Legislature Adjourns – Leaves Much Unfinished Business

Readers Please Note: The Public Affairs Associates office will be closed on Tuesday, December 17^th from 10:00AM to 5:00PM for our holiday staff gathering.

The State Senate and House of Representatives adjourned as expected Thursday evening, with no further voting scheduled until roughly January 8^th of next year. With a busy three days of session through the week, numerous tasks were accomplished by the Legislature; however, it was what didn’t happen that grabbed many headlines.

Chief among those headline issues not addressed was the expansion of the Education Achievement Authority (EAA), House Bill 4369 although it was identified as a priority of Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. The House passed the measure earlier in the spring; however, the version sent back by the Senate this week differed significantly. The House version codified the EAA into law and provided for an additional 50 schools to be included, while the Senate version does not codify the EAA, provides for no cap on the quantity of schools included, and sets a moratorium on new schools until the 2015-2016 school year.

Also on the education front was a package of bills (House Bills 5111, 5112, 5144, and 4154) providing for a number of reforms including issues such as letter versus color grading systems. The Speaker had previously noted that the measures needed further work prior to being addressed.

Two other issues received considerable chatter in the Capitol hallways but were not addressed. They were: the potential appropriation supplemental designed to fill the hole left because of the late implementation of the Medicaid expansion legislation and the attention-grabbing landline bill, Senate Bill 636.

posted by PAA Online , Friday, December 13, 2013 12:09 PM
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