Transparency time? Michigan House plans oversight, Senate pushes public records

• House Republicans expand oversight committee with subpoena power to watchdog Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration
• New Michigan House rules also require lawmakers to disclose earmarks they sponsor before budget votes
• House leader has not publicly committed to vote on bills to expand Michigan Freedom of Information Act

LANSING — House Republicans wasted no time Wednesday in adopting rules that give sweeping powers to an expanded oversight committee to watchdog Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's administration and other top Democratic officials. 

The rules mark the start of what Republicans say will be a renewed push for transparency, centered on scrutinizing economic development deals and what they call government overreach under Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. 

Notably absent from the conversation so far, however, is whether House Republicans will take up long-sought after government transparency legislation that would open both the Legislature and governor’s office to public records requests. 

The Democratic-led Senate last year approved a plan to expand the Freedom of Information Act, and lawmakers reintroduced those bills Wednesday, making clear they are a priority. The first bills introduced in the House under new Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, would amend Michigan’s pending minimum wage, tipped wage and sick leave laws.

Under the new House rules, a revamped Oversight Committee will have the power to administer oaths, issue subpoenas and review a corporation’s financial documents when it convenes later this year. 

Rep. Bill G. Schuette, R-Midland, told Bridge in a statement that the new committee structure “will provide a framework and structure to give Michiganders the accountable government they deserve.”

“It is past time for the legislature to carry out its duties of oversight, ensuring that the executive branch and bureaucrats are held accountable to the people of Michigan,” Schuette added. 

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The House changes come as lawmakers returned to Lansing for the first time this year to kick off a divided legislative term. Republicans, who flipped the chamber in November to win a 58-52 majority, formally chose Hall to serve as Speaker of the House for the 103rd Legislature.

Democrats remain in control of the state Senate under Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids. 

Hall, in a brief floor speech, thanked his parents, wife, mentors and caucus for their continued support throughout his career. He did not take questions following session.

The unprecedented move to give the Oversight Committee subpoena power and create related subcommittees was first reported Tuesday by the conservative news outlet The Midwesterner.

Those six subcommittees include: 

• Child Welfare System
• Corporate Subsidies and State Investments
• Homeland Security and Foreign Influence
• Public Health and Food Security
• State and Local Public Assistance Programs
• Weaponization of State Government

Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Township, applauded the House oversight push on social media, citing the Whitmer administration’s  efforts to lease state forestland for solar panels, "unanswered questions" about nursing home deaths during COVID-19 and corporate subsidies awarded to companies with ties to China. 

"If ever there was a time for 'unprecedented' oversight, this is it," he wrote.

Whitmer’s office deferred comment to the Michigan Democratic Party.

“Matt Hall has a lengthy record of weaponizing the government to launch unserious partisan antics,” MDP Chair Lavora Barnes said in a statement, adding that Hall “should spend less time wasting taxpayer dollars again and join Democrats to vote for tax cuts and lowering costs for Michiganders.”

Earmark disclosure

For the first time, the new House rules will also require lawmakers to disclose any earmarks they are sponsoring in budget bills, along with the intended recipient and purpose, before a vote by the full House.  

Michigan lawmakers — Democrats and Republicans alike — have loaded recent state budgets with billions of dollars in "enhancement grants" to support pet projects in their districts. 

Some have proven controversial, including a $25 million earmark for a Clare health complex that was added by former House Speaker Jason Wentworth, R-Farwell, and currently remains under investigation by Nessel. 

Democrats in 2023 began requiring lawmakers to disclose which earmarks they sponsored — but not until months after they were voted on and approved. 

Hall, who did not speak to reporters on Wednesday, previously told Bridge he'd like to "prohibit" such projects from going into the budget, or at least require lawmakers to attach their names to the earmarks from the start, so it is clear who is requesting the funding. 

Another try at public records reform

The state Senate on Wednesday reintroduced a Freedom of Information Act expansion plan that would subject the governor’s office and Legislature to public records requests. Michigan is currently one of two states that fully exempts both. 

The legislation passed the upper chamber last term with wide bipartisan support but died in the House following a chaotic lame duck session that ended abruptly without votes on hundreds of Senate-approved bills. 

In previous sessions, a Republican-led House had passed similar FOIA expansion efforts unanimously. Hall voted for a prior iteration but a spokesperson this week declined to say whether he would back the Senate plan, as approved last week. 

Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, on Wednesday referred the reintroduced legislation to the full Senate, queuing up a potentially swift vote this month.

"We have proven, and let's continue to prove, that Michiganders can count on us to do solid, good work for the people of Michigan," Brinks said in a floor speech shortly after bill introductions.

While Hall made no mention of the policy proposal in his floor remarks, there are House Republicans who remain committed to public records request reforms, such as Rep. Mike Harris, R-Waterford Township, who told Bridge he would “love to see” a vote on the legislation this term. 

Nessel, a longtime supporter of government ethics and transparency reform, told reporters earlier this week that she doesn’t see why the public records legislation can’t reach Whitmer’s desk this year. 

“We don’t know what would have happened had the House met — perhaps they would have passed it,” the attorney said. “Can it be done if both chambers take a serious look at it? I hope so. I hope that’s not off the table.” 

Time for a ballot proposal?

But when it comes to addressing other ethics proposals that failed to advance last term — including additional disclosures from lawmaker-affiliated nonprofits, a temporary ban on former lawmakers becoming lobbyists and stricter rules about gifts and event tickets given to public officials — Nessel said a ballot initiative might be more effective than convincing lawmakers to place restrictions on themselves. 

“Once you have given somebody the right to take an unlimited amount of dark money and spend it in a way where nobody’s really sure how that money is being spent…they don’t want that taken away from them,” she told reporters.

Ballot initiatives as legislative workarounds on transparency issues have been attempted before, with varying levels of success. 

A majority of voters approved 2022’s Proposal 1, which required lawmakers and candidates to file financial disclosures in addition to changing the state’s term limit laws. 

Proponents argued that requiring such disclosures can help the public identify possible conflicts of interests if lawmakers are voting on bills they could personally benefit from.

But Nessel, Benson and other government transparency experts were critical of how the Legislature put financial disclosure into practice, arguing that broad exemptions for spousal income and travel paid for by nonprofits effectively negated the purpose of the law. 

Progress Michigan, a progressive group that’s long called for government ethics reform, in 2021 unsuccessfully tried to get FOIA expansion and stricter lobbying rules on the ballot.

There are no concrete plans to revive that effort for 2026, but it’s an option Progress Michigan and other transparency advocates haven’t fully ruled out, the group’s executive director, Sam Inglot, told Bridge. 

A legislative fix would be the ideal solution, Inglot said, but he noted lawmakers appear less enthusiastic about holding themselves more accountable than the general public. 

“I'm pretty confident that if you were to put campaign finance reform, ethics reform and transparency reform on the ballot for the people of Michigan to vote on, that is something that they would jump at the opportunity to be able to say yes to,” Inglot said.