Policy Bills Slowing Down Budget

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 07/01/2026) House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township)'s recent attempt to negotiate numerous policy bills alongside the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget deal is slowing down progress to the point where finishing everything by Independence Day may not happen, MIRS has learned.

With the number of functional session days left this calendar year dwindling away and the number of projected productive Lame Duck linked to the Republicans' ability to keep the House, Hall is using the clock and Lansing's collective desire to get a budget done before July 4 to push through almost 18 months of wish list items.

Hospital pricing transparency, medical debt, housing, tax abatement, the regulation on the gas station drug Kratom and possibly even economic development are among the many items being pushed to the front burner. Meanwhile, many of the big-spending items in what is expected to be a ho-hum budget are mainly settled.

On top of that, astute term-limited members are realizing that right now may be their last real chance to get their legislation through, and they're making their wishes known. Hall is trying to push his members' priorities – policy-wise and/or budget-wise -- to give them something to take back to their districts before the primary.

He's finding a willing partner in the Senate, which is also interested in passing its members' priorities through the lower chamber.

K-12 Subcommittee Chair Darrin Camilleri (D-Trenton) told reporters that the House is bringing a lot of different discussions into the mix, “so we're trying to solve all the problems at the same time.”

“When you're doing a lot of big policy bills or big items in the budget, it just takes a lot of time to get through each of those individual items,” he said. “I don't think it's any secret that we have not passed almost any legislation this term. It's actually the least productive legislative session in Michigan history.

Camilleri added that it's a high priority for the Senate Democrats and the governor to “solve problems," and they're attempting to do that.

“We have not really done that, so we're trying to get that done, and if that happens to be part of the budget process, then so be it,” he said.

As far as the K-12 budget is concerned, Camilleri conceded that he doesn't believe it will be much different than last year's. The school meals programs are funded, for example, and the starting point for this year's budget was last year's negotiated budget. The issue this year is the House added programs his caucus doesn't like.

In other action Wednesday, the Senate Appropriations Committee held a quick, six-minute meeting to satisfy its public comment requirement on senators' 535 district-level spending requests worth more than $1.7 billion.

Camilleri made no apologies for the number of requests, saying it shows lawmakers are advocating for their districts and communities “have a lot of needs.”

“I think it's important that we fight for our districts, so do all of our caucus members, so do his members, obviously. They did that in their first version of the budget," he said. “We'll see where we land.”

Suddenly, July 15 on the House and Senate session schedules is being talked about as a real possibility to wrap up everything, although that is not a desired outcome. The House has July 14-16 on its calendar as possible session days. The Senate has July 15.

While the Legislature didn't pass a School Aid Fund (SAF) budget or General Fund-based omnibus budget by the July 1 deadline, the pieces were put in place to get both documents passed before Independence Day.

HB 5630 was made the SAF omnibus budget (School Bus) with House Appropriations Committee Chair Ann Bollin (R-Brighton), K-12 Subcommittee Chair Tim Kelly (R-Saginaw) and Rep. Joe Tate (D-Detroit) named the House conferees. Camilleri, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) and Rep. Rick Outman (R-Six Lakes) were named Senate conferees. The committee has posted for 1 p.m. in the House Appropriations Committee room.

SB 878 is the General Fund omnibus with Bollin, Sen. Sean McCann (D-Kalamazoo) and Outman named Senate conferees. The House's conferees are Bollin, Rep. Matt Maddock (R-Milford) and Tate. The committee has posted 1:15 p.m. in the Senate Appropriations Committee room.

It's highly unlikely either budget will be ready to roll at that time. Instead, it's expected both conference committees will gavel in and go at ease until much later in the day.

“We obviously have not made the July 1 deadline, and that is frustrating to our residents,” Camilleri said. “It's frustrating for us as lawmakers, too, because we've tried our best to do our job to meet the obligation that we have, which is to fund our schools and fund our government by the July 1 deadline.”