Will The Last Week Of Lame Duck Be The Quietest Yet?
Many controversial bills have died quiet deaths, but a handful of big issues remain.
The lame duck session is quickly drawing to a close in Lansing. With only a few days left, lawmakers are evaluating their priorities before the end of the year.
At the top of the list for the House and Senate is legislation that would overhaul Michigan’s energy policy. The legislation is currently in the House where lawmakers have been mulling it over since November.
Republican House spokesperson Gideon D’Assandro said the House plans to keep working on the energy bills over the next few days.
He said, “We’re working on some changes probably, but still talking to people about what they would like to see in that package.”
Aside from energy, D’Assandro said it could be a quiet week.
“You know right now it looks like a quieter week because we got most of the big issues done earlier in the year,” he said. “But at this point you know anything could come up.”
In the Senate, the priority will be helping the House move the energy legislation, said Republican Senate Amber McCann. But other than that they will focus on bills important to individual senators.
“In terms of what will take up the majority of our days in the legislature this week, it will be a lot of priorities that have come out of our respective members’ districts,” she said. “Things they have heard about from their constituents.”
Some of those issues could include limiting how much land the state can buy and bills to regulate the skilled trades. Bills that would also increase voter identification regulations passed through the House and are currently in a Senate committee.
Here’s an update as of 11:37 a.m. on Tuesday:
Prepare the obituaries – Voter ID bills, picketing bills, and FOIA bills declared dead by @ArlanMeekhof
— Cheyna Roth (@Cheyna_R) December 13, 2016
