Tag: Michigan Senate

Michigan Senate OKs Financial Disclosure

The Center Square

The Michigan Senate passed financial disclosure bills voters approved in November 2022 through Proposal 1 to expose conflicts of interest but one lawmaker says the rules are all “smoke and mirrors.”

Senate Bills 613, 614, 615, and 616 aim to require lawmakers and candidates for public office to disclose assets and income above certain thresholds. The bills seek to require candidates and officeholders to disclose their spouse’s employment, including their status as a registered lobbyist.

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Multiple Voting Access Bills Move to Michigan Senate

The Center Square

Four bills aimed at voting that passed the Michigan House continues to get pushback from Republicans who say they will corrupt the state’s election system.

The bills, introduced earlier this week, are aimed at military voting, voter ID, voter transportation and online absentee ballot access. Rep. Josh Schriver, R-Oxford, took to social media to voice his opposition to each of them.

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Michigan Senators Take Steps Toward Gas-Tax Vacation

The Center Square

As residents of the Great Lakes State and out-of-state tourists prepare to inaugurate the 2022 outdoor vacation season, they’re being stymied by gasoline prices rising steadily toward the $5 per gallon range.

The Michigan Senate has passed a slate of bills designed to alleviate drivers’ pain at the pump. If signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the bills would save Michigan drivers between 40 cents to 50 cents a gallon by temporarily eliminating the state’s 6% sales tax and 27-cent-per-gallon excise tax.

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Michigan State Senators Introduce Bill to Create Exemptions to College Vaccine Mandates

Bradley Vasoli

State Senators Kim LaSata (R-MI-Coloma) and Jim Runestad (R-MI-White Lake) introduced legislation on Wednesday that would allow students in Michigan’s colleges and universities the right to opt out of vaccine mandates imposed by those institutions.

The bill would create a range of medical and non-medical exceptions to requirements for students at any higher-education institution in Michigan to get any kind of vaccine.

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Michigan Senate Approves Petition to Revoke Whitmer’s Pandemic Powers

The Center Square
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer

The GOP-led Michigan Senate approved the Unlock Michigan campaign on a 20-15 vote, likely ending the 1945 law employed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to exercise pandemic powers for the past 16 months.

Democrats and Republicans exchanged heated remarks over COVID-19 policy. 

“This petition will hamstring our leaders of both parties — from preventing or slowing the spread of a deadly disease. This is about our ability to react to other pandemics and disasters in the future,” Sen. Rosemary Bayer, D-Beverly Hills, said pre-vote.

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Michigan Senate Report Concludes Mailing of Unsolicited Ballot Applications Poses Risk of Fraud

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Republican lawmakers in Michigan released a report Wednesday concluding there was no widespread fraud in the state’s November election, debunking many speculations, but they pointedly warned that the mailing of unsolicited absentee ballot applications creates “a clear vulnerability for fraud that may be undetected.”

“The serious, potential outcomes of these vulnerabilities versus the minor effort to request an application make a strong and compelling necessity to not provide such applications without a request from a voter – as was standard practice until this past year,” the Michigan Senate Oversight Committee concluded. “Therefore, the committee recommends the Michigan secretary of state discontinue the practice of mailing out unsolicited applications.”

The committee also recommended that the state strengthen voter ID requirements, not weaken them like Democrats in Congress have proposed, as the practice of absentee or not-in-person voting grows.

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Michigan Senate Passes $4.38 Billion Federally Funded School Aid Fund Bill

The Center Square

The Michigan State Senate passed a School Aid Funding supplemental appropriations bill.

The entire $4.38 billion sum approved by the Senate on Tuesday afternoon is derived from federal funding, which includes $700 million of COVID-19 relief money approved last year during the administration of Donald Trump and another $3.66 billion from the American Rescue Plan signed by President Joe Biden in March.

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Michigan Legislative Oversight Committees Assume Subpoena Authority in Election Investigations

The Center Square

The Michigan House and Senate Oversight Committees are assuming authority to issue subpoenas, administer oaths and examine books and records related to the 2020 election.

The committees immediately proceeded to issue subpoenas to election clerks in Detroit and Livonia. Detroit Clerk Janice Winfrey and Livonia Clerk Susan Nash have until the end of business on Jan. 12 to turn over documents pertaining to their respective elections.

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Michigan Senate Passes Bill Aiming to Limit Epidemic Orders to 28 Days Without Additional Approval

The Center Square

The Michigan Senate on Thursday night approved a bill 22-16 along party lines that aims to limit the state health department’s epidemic order power.

SB 1253, if signed into law, would amend the Public Health Code so Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Director Robert Gordon’s epidemic orders would be only valid for up to 28 days unless both houses of the Legislature approves Gordon’ extension request.

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Senate Approves Measure to Protect Electronic Data from Unreasonable Search and Seizure

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 The Michigan Senate unanimously approved a measure that aims to require a warrant for search and seizure of electronic documents.

The federal and state Constitution protects against unreasonable search and seizure of people’s “houses, papers, and effects” without a warrant, but Senate Joint Resolution G clarifies that electronic data and communication fall under those protected items.

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