(Source: MIRS.news, Published 01/13/2025) Everybody knows about the nine bills from last term sitting in limbo in the House clerk's office.

The clerk's office wasn't able to process all 118 bills left over from lame duck before the 103rd Legislature began last Wednesday, and House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) doesn't know if he has a responsibility to transmit the final nine stragglers or not.

One of the lingering unanswered questions up to this point has been: Has this happened before?

Has a House clerk presented bills from a prior legislative session to the Governor after a new legislative session has gaveled in?

Or has a prior legislative leader waited until a Governor was out of office before transmitting a bill to a newly sworn-in governor?

The answer to both questions is yes, according to a review of House journals from 1962 to 2022 plus some select Senate journals.

In January 1981, House Speaker Bobby Crim was returning as the leader of a Democratic majority and Gov. William Milliken remained in charge of the executive office. However, for reasons never articulated in the journals or press reports at the time, 90 bills from 1980 session were presented to the Governor by the House clerk between Jan. 5, 1981 and Jan. 19, 1981.

The House had adjourned sine die on Dec. 30 and the next Legislature gaveled in on Jan. 14. Two bills were presented to the Governor on Jan. 14 and 10 more were transmitted after that date.

The final bill presented to the governor by the House clerk was HB 4758, which required the Secretary of State to only suspend the driver’s license of a person for issues with someone's driving record, not for parking fines, jaywalking and other tickets not related to driving an automobile.

That bill was signed on Jan. 26, 1981.

There's no proof that any bills were purposely held back in 2024-25, but if they were, there's precedent for that, too.

In December 1982, Senate Majority Leader William Faust told the Secretary of the Senate to hold bills past the final adjournment of the Senate until incoming Gov. James Blanchard, a Democrat, could take office and replace Milliken, a Republican, who wouldn’t have signed the bills, according to then-staffer Bruce Timmons.

Senate journals from that time show that on Jan. 4, 1983, four bills were presented to the Governor by the Senate secretary which Blanchard signed Jan. 17. The new Legislature gaveled in on Jan. 12. The first two of the last four bills signed dealt with deregulating condominiums and revising property tax code.

The last two bills signed, SB 200 and 201, both sponsored by Faust, transferred control of the state library to the Legislature. These bills in particular were two he wanted.

But, compared to 2025’s dilemma, such an instance of a chamber’s authoritative figure playing games with the presentation of a bill led to the bills’ signing and incoming leadership didn’t halt the process. It still stands as an example of bills being presented to the governor after the beginning of a new term.

“But in those instances, it was all complicit. Everybody was OK with what was going on, but that’s not the case here," Timmons said. “I don’t know if there’s any obligation for the clerk to send the bill if the new Speaker doesn’t want him to do it.”

Among the bills that hang in the balance this term are:

HB 6058 gives public employees more collective bargaining power to set their members’ health insurance rates

HB 4665, HB 4666 and HB 4667 allow corrections officers, motor carriers and some other state employees to rejoin the Michigan State Police pension system

HB 4177, HB 5817 and HB 5818 give Southeast Michigan voters the ability to increase their property taxes to fund the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and the Detroit Historical Society

HB 4900 and HB 4901 reduce the amounts or streams of income that could be garnished from a person to settle a debt

Sen. Sue Shink (D-Ann Arbor), who sponsored nearly identical Senate bills to the ones about corrections officers’ pensions, said in a statement that the officers aren’t paid fairly and receive fewer benefits than other officers.

“However, in the first week of their control, House Republicans are playing political games over their constitutional duty and the needs of the state, delaying critical legislation that would directly benefit those who serve on the front lines of public safety,” Shink said. “I have trust in our constitutional process and expect that this bill will be delivered to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's desk.”

Monday at her bill signing in Detroit, the Governor said she's not going to prejudge what is happening with the bills that still need to be presented to her.

"I know that Speaker Hall has said they're doing a legal review. That's in his purview. He's now the speaker of the House, and we'll continue to wait and expect those bills will get presented shortly, I would imagine," Whitmer said today at a Detroit press conference.

For the 2025-26 term, Whitmer said she will continue to live her values, but will "always seek common ground with the new leadership."

MIRS learned there are questions being raised informally around Lansing about Hall's intentions, and if moving the bills from last year can be used as a negotiation tool or bargaining chip in Hall's present-day relationship with Democrats.