The Legislature is well on its way to sending the fewest number of bills to the Governor in a regular session since the founding of the state in 1837, but Speaker Hall seems unfazed by the distinction.
Asked Wednesday what would need to happen in the next five months for him to classify the 2025 session as a success, the Speaker ticked off the following:
- Signing a FY 2026 budget deal alongside a long-term road funding deal that doesn’t raise taxes;
- Amplify President Donald Trump’s tax cuts by passing no taxes on tips, Social Security or overtime;
- A Public Safety Trust Fund;
- Senate action on Republicans’ education reforms – making phonics the official teaching standard for reading, amplifying skilled trades programs, more flexibility to the Merit Curriculum, etc.; and
- Eliminating “waste, fraud and abuse” out of social programming, such as welfare, as part of a budget that’s smaller than last year.
If these priorities were accomplished with only 25 to 30 public acts, the smallest in state history for a regular session, Hall said he’d be okay with that.
As for what would be in the House’s budget, Hall said he’s appreciative of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for her ideas of having the Auditor General oversee the administration of legislative earmarks and setting a hard cap on what earmarks are approved.
He also noted that House Democrats, with some exceptions, are not participating in the subcommittee hearings at which these earmark requests are being discussed.
Hall said he’s let Democrats know: “If you don’t participate in a public hearing, then we’re not going to consider your request in the House budget.”
Other notes from Wednesday’s Hall press conference:
– Unless there’s a contrary court ruling, Hall considers the nine bills sitting in the Clerk’s office leftover from the 102nd session of the Legislature as “dead.” With the passage of HR 41 earlier this session, the House is making a statement that those bills the clerk’s office didn’t transmit to the Governor aren’t moving.
“Otherwise, you could take it to the extreme. You could hold on to a bill for 25 years and then give it to a governor. We drew a line that once the prior legislature ends, that is that. It’s over. The bills are dead.”
– A future project for the House Republican caucus is to re-write the state’s energy bill to eliminate the requirement that electricity providers run 100 percent on clean energy by 2040 with 60 percent of the portfolio to consist of renewable sources like wind, solar and hydropower by 2035.
Hall said with the rising need for electricity-intensive data centers, creating policies that prioritize reliability and affordability will be critical. Part of this reform will also be to repeal the solar siting law that gives the Michigan Public Service Commission the power to overrule local government in the placement of these facilities, he said.
With the One Big Beautiful Bill ending tax credits for renewable energy projects, Hall said he expects the proliferation of solar panels and wind turbines – with their components made in China – to slow down.
Asked who would quarterback this effort for the House Republicans, Hall noted that House Government Operations Committee Chair Brian BeGole (R-Perry) has been “doing a great job” and has led on many issues.
He also said bills along these lines could land in the House Energy Committee with Chair Pauline Wendzel (R-Watervliet) or the Natural Resources and Tourism Committee with Chair David Martin (R-Davison) or Energy Vice Chair Dave Prestin (R-Cedar River).
– As for who is going to replace Rep. Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn) as the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, the name Rep. Karen Whitsett (D-Detroit) was mentioned by reporters. However, Hall noted that Whitsett was one of the top two finishers in Tuesday night’s Detroit City Council race, which means she may not be long for the House chamber.
A few House Democrats are apparently being interviewed for the post, but Hall declined to name who those candidates were.
Hall reiterated that Farhat was removed because he reneged on a deal to which Farhat said, “My job is not to deliver votes from the House Democratic Caucus on the Speaker’s bad bills. My job is to make sure I can bring the caucus something palatable that I believe aligns with our core values.
“Sometimes, I’m shocked at how little he understands the process.”
– The Speaker deflected on a question about whether his caucus was in turmoil since a few of his members sat out the July 24 session, allowing House Democrats to stop from passing a Rep. Mark Tisdel (R-Rochester) bill to limit students’ cell phone use in classrooms.
Asked directly if Wendzel was being punished for not attending the session on the 24th, depriving Republicans of a potential vote, Hall responded without elaboration, “No.”
Speaking of the policy on cell phones in schools, Hall said this policy would not be in place in time for the start of the 2025-26 school year because House Democrats didn’t want Tisdel, who represents a competitive Rochester seat, to get a public act.
– Hall sounded genuinely agnostic about whether Whitmer would be able to talk the President into allowing Michigan to continue using the Medicaid provider assessment “scam” to raise more federal money for the Medicaid system.
The Speaker believes this “fake tax” on hospitals makes it look like there’s more money in the state’s healthcare system to pull more money out of the federal government. The proceeds from all of this go to “pad the bottom line of the hospitals,” he said.
“It’s a gimmick in order to get more from the federal government and that was not the intent of the law,” he said.
“I’m comfortable with the way things are without the waiver,” he said. “If we don’t get the waiver, we can do all of our priorities in our budget. There’s so much waste, fraud and abuse in this budget.”
– The Medicaid work requirements being created as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill are appropriate, Hall said, in that able-bodied 20-somethings who are “playing video games in their mother’s basement all day” shouldn’t be getting free government health care.
Medicaid should be a program for those who need it, just like food stamps, he said.
– Hall has replaced a photo at the entrance of the Speaker’s Library that once featured a picture of the inside of the Capitol when it had sublevels with a picture of the press conference at which Trump announced a new mission for the Selfridge Air Base.
Article courtesy MIRS News for SBAM’s Lansing Watchdog newsletter
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