(Source: MIRS.news, Published 12/12/2022) Even if Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signs all 55 bills being sent to her by the House and Senate, the 2021-22 term will go down with fewer public acts than any other two-year legislative calendar in the full-time legislative era, which started in 1965.
MIRS' review of dozens of Public Act records shows that, at most, the Governor and Legislature will have passed 464 public acts these past two years.
With Monday's bill signing, Whitmer has signed 241 public acts in 2022. The House has 37 bills outstanding and the Senate 18. At most, Whitmer will sign 296 bills this year.
Add that number to the 168 signed in 2021, the lowest single-year total since 1960, and we're looking at, at most, 464 public acts and as few as 409.
By comparison, the last time Lansing has seen fewer public acts over a two-year legislative period was the 1959-60 session (444). In 1960, the part-time Legislature adjourned for the year on May 18. It did come back for a pair of small extra session, however.
In two of the last years of the part-time calendar, 1961-62, first-term Democratic Gov. John Swainson signed more bills from the part-time Republican House and Senate (481) than Whitmer will from the full-time Republican House and Senate in 2021-22 (at most 464)
The Legislature's last active session days those years were June 15, 1961 and July 26, 1962.
To punctuate the futility of this legislative term, consider these facts:
- Whitmer, at most, will have signed 1,044 public acts after her first term with the Republican House and Senate. Former Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed nearly twice that number, 1,940, in her first term with a Republican House and Senate.
- Former Democratic Gov. G. Mennen "Soapy" Williams signed nearly as many public acts, 930, in his first four years in office (1949-52) with a Republican House and Senate. Not only did the Legislature adjourn in June back then, but the Legislature didn't hold a regularly scheduled session in 1950. It conducted what amounted to a 52-day "extra session" instead.
- Former Democratic Gov. Murray Van Wagoner signed 419 public acts in his one two-year term with a Republican legislature from 1941-42 when the Republicans didn't meet for more than a few days in 1942. Whitmer has signed 409 public acts up to this point.
- Prior to Whitmer taking office, Michigan has had 27 two-year legislative sessions with full-time Legislatures (1965-2018). In those two-year terms, the average number of public acts has been 776. Whitmer will average, at best, 522, in her two two-year terms (2019-22).
- In the seven two-year legislative sessions since Michigan's Legislature started meeting regularly every year on a part-time basis (1951-1964), the average number of bills passed was 520.
