Republicans will have control of the Michigan House of Representatives in the next term after flipping some seats in this month's general election.
Republicans have chosen current minority leader Matt Hall to be the next Speaker of the House. They also selected Representative Bryan Posthumus to be the next majority floor leader. Posthumus represents Michigan’s 90th House district, which includes much of northeast Kent County in West Michigan.
Posthumus spoke with Michigan Public Morning Edition host Doug Tribou.
Doug Tribou: I’m hoping we can start with a short civics lesson. You are currently the House minority floor leader and you’re about to become the House majority floor leader. What does a floor leader do in the state House?
Rep. Bryan Posthumus: That's a good question. So, the floor leader is responsible for all of the operations of the House floor. Whether that is the annual session calendar — when the House of Representatives meets for a session; the actual floor agenda; all of the legislation that is going to be up for a vote; manages the debate and discourse on the House floor; and ultimately, one of the major responsibilities of the floor leader — that I think we've kind of lost touch with over the last decade or so — is helping to manage statesmanship and decorum on the House floor.
DT: How do you think that's been lost or what's been lost there? And what would you like to see?
BP: Well, on the House floor, under the Democrats' control, there really has been a stifling of debate in the chamber. Not only are the Democrats not willing to put Republicans at the table and get input from Republicans at the table, but for the last two years, we've been shut down in debate. It is my intention to ensure that any Democrat that wants to speak for or against a bill has the opportunity to do that.
DT: And you saw that actively shut down through procedural moves and that sort of thing in this current session?
BP: Yeah, and I mean, shoot, not even necessarily procedural moves. You know, if the Democrats didn't want to add one of our speakers to the list, they would just say no. And if we stood up to speak anyway, they would just ignore us.
"If we can get our energy costs under control by focusing on an all-of-the-above approach, rather than limiting our focus to wind and solar, we'll be in a much better position."Incoming Michigan House Majority Floor Leader Bryan Posthumus on one of Republicans' top priorities
DT: What are your top priorities for the new legislative session?
BP: First and foremost, we have to stop the far left, California-style progressive policies that have been jammed through the state of Michigan over the last two years.
When House Republicans first launched our campaign to take back the House of Representatives, we unveiled our "Mission for Michigan," and that lays out everything that we want to accomplish. Leading the list right there is making Michigan more affordable. How do we make Michigan more affordable? Number one, we start with energy costs. The cost of energy really is baked into virtually every single thing that we purchase. You know, whether it's your food, energy costs drive that up or drive that down. Travel. All of that is determined by energy. So, if we can get our energy costs under control by focusing on an all-of-the-above approach, rather than limiting our focus to wind and solar, we'll be in a much better position.
Number two is a focus on education. Let's get our education back to its roots. Let's focus on real life skills in our classrooms.
Number three is public safety. Let's make sure our communities are safer by doubling down on police recruitment and retention in the state of Michigan and doing away with sanctuary counties and sanctuary cities.
DT: Just to circle back to the start of your answer there, you mentioned far-left policies, in your view. Are there one or two examples that you have of things that you feel that shouldn't have been passed or might need to be revisited?
BP: Yes. Now, whether they will be revisited, I don't know. Mainly because the Democrats are still going to control the Senate and the governor's office.
But, first and foremost is the Democrats' energy policy that they ushered in. Their policy, a narrow focus on wind and solar limiting the scope of clean energy sources, like natural gas, that is going to drive costs up for everyday Michigan consumers. And we need to make sure that policies like that no longer happen.
DT: Whether we're talking about the current Democratic majority or the new incoming Republican majority, we're talking a range of a couple of seats to a handful of seats, so still pretty narrow margins. Does that provide any extra motivation for bipartisanship in Lansing?
BP: Unfortunately, we still live in a very divisive time in history. But in order to get anything done, it's going to require Republican and Democrat support. My hope is that we will be able to turn the page and see a new era of statesmanship and bipartisanship in the state of Michigan.
Editor's note: Quotes in this article have been lightly edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the full interview near the top of this page.
