A pair of bills concerning Michigan lawmakers, their staff, and lobbyists made it out of the House Ethics and Oversight Committee Thursday.
One bill would require the reporting of gifts, meals, and travel above a certain amount paid for by a lobbyist for legislative staff.
Rep. Jimmie Wilson Jr. (D-Ypsilanti) sponsors the bill. During committee testimony, he pointed to existing criminal cases stemming from alleged corruption among former legislative staffers.
“Staff of elected officials play a key role, and, in many cases, legislators rely heavily on them in key decisions in stakeholder engagement. Lobbyists’ gifts to elected officials’ staff may buy influence, provide increased access, secure favors, or circumvent restrictions on campaign contributions,” Wilson said.
Another bill that advanced out of committee Thursday would create a waiting period for lawmakers and certain statewide officeholders to become lobbyists after leaving the Legislature.
Bill sponsor, Rep. Kara Hope (D-Holt) said it’s important to show the public that lawmakers are acting ethically.
“We're not all thinking about our next gig and letting that influence how we legislate. That's the concern everybody sees: that money has too much influence in our politics and we can't change all of that,” Hope said. “But we can do this.”
Republican lawmakers chose to “pass,” when it came to vote both bills out of committee.
Rep. Tom Kunse (R-Clare) said he’d like to see language in the bills tightened up. But he plans on supporting the legislation should it come to a vote on the full House floor.
Kunse said both are “a great step forward.” He said he appreciates the one year cooling-off period the legislation would add.
“I don't like the government restricting people's employment opportunity. That's my only concern. But I think if you know going in, 'Wait a minute, this is the deal. You're going to be a representative or a senator or wherever you're going to be. This is part of the deal.' So I think one year is reasonable,” Kunse told reporters after the committee hearing.
There are four more government accountability bills in the package, dubbed the “BRITE Act,” that still have not made it out of committee or received a hearing.
The remaining bills would further deal with lobbyist gift disclosure and transparency for so-called dark money groups, like 501(C)(4) and 527 organizations, associated with public officials and their family members.
Committee chair Erin Byrnes (D-Dearborn) said she hopes to see the entire package signed into law before the legislative session ends.
“And then we could move on to, you know, some new pieces of legislation that would help just further expand on that good work that we're doing. So, I want to see the BRITE Act lay a really good foundation show that we can and will take action on ethics legislation. And then again we can move forward,” Byrnes said.
There are only eight session days left this year in the Michigan House. If it does make it out of the House, the bill package would still need to make it through the state Senate to reach the governor’s desk.
It’s unclear how much support the bills would have from the governor’s office.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer said she would, “look at them.”
“Obviously, I’m not a part of interim negotiations on those pieces. But, there’s always room for improvement in our laws,” Whitmer said.
Both Kunse and Byrnes said they’d like to see other open government legislation to make lawmakers and the executive branch subject to the Freedom of Information Act pass.
Those bills, which have passed the state Senate, have not been assigned to their committee, going to House Government Operations instead.
