Majority Senate Democrats had a choice when their House counterparts fell apart Thursday and gave up on the term amid internal dysfunction and Republican walkout: Give those House Democrats the finger by refusing to pass their bills and go home, too, or swallow hard and go to the opposite extreme: passing every damn bill they could.
They chose the latter.
After gaveling in at 10 a.m. Thursday and wrapping up at 3:01 p.m. Friday, with a 45-minute adjournment from 11:45 p.m. Thursday to 12:30 a.m. Friday, the session surpassed the legendary 26-hour session on December 23-24, 1993, that led to Proposal A of 1994. From a technical length standpoint, it was 15 minutes shorter than the September 30-October 1, 2007, budget shutdown sessions. However, while session gaveled in at 12:01 a.m. September 30, members eventually recessed for most of the morning to sleep and were not in the Capitol again until the afternoon.
Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) and her 19 Democratic colleagues combed all available House-passed bills sitting on the Senate floor and in Senate committees for meaningful legislation that was eligible to pass. They discharged more than 70 bills from committees. In total, it appeared the Senate passed 90 bills, all but two in identical form to how they passed the House, meaning the House will be able to order those 88 bills enrolled for printing and presentation to Governor Gretchen Whitmer for a signing decision.
“MI House Republicans + 1 rogue Dem shut down the MI House, forcing @MISenDems
to carry the load to finish session,” Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) said in a post on X. “They killed many of our Senate bills but we will not let all good policies die. We are passing dozens of
@MIHouseDems bills.”
There were another 26 bills that appeared left behind, advanced to Third Reading but not voted upon, though it could not immediately be confirmed if all 26 bills indeed were denied votes. The Legislature’s website was updating more slowly than usual, likely given the exhausting session.
Minority Republicans played every card they could to slow down the process and force Democrats to choose whether to push through or give up.
With more than 100 bills in the queue, covering several key Democratic priorities that remained on the table, the slow-motion grind continued in the face of growing Republican resistance and efforts to throw wrenches into the proceedings.
And still the Democratic majority trudged on, intent on salvaging what they could of the debacle that played out across the hall this week, killing more than 200 Senate-passed bills.
Republicans began utilizing an array of filibustering tactics to draw out proceedings Thursday afternoon, first being GOP members taking all 60 seconds of the 60-minute shot clock for final votes on bills.
GOP members began lengthening their floor speeches while speaking in opposition to bills they opposed. On at least one occasion, a floor speech surpassed 20 minutes and on others, several members rose to speak on bills, further drawing out debate. Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Township) even made sure to speak on a bill he supported.
Shortly after 4 a.m. Friday, Sen. Dan Lauwers (R-Brockway), the minority floor leader, asked for HB 4173 to be read in its entirety before proceeding with debate, a tactic that can further draw out debate. The five-page bill took about six minutes to read before debate on the bill continued.
About an hour later, in a moment of levity, someone on the floor turned on the “Jeopardy” theme song, played during Final Jeopardy, prior to a vote. The presiding officer gaveled the individual down, saying there is to be no playing of music on the floor, drawing some laughter.
Frustrations began to mount among Republicans, who repeatedly accused the Democrats of ramming through unvetted and partisan policies in the dead of night that they said would have negative fiscal and economic effects on the state and on Michigan families.
Tempers flared briefly around 7 a.m. during one attempt by Republicans to have an 11-page bill, HB 5594 , read in its entirety to slow down proceedings.
After Sen. Sam Singh (D-East Lansing), the majority floor leader, called a point of order and sought to call the previous question, Nesbitt grew angry and walked across the floor and had an animated exchange with Singh while the bill was being read from the rostrum.
Aside from the previous question skirmishes, Democrats seemed content to let Republicans use the procedures available, almost as if to say, “We could do this all day, we’re not going anywhere.” To underscore the message, Singh himself at one point asked for a bill to be read.
Some of the Republican digressions were amusing. Rep. Thomas Albert (R-Lowell) waxed for some time about the millage rates of various cities. Sen. Ed McBroom (R-Vulcan) at one point was reading from statute. Sen. Jonathan Lindsey (R-Coldwater) spoke for 21 minutes on peer-to-peer car rentals. Lindsey also delved into ancient Grecian history before being gaveled down and told to remain on topic on another bill.
Senate Secretary Dan Oberlin and Assistant Secretary Margaret O’Brien took turns giving their vocal cords a workout reciting bill text.
Several groups horrified at all the bills that died in the House praised Senate Democrats as “heroes.” Former Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer called Brinks his Democrat of the year.
“What the Michigan Senate is doing right now is heroic,” said Rep. Laurie Pohutsky (D-Livonia). “There are going to be a lot of retrospectives about this term, but I don’t ever want it to get forgotten that our Senators have been at it for nearly 24 (hours) and working with us for days to make the most of the remaining time.”
Republicans were aghast to see the avalanche of bills discharged from committees with no hearings.
“This legislative session ended just as it started, with the Democrat majority trying to push their far-left agenda and ignoring the working families of the state of Michigan,” Nesbitt said. “Their short-sighted, chaotic antics were a disgraceful last grasp attempt to cling to power as long as possible in a final attempt to raise taxes on hardworking Michiganders, pile debt upon future generations and ram through radical far-left measures that make it more difficult to do business in Michigan and our communities less safe. Tragically, their inability to govern effectively leaves thousands upon thousands of jobs in our hospitality industry at risk, specifically for our tipped workers, because they have refused to work with Republicans on real solutions.”
There was one deviation from the otherwise standard operating procedure of the session of passing House bills with no changes. Any amendments would mean the House would have to concur in the Senate changes for the bill to go to Whitmer, and there’s a seemingly less than zero chance of the House returning with a quorum and in a functional capacity.
The Senate took up HB 4605 and HB 4606 , perhaps the top priority of House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit), to earmark some sales tax revenue and place it in a community violence prevention fund. The House passed those bills 13 months ago, and they have collected dust in the Senate. It was also legislation wanted by Rep. Karen Whitsett (D-Detroit), the Democrat whose decision not to attend session – coupled with the House Republican walkout – left the House without a quorum and nonfunctional.
Suddenly on Friday, the Senate discharged the bills from committee, advanced them to Third Reading, adopted floor substitutes for both and passed them on 20-18 votes. Various Democrats, including Brinks, were asked about the decision to amend the bills, almost certainly consigning them to die on the House floor.
When asked about the amendments, Sen. Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit) said the substitutes were adopted to incorporate changes that all parties agreed to, including Whitmer’s office.
“I am pleased that the Michigan Senate has voted to move the Public Safety Trust Fund bills forward to invest needed dollars in effective public safety and community violence intervention programs,” Chang said in a text message.
She did not respond to a question on whether the governor’s office and her colleagues were aware that the House has no intention to hold session again until December 31 where the only possible moves were to close the book on the term with a resolution passed without sine die.
Some saw the move as a way to possibly goad Tate and his House colleagues back into action to pass a priority that Tate worked closely on over the last few years.
Gongwer asked Brinks about the situation, considering the amendments came down from on high, and if the intention was to kill the bills, push Tate’s buttons, convince him to come back or all of the above.
Brinks said that was a question for the governor’s office.
“You’ll have to talk to her about what her understanding (was),” the majority leader said. “What I know is that we worked closely to figure out policy that could get signed into law and that will work for the communities that it was intended to serve. I think we ended up with a good product today.”
As to whether the move will lure Tate and his colleagues back into action, Brinks said she was hopeful there was something the House could do with the bills before the end of the year.
Across Lansing, there was a different read.
Maybe Senate Democrats decided not to give the entire House Democratic Caucus the finger, but it sure looked like that was the message to Tate and Whitsett.
– By Zach Gorchow, Nick Smith and Ben Solis
