On Nov. 14, 2024 Henry Mayers, president of Michiganders for Fair and Transparent Elections, testified to the House Ethics and Oversight Committee on a bill subjecting legislative staffers to the regulations of the Lobbyist Registration Act. | Kyle Davidson
In its first meeting since June, members of the House Ethics and Oversight and Committee continued to push forward on laws addressing outside financial influences in Lansing politics.
The committee heard testimony from state Rep. Jimmie Wilson Jr. (D-Ypsilanti) on his House Bill 5581, which would subject legislative staff to the same regulations as other public officials under the Lobbyist Registration Act.
Michigan Dems want to shine a ‘BRITE’ light on elected officials’ finances and political nonprofits
The legislation is part of the Bringing Reforms in Integrity, Transparency and Ethics (BRITE) Act introduced by House Democrats in March.
Through this bill, staffers would be required to report gifts and other expenditures from lobbyists attempting to influence them.
“Staff of elected officials play a key role, and in many cases, legislators rely heavily on them in key decisions and stakeholder engagement. Lobbyists’ gifts to elected officials’ staff may buy influence, provide increased access, secure favors or circumvent restrictions on campaign contributions, lobbying expenditures,” Wilson said.
Henry Mayers, president of Michiganders for Fair and Transparent Elections called the change “long overdue” and reflected the reality of how constituents engage with their elected officials.
“Staff who have any desire to be of real value to the legislator quickly seek some area of expertise or effectiveness. Nothing is more valuable to a legislator than a staffer who completely handles an important subject area, and anyone with any smarts seeking to influence views of any legislator will do whatever they can to help his or her staff stay sharp and have that staffer understand his or her point of view,” Mayers said.
“Everyone knows that legislators have very limited amounts of time to meet with constituents and others seeking to inform or influence them. And today’s increasing costs of conducting a re-election campaign means that even more time must go into securing donors, not legislating. Though regardless of whatever burdens our legislators have making them unavailable, the staffer must stand in for the legislator on discussions of legislative substance,” Mayers said.
Of the nine members of the committee six members voted to refer Wilson’s bill to the House floor for further consideration, with the panel’s three Republicans members passing on the vote.
By the same margin, members also voted to refer House Bill 5586, sponsored by Rep. Kara Hope (D-Holt) to the House floor. House Bill 5586 creates a one-year “cooling-off period,” where lawmakers would be barred from working as lobbyists after the end of their term.
After the meeting concluded, Rep. Tom Kunse (R-Clare), the committee minority vice chair, told reporters the bills were a “great step forward” noting the only reason he had passed on voting for House Bill 5581, is that he’d like to see the definition of a legislative staffer tightened to address any ambiguity.
“I like the bill. I’m gonna — I think they’re going to make that amendment, and I’ll support it on the floor. Same with 5586, I like the revolving door being addressed, and we’re going to support it on the floor,” Kunse said.
While House Oversight and Ethics Committee Chair Erin Byrnes (D-Dearborn) said her goal is to have the BRITE Act bills passed through committee and signed into law before the end of this lame duck period, Kunse raised concerns about the limited amount of time remaining in the legislative session.
“[Republicans] introduced similar legislation in March of ‘23. Well, gosh, where’s everybody been? You know, where’s everybody been? So I don’t know why we haven’t moved on some of [these bills] before. So it’s overdue, but it’s a step forward. And if it’s slow, slow is better than not moving at all,” Kunse said.
Introduced this March during Sunshine Week, an annual nationwide week of advocacy for open government, freedom of information and government transparency, the BRITE Act is composed of seven bills — House Bills 5580–5586 — seeking to improve financial reporting requirements, shed light on “dark money” spending from undisclosed donors and limit lobbyist influence.
Of the seven bills of the package, the two bills reported out from committee on Thursday are the only policies to move through committee. Another, House Bill 5583, was ordered discharged to the House floor, before Democrats voted to send the bill to the Senate.
The bill, if passed, would allow the Michigan secretary of state to apply for a court to intervene if a campaign finance complaint is filed, and the secretary of state believes a violation has or is continuing to occur.
As Kunse noted, Republicans introduced their own transparency legislation in 2023, which included reforms to Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), expanding the law to include the governor and the Legislature, who are currently exempt.
Should the BRITE Act fail to reach the finish line, Kunse said he could “absolutely” see Republicans reintroducing these bills, and that he is pushing for FOIA reform to be the first thing addressed out of the gate.
“We’ll get 105 votes on that. Let’s open it up. Let’s start our next session with a bipartisan — nobody’s opposed to this —Let’s show that we can work across the aisle. I think it’d be a great way to open the session,” Kunse said.
While the Senate has advanced a bipartisan set of policies to extend FOIA to include the governor’s office and the Legislature, with exemptions for multiple state agencies, including the House and Senate Fiscal Agencies and the Legislative Service Bureau, the House Government Operations Committee, known as a graveyard for legislation, has yet to schedule a hearing for the bills.
Byrnes said she would love to take up those bills but noted they’re not in her committee.
“We’re having some conversations about that and what that will look like. So more to come on that,” Byrnes said.
Kunse however, was not optimistic about the future of the Senate FOIA reform bills, but said he would absolutely support the changes and would vote to suspend the rules and move the package directly to the House floor.
While speaking with reporters Thursday afternoon, Whitmer offered a noncommittal answer when asked if she would support the BRITE Act bills should they reach her desk.
“You know. I’ll take a look at them. Obviously, I’m not a part of the internal negotiations on those pieces, but there’s always room for improvement in our laws,” she said.
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