Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp.) at a Jan. 30, 2025 press conference announcing commitee assignments for the 2025-2026 Legislative term. | Kyle Davidson
The day after Michigan senators once again overwhelmingly advanced a set of policies to extend the state’s Freedom of Information Act to the governor and the Legislature, Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp.) declared the bills dead, later calling them “a very low priority.”
“People tell me that [the Senate] passed a bill, a watered-down FOIA bill. And you know, we’re not going to pass that,” Hall said during a Thursday press conference where he announced committee assignments for the 2025-26 legislative session.
The Democratic-led Senate teed up FOIA reform as its first priority for the new legislative session, with Sen. Jeremy Moss’s (D-Southfield) Senate Bill 1 and Senate Ed McBroom’s (R-Vulcan) SB 2 marking the first two bills introduced in the Senate this term.
The two senators have long pressed for increased transparency, passing another FOIA reform effort out of the House in 2015, while they both served as state representatives. However, the effort ultimately died in the Senate.
While Moss’ and McBroom’s previous effort passed through the Senate in July, the two bills never cleared the House. Although the bills advanced through the House Government Operations Committee, they were not taken up for a vote, with the House unable to hold session after House Republicans and state Rep. Karen Whitsett (D-Detroit) refused to attend until the chamber acted on their policy priorities, including efforts addressing incoming tipped minimum wage and paid sick leave changes.
Senate Bills 1 and 2 received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate, with members voting 33-2 to advance the bills to the House.
However, Hall said the House would refer the bills — if it hadn’t already — to the House Government Operations Committee, which many — including Hall — recognize as the place where legislation goes to die.
“I mentioned some bills go to die there. But I will also point out, though, you will actually see legislation moving out of that committee this term,” Hall said.
“[Rep.] Brian Begole (R-Antrim Twp.) is going to do a great job as the chair of that committee. And I’ll just say this, Brian BeGole was a sheriff, and as a sheriff, he has a lot of experience with FOIA. He understands FOIA. He knows how FOIA works, and he knows how FOIA could work better,” Hall said.
He later told reporters, “We’ll see what the committee does.”
Hall instead pointed to the recently-passed House Resolution 14, which institutes new rules for legislative spending initiatives, also known as earmarks.
According to a statement from House Appropriations Chair Ann Bollin (R-Brighton Twp.), the changes include:
- No earmarks for for-profit businesses. Projects will be limited to public bodies and eligible non-profits.
- Greater accountability for sponsors. Each funding request must include detailed information, including the sponsor and co-sponsors, the intended recipient’s name and location, the requested amount, the project’s purpose, an explanation of public benefit, project timeline, and other key details of the project.
- Stricter nonprofit eligibility. Organizations must be established in Michigan for at least 36 months and maintain a physical office in the state for at least 12 months.
- Conflict-of-interest protections. Sponsors must certify they have no conflicts of interest with the recipient. Family members and staff of the sponsor should not serve on the nonprofit’s board or be employed by the organization.
- Greater transparency throughout the process. Funding requests must be submitted to the House Business Office at least 14 days before consideration and made publicly available online by May 1 for 2025 and April 1 in future years.
“This is the most significant transparency and ethics thing that anyone has done since I’ve been here, and that is putting guardrails on these earmarks,” Hall said.
“I think that’s actually real transparency. It doesn’t happen in 2027 like that Senate Bill, it happens right now,” Hall said.
If passed before the last six months of 2026, Senate Bills 1 and 2 would take effect on Jan. 1, 2027, and would not apply to records created or retained before the bill takes effect.
“Sen. Moss and I have no problem with trying to do something more immediate,” McBroom told the Michigan Advance Thursday afternoon.
“We’ve introduced this bill now, this is our fourth time in the Senate. … There’s a certain amount of implementation time that’s absolutely necessary, and we also always felt strongly that you couldn’t make it retroactive, because there just would be no consistency to what records were available. And so then it’s a matter of, well, are we going to start this up right in the middle of a session? And that seems a little wonky, so it just seemed practical to us to have it begin at the beginning of a session,” McBroom said, noting that he and Moss wouldn’t put up a fight if other members felt differently.
The FOIA expansion legislation does not apply to the House and Senate Fiscal Agencies, the Legislative Service Bureau, and the office of sergeant at arms, which provides security for the Legislature. It also carries a number of other exceptions for both the governor and lieutenant governor’s office, as well as the Legislature, which Sen. Jim Runestad (R-White Lake) criticized as he offered reluctant support for the bill on the Senate Floor.
FOIA exemptions for the office of the governor and lieutenant governor include:
- Appointments to departments, state agencies, commissions, councils or to fill a vacancy on a court. The exemption no longer applies after an individual has been appointed to one of these positions save for information including their applications and letters of recommendation or references
- Decisions to remove or suspend a public official or judge, which no longer applies after that individual has been removed or suspended
- Decisions to grant or deny a reprieve, pardon or commutation
- Budget recommendations or reductions in expenditures
- Messages or recommendations to the legislature
- Information related to the executive residence
- Documents subject to executive privilege
- Documents that could impact the security of the governor or lieutenant governor
The governor’s and lieutenant governor’s office and the Legislature are also exempt from disclosing any records of communications between themselves and a constituent who is not a registered lobbyist, alongside a number of other exemptions, including:
- Their personal phone numbers
- Information on an internal investigation
- Records or information tied to a civil action for which any of these entities are a party, with the exemption expiring when the claim has been adjudicated or settled
- Records “created, prepared, owned, used, in the possession of, or retained” by the governor, lieutenant governor or legislature for less than 30 days
- Records created or prepared by the governor, the lieutenant governor, an employee of the executive office of the governor or lieutenant governor, a legislator or an employee of a state legislative public body, that relate to advice, opinions or recommendations about public policy or district work
“If Speaker Hall has, you know, suggestions or directions on how to tighten [the bills] up and make them so they’re not watered down, certainly open to his input and the thoughts of his caucus on that,” McBroom said.
Alongside earmark reforms, Hall called for an end to the “revolving door” where lawmakers become lobbyists after leaving their position in state government.
During the previous legislative session, House Democrats and Republicans each offered bills to create a “cooling-off period,” barring members of the legislature from becoming lobbyists for a set period of time after their term ends. Neither were taken up for a vote.
Hall also backed requirements for a two-thirds vote to pass legislation during lame duck session, “so that the politicians don’t pass very unpopular bills after the election.”
“I think those are really true transparency and ethics reforms,” Hall said.
Despite Hall’s criticism of the FOIA package, McBroom wasn’t concerned about the legislation’s future.
“It’s been more than 15 years since we had a House and Senate split between the two parties. Nobody — almost nobody — who’s serving now served under that framework. … Perhaps by the Senate making this a top priority Speaker Hall recognizes that gives him some leverage,” McBroom said.
“I’m not worried about it at this point. We have lots of time to work together to figure out this issue and get it done,” he said.
FY 2026 budget process outlook
While taking questions from reporters, Hall also discussed plans for the Fiscal Year 2026 state budget, which will take effect Oct. 1.
Unlike the past two budget cycles when Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was negotiating with a Democratic-controlled Legislature, this year she will contend with a GOP-led House and Democratic-led Senate.
With State Budget Director Jen Flood set to present on Wednesday Whitmer’s executive budget plan to the House and Senate Appropriations committees, the Legislature has a July 1 deadline to pass a new state budget. However, there is no penalty if the House fails to meet the deadline.
While the House would work to have a budget complete by July 1, Hall said “the constitutional responsibility is to get it done by Sept. 30.”
The House will work to scrutinize new programs created by the governor in recent years and measure the return of investment on each, funding the good ones and eliminating the bad ones before evaluating the programs that have been around for decades, Hall said. Cuts would be used to fund road repairs, a public safety trust fund and income tax cuts, he said.
“The budget will get done, but it might not be until Sept. 30,” Hall said.
Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) previously raised concerns that Hall could trigger a government shutdown during a November appearance on WKAR’s “Off The Record.” If there is a shutdown, Hall said, it will be because of Democrats.
“They’re already planning for a government shutdown. My commitment is we’re going to work really hard on getting value for your dollars on this budget, and we’re going to put forward a great budget, and my hope is it’ll get done before Sept. 30,” Hall said.
Michigan last had two partial government shutdowns in 2007 and 2009 during a decade-long recession. Both were during times of divided government when Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm had to work with a GOP-controlled Senate and a Democratic-led House.
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