Now that 2024 is over, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer will have to decide what to do with the dozens of bills heading her way.
Though the 2023-2024 Michigan Legislature never officially set an adjournment date for a ritual known as adjourning sine die, Latin for “without day,” the session effectively ended with the end of the year.
That means every bill from the previous Legislature that now reaches her desk has 14 days to receive either receive Whitmer’s signature or die.
Stacey LaRouche is a spokesperson for Whitmer.
“We will review legislation sent to our desk,” LaRouche said in a text message.
Many of the bills are caught up in the process of sending passed legislation from the Capitol across the street to the governor’s office. But there are dozens of them for Whitmer to consider.
Some outstanding items include bills to support Whitmer’s economic priorities.
One potential new policy would allow businesses to write off a portion of their research and development costs on their taxes.
Another would create a Michigan Innovation Fund Program to help invest state money in business startups.
The list, however, does not include legislation to reshape a major business incentive program known as the SOAR Fund that had seen negotiations fall apart last year. With a funding mechanism set to expire in October, that could see a push from Whitmer in the coming months.
More bills set to reach Whitmer’s desk deal with issues related to reproductive health care.
They would increase access to hormonal birth control, to mental health care for new mothers, and allow for the licensing of free-standing birth centers.
The state legislature also passed a bill to repeal work requirements for the Healthy Michigan Plan Medicaid-expansion program. Enforcement for those is currently blocked by a federal judge.
Michigan lawmakers did not pass—however—a bill package meant to curb racial disparities in maternal health. Those policies could come up again in the new legislative session that starts next week.
Still, Whitmer will also have to consider public safety-related bills in the coming weeks.
For example, one would create commissions to evaluate criminal justice policies and prison sentences.
Whitmer will also have to decide what to do with bills to update the state’s hate crime laws and to expand access to the state police pension system to corrections workers and other law enforcement-adjacent positions.
The new legislative session starts Wednesday.
