Legislature updates
• Dems go it alone in Michigan House, where chaotic meeting ends in lame-duck limbo
• Republicans walk out of Michigan House, demand action on tipped wage and sick leave laws

The implosion means lawmakers will not modify pending changes to minimum wage and sick leave laws as Republicans hoped, and they will not finalize a long-term road funding deal that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had sought.

Instead, the surprise adjournment effectively kills any proposal approved by the Democratic-led Senate but not yet voted on by the House, where Republicans will take over next year after flipping multiple seats in the fall elections. That includes more than 250 bills the Senate passed this year alone. 

“I am deeply disappointed that the House of Representatives called it quits while so many great pieces of legislation were ready for the green light," Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, said in a statement. 

"Legislators are tasked with the responsibility of using every tool available to advocate for their constituents and communities, and ‘frustrated’ is too light of a word to describe my dismay that the House failed to meet its obligations in this historic moment."

Among the Senate-approved bills that died when the House adjourned:

Government transparency

Lawmakers had been closer than ever before to opening up the governor’s office and Legislature to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. 

Michigan is one of only two states to fully exempt both the executive and lawmakers from public records laws. Though measures to change that statistic have seen wide bipartisan support, efforts to subject state officials to the law have come up short several sessions in a row. 

The latest legislation — which would allow citizens to request emails and other records from the governor and lawmakers after Jan. 1, 2027 — passed the Senate in June and had been awaiting action in the House.

A House panel advanced the legislation on Dec. 11, but the package did not come up for a full floor vote before lawmakers adjourned Thursday. 

Gun reforms

In 2023, the Democratic-led Legislature approved several gun reforms that became law, including “red flag” rules that allow guns to be confiscated from individuals under court order, universal background checks and requirements for the safe storage of firearms in the home.

Some Democrats were hoping to do more, teeing up legislation to crack down on “ghost guns,” which lack a serial number so are effectively untraceable if used to commit a crime, and bump stocks, which increase a gun’s firing rate. 

The Senate had also approved legislation codifying a ban on firearms in the Michigan Capitol building. Political appointees on the Michigan State Capitol Commission already did so in 2023, but Democratic lawmakers argued making the rule state law would carry additional weight. 

Polluter pay

Senate Democrats had hoped to hold industrial polluters more accountable for cleaning up contamination, pushing for more transparency from companies responsible for pollution, stronger regulatory oversight over cleanups, and more funds to address a growing backlog of contaminated sites yet to be remediated.

Supporters of change had argued that Michigan’s industrial pollution laws, which went from some of the toughest in the nation to the most lenient over a five-year span, needed revisiting. But critics were wary of big changes, fearing the threat of liability for cleaning up decades-old pollution they didn’t cause. 

Incentive overhaul

A plan to rewrite the state’s signature business incentive program and create tax breaks to encourage innovation and higher-wage job creation passed the Senate in March, but House Democrats never voted on the proposal amid concerns from some progressives, who likened it to corporate welfare. 

Lawmakers also did not approve any additional funding for the existing program, the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve (SOAR) fund, whose future appears to be in limbo. Whitmer, who has championed the incentive program, had called economic development her top priority in the lame-duck session.  

Police reforms

Senate Democrats had aimed to finalize a sweeping police reform plan that would have restricted no-knock search warrants, required law enforcement agencies to provide mental health training, develop guidelines around use of force and required checks on whether prospective police officers had previously been fired for misconduct. 

Tampering with police body cameras also would have become a felony crime under the plan. 

The measures had seen resistance from Republicans and law enforcement groups, though supporters had argued such reforms could save lives and strengthen public safety standards. 

Sex assault statute of limitations

A plan that would have given sexual assault survivors more time to sue and capped damages at $1.5 million per incident also failed to see a House vote despite bipartisan support in the Senate.

The effort initially gained traction after former Michigan State University doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to decades in state and federal prison for sexually assaulting women and children under the guise of medical treatment and storing explicit images on his computer. 

Other sexual abuse investigations involving the late University of Michigan physician Robert Anderson, members of the Catholic Church and Boy Scouts of America prompted additional calls for change.

Had the Senate-passed legislation become law, it would have also eliminated governmental immunity for universities and K-12 schools if the entity had knowledge of abuse and failed to properly intervene. 

Election, charter school reforms and more

The House also failed to act on scores of other Senate-approved bills, including:

• Election misinformation: Bill to create fines for " intentionally and knowingly making false statements” about an election with the intent to "impede" voting
• Digital licenses: Plan to authorize digital driver's licenses and IDs that residents could store on their cell phones
• Charter school reforms: Bills to put restrictions on taxpayer money to buy and lease private property and require more financial transparency for charter schools
• Voting Rights Act: Bills to broadly prevent voter suppression, requiring ballots in more languages and protections for voters who need help casting a ballot
• Petition drive reforms: Bills to revamp regulations for how signatures are gathered and verified on petitions to get statewide candidates and issues on the ballot
• Obamacare exchange: Plan to establish a state-based health insurance exchange — replacing current federal version — under the Affordable Care Act
• Momnibus: Package aims to improve maternal healthcare services in Michigan, including studies on "obstetric racism" and policies to ensure doula access to labor.