House Bill No. 4088, entitled

A bill to amend 1994 PA 451, entitled “Natural resources and environmental protection act,” by amending section 40111a (MCL 324.40111a), as amended by 2015 PA 265.

The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows:

Roll Call No. 356 Yeas—20

Barrett Johnson Nesbitt Stamas

Bizon LaSata Outman Theis

Bumstead Lauwers Runestad VanderWall

Daley MacDonald Schmidt Victory

Horn McBroom Shirkey Zorn

Nays—15

Alexander Chang Irwin Polehanki

Bayer Geiss McCann Santana

Brinks Hertel McMorrow Wojno

Bullock Hollier Moss

Excused—0

Not Voting—1

Ananich

In The Chair: President

The question being on concurring in the committee recommendation to give the bill immediate effect,

The recommendation was not concurred in, 2/3 of the members serving not voting therefor.

Pursuant to Joint Rule 20, the full title of the act shall be inserted to read as follows:

“An act to protect the environment and natural resources of the state; to codify, revise, consolidate, and classify laws relating to the environment and natural resources of the state; to regulate the discharge of certain substances into the environment; to regulate the use of certain lands, waters, and other natural resources of the state; to protect the people’s right to hunt and fish; to prescribe the powers and duties of certain state and local agencies and officials; to provide for certain charges, fees, assessments, and donations; to provide certain appropriations; to prescribe penalties and provide remedies; and to repeal acts and parts of acts,”

The Senate agreed to the full title.

House Bill No. 5094, entitled

The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows:

Roll Call No. 357 Yeas—35

Alexander Daley MacDonald Schmidt

Ananich Geiss McBroom Shirkey

Barrett Hertel McCann Stamas

Bayer Hollier McMorrow Theis

Bizon Horn Moss VanderWall

Brinks Irwin Nesbitt Victory

Bullock Johnson Outman Wojno

Bumstead LaSata Polehanki Zorn

Chang Lauwers Santana

Nays—1

Runestad

Excused—0

Not Voting—0

In The Chair: President

The question being on concurring in the committee recommendation to give the bill immediate effect,

The recommendation was concurred in, 2/3 of the members serving voting therefor.

The Senate agreed to the title of the bill.

Senate Bill No. 280, entitled

A bill to amend 1954 PA 116, entitled “Michigan election law,” by amending sections 471 and 477 (MCL 168.471 and 168.477), as amended by 2018 PA 608.

The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows:

Roll Call No. 358 Yeas—20

Barrett Johnson Nesbitt Stamas

Bizon LaSata Outman Theis

Bumstead Lauwers Runestad VanderWall

Daley MacDonald Schmidt Victory

Horn McBroom Shirkey Zorn

Nays—16

Alexander Bullock Hollier Moss

Ananich Chang Irwin Polehanki

Bayer Geiss McCann Santana

Brinks Hertel McMorrow Wojno

Excused—0

Not Voting—0

In The Chair: President

The Senate agreed to the title of the bill.

House Bill No. 4837, entitled

The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows:

Roll Call No. 359 Yeas—21

Barrett LaSata Outman Theis

Bizon Lauwers Runestad VanderWall

Bumstead MacDonald Schmidt Victory

Daley McBroom Shirkey Wojno

Horn Nesbitt Stamas Zorn

Johnson

Nays—15

Alexander Bullock Hollier Moss

Ananich Chang Irwin Polehanki

Bayer Geiss McCann Santana

Brinks Hertel McMorrow

Excused—0

Not Voting—0

In The Chair: President

The question being on concurring in the committee recommendation to give the bill immediate effect,

The recommendation was not concurred in, 2/3 of the members serving not voting therefor.

Pursuant to Joint Rule 20, the full title of the act shall be inserted to read as follows:

“An act to reorganize, consolidate, and add to the election laws; to provide for election officials and prescribe their powers and duties; to prescribe the powers and duties of certain state departments, state agencies, and state and local officials and employees; to provide for the nomination and election of candidates for public office; to provide for the resignation, removal, and recall of certain public officers; to provide for the filling of vacancies in public office; to provide for and regulate primaries and elections; to provide for the purity of elections; to guard against the abuse of the elective franchise; to define violations of this act; to provide appropriations; to prescribe penalties and provide remedies; and to repeal certain acts and all other acts inconsistent with this act,”

The Senate agreed to the full title.

House Bill No. 4528, entitled

The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows:

Roll Call No. 360 Yeas—21

Barrett LaSata Outman Theis

Bizon Lauwers Runestad VanderWall

Bumstead MacDonald Schmidt Victory

Daley McBroom Shirkey Wojno

Horn Nesbitt Stamas Zorn

Johnson

Nays—15

Alexander Bullock Hollier Moss

Ananich Chang Irwin Polehanki

Bayer Geiss McCann Santana

Brinks Hertel McMorrow

Excused—0

Not Voting—0

In The Chair: President

The question being on concurring in the committee recommendation to give the bill immediate effect,

The recommendation was not concurred in, 2/3 of the members serving not voting therefor.

Pursuant to Joint Rule 20, the full title of the act shall be inserted to read as follows:

The Senate agreed to the full title.

House Bill No. 4838, entitled

The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows:

Roll Call No. 361 Yeas—21

Barrett LaSata Outman Theis

Bizon Lauwers Runestad VanderWall

Bumstead MacDonald Schmidt Victory

Daley McBroom Shirkey Wojno

Horn Nesbitt Stamas Zorn

Johnson

Nays—15

Alexander Bullock Hollier Moss

Ananich Chang Irwin Polehanki

Bayer Geiss McCann Santana

Brinks Hertel McMorrow

Excused—0

Not Voting—0

In The Chair: President

The question being on concurring in the committee recommendation to give the bill immediate effect,

The recommendation was not concurred in, 2/3 of the members serving not voting therefor.

Pursuant to Joint Rule 20, the full title of the act shall be inserted to read as follows:

The Senate agreed to the full title.

Protests

Senators Moss, Polehanki, Brinks, McCann, Hertel, Bayer, Santana, Geiss, Bullock, Chang, Ananich, Alexander, Hollier and McMorrow, under their constitutional right of protest (Art. 4, Sec. 18), protested against the passage of House Bill No. 4838.

Senators Moss and McMorrow moved that the statements they made during the discussion of the bill be printed as their reasons for voting “no.”

The motion prevailed.

Senator Moss’ statement, in which Senators Polehanki, Brinks, McCann, Hertel, Bayer, Santana, Geiss, Bullock, Chang, Ananich, Alexander and Hollier concurred, is as follows:

We have before us House Bill No. 4838, which is a bill that would prohibit electronic poll books and electronic voting systems from being connected to the internet. Well, I have great news for everyone—these electronic systems are never connected to the internet during polling hours—never have been and never will be—and I have been at this microphone many times before to speak against bills that make something illegal that nobody is doing anyway. I think these types of bills are a sign of a do-nothing Legislature that pats itself on the back for doing nothing.

But, this bill is not as innocuous as other bills that I have spoken against before; this bill is actually pretty dangerous. It perpetuates the “Big Lie,” it perpetuates this false notion—these conspiracy theories—that there are large gaps in our election law that are filled with criminal activity. This is a lie. These lies have been debunked in courts, these lies have been debunked by election administrators, these lies have been debunked by this very Senate. Earlier this year we all read the Oversight Committee report that investigated the 2020 election ad nauseum—every single aspect of that election—and specifically debunked this exact claim—this claim that the internet somehow is hooked up to these voting machines and somehow changing tallies, making a mess of the election results—that was brought forward to this body by former Senator and current conspiracy theorist Patrick Colbeck, and the committee itself debunked those lies and referred him to be investigated by the Attorney General for perpetuating these lies. So, what is Patrick Colbeck doing about it? He’s fundraising off of these claims. You are going to enshrine his lies into law so that he can write his next fundraising e-mail.

Our elections were secure. The 2020 election results were accurate. We should be thankful for our election administrators for following the law as it is written and there is no need to fill in any gaps here with conspiracy theories that would otherwise dictate that our elections were insecure. So I am voting “no” on these bills and I encourage my colleagues to do the same.

Senator McMorrow’s statement is as follows:

As my colleague just mentioned, this very body conducted months of hearings and testimony and took questions about all the concerns about the 2020 election including that these machines were hooked up to the internet and found no evidence to support those claims. When you first see these bills put up in front of us, you think they must be innocuous because if something already doesn’t exist then, sure, why wouldn’t we pass a bill to prohibit that? However, we know that if we do that—if we vote in favor of a bill to ban something that already does not exist—it validates that lie’s existence. That’s what is happening here.

Even though this body published a comprehensive report detailing that there was no fraud in the 2020 election and that this claim was not true, Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, conducted a cyber security symposium, invited people, had screenshots of code that he proved that computers in China were able to change votes of ten counties throughout the country, and guess what—one of the counties he claimed had votes changed was Oakland County, Michigan. You can imagine how stressful it was when my staff, who have been working tirelessly for the past 18 months to help people get unemployment, to help people find food banks, to help people navigate this pandemic and come out of it stronger, were once again bombarded with threats and e-mails and phone calls and social media posts threatening us to do the right thing, to follow election security expert Mike Lindell because he went on national news and pointed out Oakland County, Michigan as where these supposed fraudulent actions took place.

I encourage everybody here to vote “no” because we should not be passing bills in this chamber for things that already do not exist because all that does is perpetuate and validate a lie that is dangerous.

Senators McBroom and Johnson asked and were granted unanimous consent to make statements and moved that the statements be printed in the Journal.

The motion prevailed.

Senator McBroom’s statement is as follows:

I appreciate the kind references that a couple of my colleagues have made to the work of the Oversight Committee, but I wanted to make sure that on the record, we correct just one particular statement—I have a lot I could say about this issue but I’ll let the report speak for itself—but I want to make sure to correct one thing in particular, that the report does not call for any specific person or name the individual who was mentioned earlier as a person whom the Attorney General should investigate. I want to be very clear on that. The report does not name names in that particular situation and did not do so. That is a mischaracterization that is broadly being spread around by individuals and I want to clarify that.

Senator Johnson’s statement is as follows:

This bill we’re speaking about—House Bill No. 4838—is currently in the manual for best practices for the Secretary of State. I would like to remind people that signature verification was also in the book of best practices that was changed by our current Secretary of State, so the verification is not what it used to be. It’s a good idea to take this bill and take the best practices and put them into law so they can’t be changed. I would like to remind people that in the House, a lot of people understand that, that sometimes best practices by the administration need to be law. This is one of them. The vote was 77-31 in the House of Representatives. I urge you to vote for this bill.

House Bill No. 4492, entitled

A bill to amend 1954 PA 116, entitled “Michigan election law,” by amending section 662 (MCL 168.662), as amended by 2004 PA 92.

The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows:

Roll Call No. 362 Yeas—21

Barrett LaSata Outman Theis

Bizon Lauwers Runestad VanderWall

Bumstead MacDonald Schmidt Victory

Daley McBroom Shirkey Wojno

Horn Nesbitt Stamas Zorn

Johnson

Nays—15

Alexander Bullock Hollier Moss

Ananich Chang Irwin Polehanki

Bayer Geiss McCann Santana

Brinks Hertel McMorrow

Excused—0

Not Voting—0

In The Chair: President

The question being on concurring in the committee recommendation to give the bill immediate effect,

The recommendation was not concurred in, 2/3 of the members serving not voting therefor.

Pursuant to Joint Rule 20, the full title of the act shall be inserted to read as follows:

The Senate agreed to the full title.

Protest

Senator Irwin, under his constitutional right of protest (Art. 4, Sec. 18), protested against the passage of House Bill No. 4492 and moved that the statement he made during the discussion of the bill be printed as his reasons for voting “no.”

The motion prevailed.

Senator Irwin’s statement is as follows:

My concerns about this legislation are that it’s a vector for additional political corruption or at least the appearance thereof. Now, I understand that I’m sensitive to the interests of our clerks across the state of Michigan who do sometimes find it challenging to find polling locations as schools have become less and less welcoming to polling locations and particularly as charter schools have grown across the state of Michigan, which are almost never welcoming to polling locations. It’s become harder and harder for our clerks to find polling locations. While I respect that it has been harder and harder for our clerks to find polling locations, I’m concerned that this legislation doesn’t provide protection against political donors having their location rented out for polling locations.

I think it’s very important that the Legislature not just prevent vectors of corruption in our election law but that we also prevent the appearance of impropriety. So that’s why I’m trying to draw the body’s attention to the lack of language here that protects the public against that kind of corruption. Voters shouldn’t have to wonder if the polling location is being rented at an outrageous rate to a political donor of the people who are making decisions about where these polling locations could be. This could also be used to set up polling locations in places that are particularly unwelcoming to people, in line with the political donor history of the owner of that property.

So, I appreciate the need but I don’t think that enough attention was paid to preventing corruption in this legislation.

By unanimous consent the Senate returned to the order of

Messages from the House

Senate Bill No. 128, entitled

A bill to amend 1949 PA 300, entitled “Michigan vehicle code,” by amending section 14 (MCL 257.14), as amended by 2012 PA 498.

The House of Representatives has passed the bill, ordered that it be given immediate effect and pursuant to Joint Rule 20, inserted the full title.

Senator Lauwers moved that the bill be given immediate effect.

The motion prevailed, 2/3 of the members serving voting therefor.

The Senate agreed to the full title.

The bill was referred to the Secretary for enrollment printing and presentation to the Governor.

By unanimous consent the Senate returned to the order of

Motions and Communications

Senator Lauwers moved that rule 3.902 be suspended to allow the guest of Senator Horn admittance to the Senate floor.

The motion prevailed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor.

Senators Horn and Shirkey asked and were granted unanimous consent to make statements and moved that the statements be printed in the Journal.

The motion prevailed.

Senator Horn’s statement is as follows:

This is just the first of at least two bittersweet farewells today. Before I begin, I have Melanie Rhine next to me who’s been with me for a very long time in both my House and Senate offices, but joining Melanie today up in the east Gallery are her husband Mark, daughter Saoirse, and joining Melanie on the floor today is Lena Elsbeth.

I first met Melanie some time ago. She was the president of the Saginaw Valley State University College Republicans. We got a chance to know each other, she gathered some folks, we had some conversations at a local restaurant up in the Saginaw area, but I can tell you that knowing Melanie from the very beginning, she made the College Republicans relevant. She gave them purpose, and a funny thing happened—even the College Democrats were better for having to keep up with Melanie. She has a very special gift in that she makes the people around her better people. She ran my final campaign in 2010 and I got a chance to get to know her even better. She went on to intern for Representative Tim Moore—some of us old-timers will remember him. We had a great office staff, didn’t we—Jami Des Chenes, chief of staff; Shanda Shooter, now Shanda Greco, she went on to bigger and better things, to law school, in Boston, and came back and she’s now working for all of us at LSB—but there was a big hole to fill, and I knew just the right person. We were not going to go on a work search, we said, You know what Jami, I remember a moment, I was on the road—I called Melanie—and we were just talking over some things and I said, Melanie, what’s that noise in the background? It sounds like you’re on a street. She said, Well, I’m just down here in Chesaning. I was looking over some of your numbers from the previous election and you were a little weak here in Chesaning, so I’m doing some door-to-door.

That kind of perseverance, that kind of dedication, that kind of initiative, needs to be respected and needs to be rewarded, so we hired Melanie to come to our office in the House. Term limits being what they are, we ended up having to say goodbye to Melanie but she landed in the Governor’s office, and we’re so proud of the work you did for the administration at that time.

Now, I ran for the Senate and hired Melanie back, and Jami, we put the band back together, hired Margie and we’ve got Rachel with us, we’ve got quite a team, but Melanie is my legislative director and communications director. I can tell you that working with our communications team—with Rich, Pattrick, and Matt—I do these Hometown Jobs videos where I go into a town and we spend six to eight hours filming a special job in a special town. In Saginaw Township, my job was to work with the Saginaw Township Police Department. Unbeknownst to Melanie, I was at the cigar caucus—I chair the Frankenmuth cigar caucus—and got a double-dare to get tased while I was at this filming on video. Prior to that in our production meeting, Melanie was like, You are not going to get tased, you will pee your pants. I said, I’m not going to pee my pants, but Melanie is a trusted employee so I wore very dark blue Dockers.

We’re already halfway into this speech, it won’t take forever, Mr. President, but if you notice, my staff will notice I haven’t said anything about Melanie’s height. She reminds me on a regular basis that height is a protected class in the state of Michigan, and she takes a leadership role in this very often. In group pictures, she is always the first to jump to the front of the group to take pictures. One of the comments we hear the most—mostly from me—Can everybody see over Melanie?

The office I have—I guarantee this, and it’s been this way from the very beginning—I do not hire “yes” people. Now that I think about it, you tell me “no” a lot. Here I am, a burr gets under my saddle, and I’m writing an editorial, some op-ed column, something I’m going to put on Facebook, something I’m going to write to a constituent, we have this 24-hour rule. I get to the office in the morning and Melanie says, Do you feel better? Yeah, I do. We’re not going to print that, are we? No. Then, she goes on to tell me the schedule for the rest of the day because she already knew that was going to happen.

Melanie is one of the most organized people—we will be discussing that later at a reception that will be on my floor, so staff members, come down to my office on the first floor, there will be some refreshments there, you can say goodbye to Melanie on your own—but Melanie is a very organized person and she makes me a more organized person. I feel better about myself because everywhere I go, I don’t have ketchup stains or coffee stains on me because Melanie has a Tide stick everywhere. She has one in her desk, she has one in my desk, she has one in my desk on the floor, as a matter of fact I have a Tide stick in my pocket because she knows me, and she takes such good care of everybody in the office.

Again, here we come to this fickle idea of term limits and I’m ready to depart in about a year, and this time Melanie started getting telephone calls early. People recognized her work. I want to be mad at the Insurance Alliance but I’m so grateful they recognized her talent and that she will be departing—today is her last day—and she’ll be working just a little bit down the street so many of you will be able to chat with Melanie whenever an insurance issue comes back up again.

So, here we are with the tribute. I’ve already spent enough time, Mr. President, I’m not going to read the tribute, but I just want to tell you that this tribute was—I signed it—but it was written from the heart of our chief of staff, all of us went through it and polished it up with tears, but this tribute is on behalf of our staff, all the people you’ve worked for, and for the 268,000 people of the 32nd District, I want to present this to you, Melanie, because you are a rare person and whether it’s in our office, whether it’s the colleagues we work with, other legislative directors you work with, constituents on the phone, you have the ability to make the people around you better people.

We love you and I’m proud of you.

Senator Shirkey’s statement is as follows:

Today I rise to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of a valued member of our Senate family—the entire Senate family—Connor Spalding, as he prepares to leave the Legislature and take his considerable talents and gifts to the lobby corps—again.

This time he takes flight after serving with us through these unprecedented times and with many more tools in his toolbelt. A little history, Connor began his service to the people of Michigan in 2011 as a constituent relations director in the office of then-Majority Leader Randy Richardville. He continued his service in the office of the Majority Leader with Arlan Meekhof in various roles including scheduler, legislative director, deputy legislative director, and general pain-in-the-ass. Some may say he did it all. In 2017, Connor began working in the 16th Senate District office as legislative director staffing the Health Policy Committee and helping advance our legislative priorities. Discovering health policy was near and dear to my personal heart, Connor quickly honed his skills and soon enough we became a pretty darn good team—despite some of the sparks that flew on occasion. In 2019, Connor transferred his talents outside the Senate as he took a position as vice president of government affairs for the Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association. There he helped serve, enhance, and nurture growth and development of Michigan’s hospitality service industry. This was no easy task as the lodging industry plays an integral role in Michigan’s overall economy. Then they kicked him to the curb. So, in a weak moment, we picked him up off the curb as legislative director for our office once again.

He has served the people of Michigan—along with all of us—during this unprecedented time during the COVID-19 experience. Connor, by now an expert in health policy and legislative strategy, was an incredible asset to not just our office but the entire chamber. His ability to think ten steps ahead and ask the tough questions and push the tough buttons are going to be a challenge for us to replace. Most notably, his attention to detail and quick thinking are as sharp as the suits he often wears here on the Senate floor. His sense of humor as his hair is when he doesn’t have product in it—it’s known as the floof. He has to work very hard to look good. Seriously, we will miss him. With his departure we will feel a great loss of the sugar-and-spice team—that dynamic that made up the legislative team—but I urge my colleague from the 14th Senate District not to worry—sugar will remain in the chamber with us while spice goes on to another journey.

We will surely feel the absence of Connor’s high-energy spirit—unbelievably he doesn’t take caffeine—along with his ability to make even the most boring of things entertaining, such as instating a fake weekly holiday known as Turtleneck Thursday, just so he could legitimately wear a turtleneck on the Senate floor. Connor has always been down to doing just about anything we ask him to do. One time I remember he went on a very nondescript journey for somebody I know to pick up a couple of kudus from a taxidermist and then deliver them to an address for somebody I happen to know. He’s always been willing to do just about anything we ask, except to keep his mouth shut. He will be greatly missed by Senators and staff from both caucuses I’m sure, but not to worry. It is very likely he will darken the doors of just about all of us sometime soon.

Connor, you joined us as an inexperienced, energetic, can-do, highly spirited, somewhat cocky, and often irreverent work in progress; and now, you set your sails for new adventures as a much more experienced, mature, energetic, and still somewhat cocky, irreverent, and highly valued co-worker. It is with a slightly broken heart filled with joy that we wish you the very best. God bless you brother. We love you.

By unanimous consent the Senate proceeded to the order of

Statements

Senators Nesbitt, Bayer and McBroom asked and were granted unanimous consent to make statements and moved that the statements be printed in the Journal.

The motion prevailed.

Senator Nesbitt’s statement is as follows:

This week is Independent Food Retailer Week. It’s time to celebrate the food retail industry and its dedication to the public and their service to our state, even in the midst of a global pandemic. Each of my colleagues have before them a bag from the retail food industry which is comprised of grocers, specialty food marketers, wholesalers, and convenience store and gas station owners, providing critical services to our state. The industry contributes an estimated $25 billion to our gross domestic product through direct sales and direct economic impact and employment—employ about 200,000 people and the businesses in the food retail industry contribute about $900 million to state and local taxes. So we celebrate Food Retailer Week in Michigan and we acknowledge the many contributions those businesses and employees make in our state. September 27 through October 1 is Independent Food Retailers Week in Michigan. Hope you enjoy the specialty gifts provided to all of you.

Senator Bayer’s statement is as follows:

I rise today to ask you to join me in taking action on something critically important in our work—supporting Michigan schools, our teachers, and our students. Over the past 18 months, our teachers have found themselves on the front line every day bearing the expectations of parents, administrators, and legislators while trying to actually teach. To get our kids through the pandemic, we’ve asked our teachers to be not just educators but experts in public health, mental health, and information technology and virtual learning, all overnight. Our teachers have stepped up, guiding and supporting our kids through these incredibly difficult times. Our response to this is more rules—more students per teacher, more responsibility, less autonomy, less respect, less support. Now we’re seeing the impact of that. We’re losing them.

We’ve already seen schools having to go virtual because they don’t have enough teachers to staff the classrooms. The challenges of a career in teaching in Michigan are overshadowing the rewards. Last year we saw a 40 percent increase in teacher retirements, and teacher programs across Michigan are seeing record low numbers of enrollments and participants. We don’t have a pipeline. I’ve heard from my school district leaders and from our parents loud and clear—we need more teachers, we want our kids to be in school in person. Right now, we need to find more ways to bring in more teachers, new teachers, and there are multiple avenues to move us in that direction, starting with elevating the profession to where it was not that long ago so that high school students will actually want to choose a career in education, to enticing those new educators to stay in Michigan once they graduate, to improving salaries and benefits that would attract teachers from other states. In fact, our starting salaries—we could say our recruiting salaries—are 30 percent lower than many other states, and we are all competing for those same new graduates.

Luckily for us, there are some other options to entice new teachers in Michigan, and today on my desk available for co-sponsorship is a bill called the Excellence in Education Act which would allow up to $20,000 reimbursement student loan forgiveness for Michigan teachers over ten years. Let’s take action and be leaders in the effort to solve this problem for our schools, for our communities, and for our kids and our future and let’s do it now so we don’t lose the race to get enough teachers and we can’t keep our schools open. I ask for your co-sponsorship and support of the Excellence in Education Act for the future of our state.

Senator McBroom’s statement is as follows:

Just as a side note before I get to the remarks I got up to make, I’m getting quite a few calls from teachers who are looking at quitting because of mandatory mask mandates coming in the next few months. There’s another way we could help prevent the loss of vital teachers from our communities—by doing something about that.

I got up to briefly mention—because I missed the opportunity to push the button during the vote on House Bill No. 4088 by Representative Borton—I wanted to mention that the hearing we had in the Natural Resources Committee on House Bill No. 4088 had to be one of the most infuriating and ridiculous hearings that I’ve ever had to conduct as a chairman, where the Department of Natural Resources came into the committee and pretty much said, Bird feeders should be made illegal in the state of Michigan, although we’re willing to consider if you’d put them up over eight feet high, that maybe we could allow that to happen, and if you keep them within a certain distance of your house maybe that’s okay. The author of this bill himself, who is now serving with us in the Legislature, has received multiple tickets and persecution from the state of Michigan for feeding birds in his backyard. It is outrageous and ridiculous.

This is an important piece of legislation, one that I hope will receive the support of this administration to protect the right of all people in this state to feed the birds, to have a bird feeder in their backyard and enjoy watching the birds, as millions of people have done for decades. This is not a big ask; this is not the end of the world. We’re talking about being able to put some sunflower seeds in your backyard bird feeder. I appreciate those who were able to support this legislation and I hope that we’ll see this bill get a signature very soon so that grandmas and young people who make pine cone bird feeders in first grade and hang them up on a backyard pine tree don’t have to worry about the DNR showing up and accusing them of violating the ecology of the state of Michigan.

Announcements of Printing and Enrollment

The Secretary announced that the following House bills were received in the Senate and filed on Wednesday, September 29:

House Bill Nos. 4821 4861

The Secretary announced that the following bills were printed and filed on Wednesday, September 29, and are available on the Michigan Legislature website:

Senate Bill Nos. 657 658 659 660 661 662 663

House Bill Nos. 5344 5345 5346 5347 5348 5349 5350 5351

Committee Reports

The Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety reported

Senate Bill No. 244, entitled

A bill to amend 1961 PA 236, entitled “Revised judicature act of 1961,” by amending section 1910 (MCL 600.1910), as amended by 1994 PA 403.

With the recommendation that the substitute (S-1) be adopted and that the bill then pass.

Roger Victory

Chairperson

To Report Out:

Yeas: Senators Victory, VanderWall, Barrett, Johnson, Runestad, Chang and Irwin

Nays: None

The bill and the substitute recommended by the committee were referred to the Committee of the Whole.

The Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety reported

Senate Bill No. 375, entitled

A bill to amend 1978 PA 390, entitled “An act to regulate the time and manner of payment of wages and fringe benefits to employees; to prescribe rights and responsibilities of employers and employees, and the powers and duties of the department of labor; to require keeping of records; to provide for settlement of disputes regarding wages and fringe benefits; to prohibit certain practices by employers; to prescribe penalties and remedies; and to repeal certain acts and parts of acts,” by amending section 8 (MCL 408.478).

With the recommendation that the bill pass.

Roger Victory

Chairperson

To Report Out:

Yeas: Senators Victory, VanderWall, Barrett, Johnson, Runestad, Chang and Irwin

Nays: None

The bill was referred to the Committee of the Whole.

COMMITTEE ATTENDANCE REPORT

The Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety submitted the following:

Meeting held on Wednesday, September 29, 2021, at 9:15 a.m., Room 1100, Binsfeld Office Building

Present: Senators Victory (C), VanderWall, Barrett, Johnson, Runestad, Chang and Irwin

The Committee on Appropriations reported

House Bill No. 4247, entitled

A bill to amend 1996 PA 195, entitled “Police officer’s and fire fighter’s survivor tuition grant act,” by amending sections 2 and 3 (MCL 390.1242 and 390.1243), section 2 as amended by 2016 PA 295 and section 3 as amended by 2012 PA 470.

With the recommendation that the bill pass.

The committee further recommends that the bill be given immediate effect.

Jim Stamas

Chairperson

To Report Out:

Yeas: Senators Stamas, Bumstead, Barrett, Bizon, LaSata, MacDonald, Nesbitt, Outman, Runestad, Schmidt, Victory, Daley, Hertel, Bayer, Hollier, Irwin, McCann and Santana

Nays: None

The bill was referred to the Committee of the Whole.

The Committee on Appropriations reported

House Bill No. 5094, entitled

With the recommendation that the bill pass.

The committee further recommends that the bill be given immediate effect.

Jim Stamas

Chairperson

To Report Out:

Yeas: Senators Stamas, Bumstead, Barrett, Bizon, LaSata, MacDonald, Nesbitt, Outman, Schmidt, Victory, Daley, Hertel, Bayer, Hollier, Irwin, McCann and Santana

Nays: Senator Runestad

The bill was referred to the Committee of the Whole.

COMMITTEE ATTENDANCE REPORT

The Committee on Appropriations submitted the following:

Meeting held on Wednesday, September 29, 2021, at 2:00 p.m., Harry T. Gast Appropriations Room, 3rd Floor, Capitol Building

Present: Senators Stamas (C), Bumstead, Barrett, Bizon, LaSata, MacDonald, Nesbitt, Outman, Runestad, Schmidt, Victory, Daley, Hertel, Bayer, Hollier, Irwin, McCann and Santana

The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure reported

House Bill No. 4364, entitled

A bill to amend 1949 PA 300, entitled “Michigan vehicle code,” by amending sections 221 and 310 (MCL 257.221 and 257.310), as amended by 2020 PA 93.

With the recommendation that the substitute (S-1) be adopted and that the bill then pass.

The committee further recommends that the bill be given immediate effect.

Tom Barrett

Chairperson

To Report Out:

Yeas: Senators Barrett, LaSata, McBroom, Victory, Outman, Lauwers, Geiss and Hollier

Nays: None

The bill and the substitute recommended by the committee were referred to the Committee of the Whole.

The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure reported

House Bill No. 4366, entitled

A bill to amend 2008 PA 23, entitled “Enhanced driver license and enhanced official state personal identification card act,” by amending section 5 (MCL 28.305), as amended by 2020 PA 94.

With the recommendation that the bill pass.

The committee further recommends that the bill be given immediate effect.

Tom Barrett

Chairperson

To Report Out:

Yeas: Senators Barrett, LaSata, McBroom, Victory, Outman, Lauwers, Geiss and Hollier

Nays: None

The bill was referred to the Committee of the Whole.

COMMITTEE ATTENDANCE REPORT

The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure submitted the following:

Meeting held on Wednesday, September 29, 2021, at 12:00 noon, Room 1100, Binsfeld Office Building

Present: Senators Barrett (C), LaSata, McBroom, Victory, Outman, Lauwers, Geiss and Hollier

Excused: Senator Bullock

House Bill No. 4528, entitled

With the recommendation that the bill pass.

The committee further recommends that the bill be given immediate effect.

Ruth A. Johnson

Chairperson

To Report Out:

Yeas: Senators Johnson, McBroom, VanderWall and Wojno

Nays: None

The bill was referred to the Committee of the Whole.

House Bill No. 4837, entitled

With the recommendation that the bill pass.

The committee further recommends that the bill be given immediate effect.

Ruth A. Johnson

Chairperson

To Report Out:

Yeas: Senators Johnson, McBroom, VanderWall and Wojno

Nays: None

The bill was referred to the Committee of the Whole.

House Bill No. 4838, entitled

With the recommendation that the bill pass.

The committee further recommends that the bill be given immediate effect.

Ruth A. Johnson

Chairperson

To Report Out:

Yeas: Senators Johnson, McBroom, VanderWall and Wojno

Nays: None

The bill was referred to the Committee of the Whole.