House R's Receive Award At ALEC; Hertel Asks If It's The Alec Baldwin Award

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 12/02/2025) The House will remain out of session for the rest of the week as the caucus remains in Fort Worth, Texas, for the annual American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) meeting, where members receive an award based on their work with the state budget.

House Appropriations Committee Chair Ann Bollin (R-Brighton) is among numerous House Republicans at the conference to be recognized for eliminating legislative “pork by 87%; slashing waste, fraud and abuse by $800 million; eliminating 2,000 ghost jobs and making Lansing insiders and politicians put their names on pork projects," said House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township).

House leadership plans to be in session Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the next two weeks with a possible heavy agenda of bills that have been sitting for months.

However, Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel Jr. said if lawmakers aren't going to be in Lansing to do the work for the people, they should at least be at home spending time with constituents as opposed to being “wined and dined” by special interests.

“Considering how few session days they have left and how little they've done this year, they'd be better served spending time in session than traveling to Texas," Hertel said.

Hertel asked if they passed the “worst budget” award for their chamber's first offering during the budget process when told House Republicans were receiving an award. He said he appreciated that the House Republicans put their name on such a crummy state budget.

“What is this? The Alec Baldwin Award,” Hertel asked, “Are they getting the ‘one-term speaker’ award because that's where they're headed?”

ALEC, a non-profit, was funded by the Koch brothers and regularly gives Republican legislators pro-business, pre-written, boilerplate bills that are not favorable to unions, publicly funded health care, and traditional public schools.