Here are the key bills that await the Michigan Legislature when lawmakers return

The Michigan Capitol | Susan J. Demas

After a frenzied start in 2023, the pace of the 102nd Michigan Legislature has slowed considerably this year.

In the first year that Democrats enjoyed a governing trifecta for the first time in four decades, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation banning anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, repealing Right to Work, axing some abortion restrictions, establishing a clean energy policy, reforming gun laws and more. In total, the second-term governor signed 321 bills in 2023.

The Legislature adjourned earlier than usual in November last year and muddled along with a 54-54 House split until two Democrats won their special elections in April, restoring the party’s 56-54 majority.

Finishing work on the Fiscal Year 2025 budget has been the Legislature’s top priority this year, which lawmakers accomplished during an all-night session last week. With the year halfway over, Whitmer has signed 65 bills this year.

Both the House and Senate are slated to come back on July 30, returning to their regular session schedule on Sept. 17.

Here’s a look at some of the big-ticket bills they could still tackle:

Name change bills

Legislation awaiting passage includes a package of bills that would remove some of the requirements placed on Michiganders when they change their name outside of marriage, as well as make it easier for a person to select the sex marker they feel is appropriate for them on their birth certificate and driver’s license.

House Bills 5300 , 5301 , 5302 and 5303 were reported out of the House Judiciary Committee in February, but still await floor votes.

Lead sponsor state Rep. Laurie Pohutsky (D-Livonia) told the Advance that the timing to get the bills passed before the summer break didn’t work out, but she has no doubt they will ultimately be successful.

“I think it was just kind of a mad dash and there were an awful lot of bills that were moving,” she said of the final week in which the Legislature was working on passing a budget. “I fully plan for these to be moving later in the term, it was just a matter of trying to fit a whole lot of legislation through a tiny window.”

Pohutsky says the work has already been done to line up support for the bills, both in the House, as well as the Senate, where they would go next for approval. However, she adds that there is an impetus to get them done as soon as possible.

“I’ll be honest with you, pessimism is kind of my coping mechanism,” she said. “So this entire term I have been looking at everything we’ve done through the lens of, ‘We have two years at a time.’”

HB 5300, sponsored by Pohutsky, would allow a judge to bypass having a hearing to approve a name change if appropriate and eliminate the automatic presumption of fraud for those petitioning for a name change that have a criminal record. Fingerprinting would also be eliminated.

House Bills 5301 is sponsored by Rep. Emily Dievendorf (D-Lansing), 5302 is sponsored by Rep. Felicia Brabec (D-Pittsfield Twp.) and 5303 is sponsored by Rep. Helena Scott (D-Detroit). They would codify current policies put in place by Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, that eliminate the requirement to provide a birth certificate to change one’s sex marker on their driver’s license or state I.D., outline a person’s ability to choose a non-binary sex marker, an “X,” and eliminate a state law that requires verification of “sex-reassignment surgery,” an outdated term, something Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel determined was unconstitutional in 2021.

All four bills were supported by the Michigan Civil Rights Commission (MCRC) in April with a resolution sponsored by commission Secretary Luke Londo.

Prescription Drug Affordability Board (PDAB)

A trio of bills to create an independent board to address the impact of prescription drug costs on Michiganders made it through the state Senate, but so far have seen no action in the House to move them forward.

Senate Bills 483 , 484 and 485 , sponsored by state Sens. Veronica Klinefelt (D-Eastpointe), Darrin Camilleri (D-Trenton) and Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City), would create a Prescription Drug Affordability Board (PDAB) which would have the authority to set upper payment limits on drugs sold in the state. The bills passed the Senate last October and were assigned to the House Insurance and Financial Services Committee.

The board would be made up of five members appointed by the governor, consisting of nonpartisan leaders in health care, economics and the supply chain, as well as academics without a personal or financial stake in the pharmaceutical industry. The PDAB would also be advised by a 21-member council made up of industry and advocacy experts, who would identify opportunities that would trigger an investigation into a drug’s cost.

While four House members offered public support for a PDAB at a town hall event in April , the bills have yet to receive a hearing.

Polluter pay

Polluter pay has been a perennial issue in the Legislature, with lawmakers introducing and reintroducing policies over multiple legislative sessions intended to hold corporations accountable for cleaning up pollution. The bills would reverse policy signed decades ago by former Gov. John Engler, a Republican.

While Democrats in the House and Senate introduced twin packages of bills in October , the efforts have yet to receive a hearing in both the House Natural Resources, Environment, Tourism and Outdoor Recreation Committee and the Senate Energy and Environment Committee.

According to the Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy, (EGLE)  there are between 24,000 and 26,000 contaminated sites identified in the states.

While the state provides funding for environmental cleanup and remediation through unclaimed bottle deposits, environmental advocates have said this funding is not meeting the state’s need, with taxpayers left holding the bag for cleanup efforts.

If signed into law, the polluter pay package — Senate Bills 605 – 611 and House Bills 5241 – 5247 — will require polluters to pay for land and water to be restored as much as technically feasible, increase transparency into cleanup sites, prevent the creation of new orphan sites and provide those impacted by pollution with options to seek justice.

Paid family leave

While the state’s Democratic majority was able to make short work of the governor’s list of policy priorities in 2023, there were a few items that remained unfinished when the Legislature adjourned in November.

Whitmer included paid family leave on her policy wishlist in her August 2023 What’s Next Address, with state Sen. Erika Geiss (D-Taylor) and Helena Scott (D-Detroit) introducing Senate Bills 332 and 333 and House Bills 4574 and 4575 earlier in the year. The bills would provide workers with up to 15 weeks of paid leave, paid for through contributions by both workers and employers.

Following Whitmer’s speech, Scott’s proposal was panned by House Republicans , with a leaked memo calling it a “summer break for adults.” House Republican spokesperson Jeremiah Ward later told the Advance that Republicans supported paid leave to tend to family or medical needs, but Scott’s proposal was “poorly written” and would “burden workers and small businesses with a new tax while allowing some people to take advantage of an important benefit,” raising concerns about individuals filing false claims.

Mothering Justice, which has advocated for paid family leave policy in the state, released polling in May which found 63% of likely voters were in favor of paid family leave.

While Whitmer has reaffirmed her support for paid family leave at a policy summit in May, per a report from Bridge Michigan , Scott and Geiss’s bills have yet to receive a hearing in committee after their introduction more than a year ago.

Community solar

In 2023, lawmakers took another stab at increasing access to solar energy , introducing bipartisan policies that would allow communities to create and finance community projects with up to 5 megawatts in capacity.

Through these projects, community subscribers would receive a credit on their energy bills for electricity generated by the solar panels. However without policy in place to back them up, community solar advocates argue these projects are not possible.

While the House version of this package — House Bills 4464 and 4465 — have sat untouched since the House Energy, Communications and Technology took testimony on the bills in November, members of the Senate Energy and Environment Committee heard testimony on Senate Bills 152 and 153 on June 13.

Although the bills have received broad support from environmental groups, clean energy advocates and community organizations, energy utilities and business groups have opposed the effort, arguing the legislation is unneeded due to energy company’s efforts to expand renewable energy production and the introduction of their own green pricing and community solar programs.

Ticket scalping

House lawmakers passed two bills with bipartisan support in June that banned the creation and use of bots to buy tickets for high-profile entertainment and sporting events. Individuals and companies typically use bots to buy a large number of tickets and sell them to fans at a higher price.

“This practice not only inflates prices, but also denies many people the opportunity to attend their favorite events,” state Rep. Mike McFall (D-Hazel Park) said.

While creating the scalping technology is illegal federally, HB 5661 and HB 5662 give the attorney general more power to investigate claims . The legislation, which some have dubbed the “Taylor Swift bills,” will head to the Senate next.

FOIA reform

As lawmakers trudged through a marathon session in its efforts to pass a new state budget, members of the state Senate had a brief reprieve, both literally and figuratively letting the sunshine into the chamber as they passed legislation to extend Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the governor and lieutenant governor’s office, as well as the Legislature.

Senate Bills 669 and 670 are part of a near decade-long effort by Sens. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) and Ed McBroom (R-Vulcan) to improve transparency and accountability in the state, with Michigan ranking worst in the nation in government integrity in a 2015 report from the Center for Public Integrity.

If signed by the governor, these policies would allow journalists and members of the public to request information from the governor’s office and the Legislature, with some exceptions such as constituent communications.

After passing the Senate on June 26, the bills were referred to the House Government Operations Committee.

Maternal and infant health

The House approved in late June a 10-bill package that would provide more health care resources for pregnant and postnatal patients.

The bills passed with bipartisan support in the House but will now head to the Senate for approval.

The goal of the package is to make preventative care more accessible for pregnant people and reduce health complications before, during and after the birth.

“My mother, an OB-GYN nursing instructor, talks to me often about some of the saddest cases of pregnancy complications she witnessed that most of the time could have been prevented,” state Rep. Julie Rogers (D-Kalamazoo) said.

Health care reforms under the package include maternal care facility specialization designations, the establishment of a statewide perinatal quality collaborative, mandates for Medicaid to cover blood pressure monitors and mental health screenings for postpartum depression.

No-fault reform

Two Senate bills sitting in the House Insurance and Financial Services committee since October would change Michigan’s no-fault auto insurance policy after it was previously reformed in 2019.

People who get into catastrophic car accidents and survive will sometimes require around-the-clock care, from professional caregivers or family members. Before 2019, much of this care was covered by auto insurance. That extensive care came with a price tag, and Michiganders were paying the highest auto insurance bills in the country.

But advocates are concerned that the 2019 reform gutted the program and made it harder to afford and access healthcare for survivors of catastrophic car accidents.

With SB 530 and SB 531 , lawmakers would set fee schedules for reimbursements to health care providers for a variety of long-term services and care relating to a catastrophic collision.

The bills will have to pass through the House, for which Amber McCann, a spokesperson for House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit), said there was no timeline.

Unemployment benefits extension

The Michigan House passed a six-week expansion of unemployment benefits during the overnight budget session last month, undoing cuts passed by the Republican-led Michigan Legislature and signed by GOP former Gov. Rick Snyder in 2011.

The change made Michigan residents have some of the shortest eligibility for unemployment benefits in the country as the majority of states provide 26 weeks.

The Democratic-majority House voted through a maximum eligibility for unemployment benefits of 26 weeks, up from 20 weeks, along partisan lines.

The 26-week maximum was temporarily revived by an executive order from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on Michigan.

The bill now requires the Senate’s to vote before heading to Whitmer for approval, after which the change in eligibility for benefits would start in 2025.

Criminal justice reforms

In the last year-and-a-half, several criminal justice reform laws have been enacted, such as a bipartisan Crime Victim’s Rights Bill Package , sweeping gun control legislation in response to mass shootings on Michigan State University’s campus and Oxford High School in Oakland County in recent years and changes and investments in the juvenile justice system aimed to divert youths from remaining in the justice system. Legislation was also signed into law to specify penalties for assaulting health care workers and to decriminalize paid surrogacy .

But other criminal justice reforms remain in flux, such as productivity credits for incarcerated individuals, second look sentencing for reduction in sentences after 10 years, amendments to petitioning for a new trial after being wrongfully convicted and seeking out compensation from the state when a person is found to have been wrongfully convicted and bills to end j uvenile life sentences without parole .

Criminal justice reform advocates gathered in Lansing last month to try and put pressure on lawmakers to take up some bill packages, decrying Democratic leadership for not following through on bills after introducing them.

Film credits

Bipartisan bills establishing a tax credit for film productions in Michigan were introduced in July 2023 by state Reps. Jason Hoskins (D-Southfield) and John Roth (R-Interlochen) and were intended as a replacement for a previous program eliminated in 2015 by Republicans who held the legislative majority during former Gov. Rick Snyder’s tenure.

While there were signs the bills might advance to a House vote during the recently completed budget process, that failed to materialize before legislators broke for summer recess.

House Bills 4907 and 4908 would create a transferable tax credit of up to 30% for qualified production and personnel expenditures that would be administered by the state’s Film and Digital Media Office. In order to qualify, productions would require a minimum of $300,000 spent for projects 20 minutes or longer, and $50,000 per project under 20 minutes or for commercial photography.

Additional credits would also be available to qualified Michigan vendors and for certified minority- or woman-owned businesses, and those owned by veterans or persons with disabilities.

Unlike the state’s previous film incentive program, which was essentially a rebate, the new credit would be issued as a transferable tax credit voucher, which supporters say would ensure the credit remains in the state. It also includes a cap on compensation of more than $500,000 per person, versus the previous incentive’s $2 million salary cap, which was criticized as a “Hollywood handout” for directors, producers and A-list actors.

Despite those changes, the program ran into opposition from education groups which argued that the credits would reduce revenue for K-12 funding in Michigan. With much of the budget deal that was eventually passed focused on school spending, specifically funding of the teachers retirement and pension obligations , the film tax credit legislation never advanced for a floor vote.

Petition reforms

A slate of bills to reform the process by which the state handles petitions for ballot initiatives made it through the House just before the Legislature adjourned for a month.

House Bills 5571 – 5576 were recommended by the bipartisan Board of State Canvassers after it convened a workgroup of bipartisan election lawyers and experts to examine the current petition process. Questions surrounding that issue became apparent in the 2022 election when more than 70,000 fraudulent signatures were submitted across 10 campaigns resulting in five Republican gubernatorial candidates being disqualified from the ballot .

The issue was highlighted again this election cycle when former state Sen. Adam Hollier (D-Detroit) was disqualified from the August primary ballot for the 13th Congressional District when it was determined he didn’t have enough valid signatures after 690 of those in his petitions were deemed to be fraudulent. Hollier blamed his paid circulator, Londell Thomas, for the fake signatures.

After passing in the House, the bills were referred to the Senate Elections and Ethics Committee.

SOAR reform

In the aftermath of Ford Motor Co.’s 2021 decision to invest $11.4 billion in battery and electric vehicle assembly projects in Kentucky and Tennessee, the Michigan Legislature created the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve (SOAR) Fund with Whitmer’s backing to support similar projects here.

In that time, SOAR dispensed approximately $1.7 billion to Ford, General Motors and other corporations building an electric vehicle industry in the state.

But the fund, approved by the then-GOP controlled Legislature, turned into a political hot potato in the 2022 election when GOP gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon launched claims that a proposed battery plant in west Michigan supported by the fund was tied to the Chinese Communist Party. The Gotion plant was also slated to bring in billions of dollars in private investment and create more than 2,300 new jobs. However, Democrats also had concerns, including that the jobs slated for creation would not pay enough to justify the massive investments.

“The creation of the tool felt like a reaction,” said state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) in March . “We’ve seen some of the projects that we’ve invested in using this tool, resize, downsize. We’ve seen pushback. And I think sometimes we have to take hard lessons in acknowledging that sometimes, even with the best intentions, things may not turn out the way that we wish.”

From that realization came a $6 billion plan to overhaul the SOAR Fund and remake how the state approaches economic development.

The five-bill package — House Bills 5768 , 5769 and 5770 and Senate Bills 559 and 562 —was passed June 11 by the Michigan House Economic Development and Small Business Committee. Instead of direct incentives and tax breaks for businesses, it would redirect the funding through a 10-year appropriation of $600 million annually to provide community development, including enhanced housing and transportation projects, in order to make Michigan more attractive for business investment.

That development would primarily be carried out by the Michigan 360 Fund, which would be located within the SOAR program and receive $250 million a year. Another newly created program, the Michigan Mobility Trust Fund, would receive $200 million annually to be distributed to regional transit authorities and public transportation providers by a new five-member state board.

Another $100 million per year would be dedicated to the Housing and Community Development Fund, overseen by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, while $50 million per year would go to the Revitalization and Placemaking (RAP) Fund, which issues grants through the Michigan Strategic Fund.

“By focusing on the fundamentals, including transit, housing, and climate resilient, durable infrastructure, businesses and talent will seek to locate here and drive further investment in thriving communities,” said McMorrow.

After passing out of committee, the package never got a floor vote, as at least two Democrats; Rep. Dylan Wegela (D-Garden City) and Rep. Emily Dievendorf (D-Lansing), wanted a lower appropriation combined with a 1% increase in the corporate income tax.

With Democrats holding a narrow 56-54 majority, they either need every caucus member on board or Republican votes to pass legislation. As neither of those was forthcoming, the legislation remains on the “to do” list to be addressed when the Legislature reconvenes.

Housing equity and discrimination

Bills poised to prevent landlords from discriminatory practices and outline renters’ rights sit in various stages of progression in the Michigan Legislature.

One package that aims to curb housing discrimination based on sources of income, is composed of HB 4062 , HB 4063 , SB 205 , SB 206 and SB 207 . The package, in total, would place restrictions on landlords denying or terminating renters from certain properties, notably if the renter uses vouchers or subsidies to make rental payments. The package outlines an amendment to the state’s civil rights laws reflecting a protection from discrimination in housing due to sources of income.

The Senate bills in the package have both been voted through both chambers. But due to changes being made to all three bills in the House, they require a final vote by the Senate. The House bills cleared the lower chamber and will need the Senate’s approval.

Another bill, SB 801 , which hasn’t had a floor vote in the Senate, outlines criteria to have old eviction records expunged. The bill would require courts, so long as certain criteria are met, to automatically expunge eviction records after two years.

Supporters of the bill say old eviction records can have rippling consequences on tenants, leading them to be denied housing opportunities even when they were not at-fault for the eviction or the issue that resulted in the eviction has been resolved, according to a nonpartisan report from the Senate Fiscal Agency .

A “ ban the box ” was introduced this session, in the form of HB 4878 , which would effectively ban landlords from having a box to check “if you’ve ever been convicted of a crime.”

The bill would “generally prohibit a landlord from using an individual’s criminal record when evaluating the individual’s rental application at any stage in the application process, except as provided by the act or under federal or state law.”

Local election swearing in bills

Boards of Canvassers would have more time to certify local election results after House lawmakers unanimously passed a bill package in June that pushes back the start dates for city, village and home-rule village elected officials.

HB 5699 , 5700 , 5701 and 5702 all head to the Senate. If signed into law by Whitmer, the new start date would begin in the 2025 elections.

“While these bills have been promoted under the guise of implementing Proposal 2 and the need to accommodate the later return of military ballots,” state Rep. Ann Bollin (R-Brighton) said. “… I believe these bills offer a unique opportunity for us to work together on election issues, much like in the past in this chamber, to restore confidence in our election process and support checks and balances in our election process.”

State health insurance exchange

SB 633 – SB 638 would establish a state-based health insurance exchange, which would allow people to apply for health plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Currently, Michiganders use the federal exchange.

The Senate passed the bills last month and they’re now in the House.

“Shifting our health care exchange from the federal platform to a state-based one is the logical next step towards lowering costs for residents and building a more accessible, equitable and affordable healthcare system that works for all Michiganders,” state Sen. Kevin Hertel (D-St. Clair Shores) said in a statement. “Under this plan, we will have more tools at our disposal to tailor the marketplace to fit local health care needs while reducing costs, improving efficiency, and boosting access to care.”

This year, Michigan had the highest enrollment rate rate in the state’s history in the federal marketplace, with 418,000 purchasing plans.

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