Senate leader expects busy lame-duck session

Wednesday’s session last before Nov. 6 election

By Jeff Karoub
Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) — The Michigan Legislature is preparing for a heavy lame-duck session during which it could address medical marijuana regulations, no-fault auto insurance and an alternative to the state law that lets emergency managers take over local governments.

Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville said that by the end of Wednesday’s session, which will be the last before the Nov. 6 election, he expects his chamber will discuss Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed overhaul of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, which would end the nonprofit health insurer’s tax-exempt status. But he said much of his focus this week will be on the dozen-or-so sessions between Election Day and the end of the year, and the 140 bills up for consideration.

“It’s going to have to be a well-orchestrated event once lame-duck gets here,” said Richardville, a Monroe Republican. “I want to be as well-prepared as possible.”
That planning by the Senate also provides some support to the House, whose members are all vying for re-election. The House is officially in session Wednesday but doesn’t have any votes planned, just as it didn’t for three of its seven scheduled sessions in September.

“The second year of every session tends to see fewer session days because of the election cycle,” Ari Adler, spokesman for House Speaker Jase Bolger, said in an email. “The big difference this year is that we had many, many things accomplished and the budget was done well ahead of schedule. That means fewer session days this year has not had as large of an impact as it has in previous years.”

Although the post-election agenda could be full for both chambers, the election will play a large role in what gets tackled first. That has as much to do with the candidates’ performance as the proposals on the ballot. One potential item to top the Senate’s to-do list is rewriting the state’s emergency manager law if voters reject a November ballot measure that seeks to preserve the law.

Richardville said the Senate could also look at changes to the state’s no-fault auto insurance, such as offering potentially cheaper insurance in exchange for limited personal injury protection coverage.

Other issues under consideration, he said, are changes aimed at clarifying the voter-approved medical marijuana law. One bill seeks to better define the type of doctor-patient relationship needed before medical marijuana use could be certified. Another would let law enforcement officers obtain medical marijuana patient information.
The marijuana legislation is driven by “the fact that medical marijuana was voted in, but (authorities) didn’t have a way to regulate it — and still don’t have a way to regulate it,” he said.

Richardville said planning for the year-end sessions has taken months and involved meetings with Snyder and GOP House leaders. That’s driven by his desire to avoid what he saw as past mistakes, he said.

“In the past what you would see is people only brought up issues they didn’t want to talk about during the election. Then, they run through things that people were not talking about at their doorsteps — big tax increases, other kinds of things,” he said. “A lot of the worst legislation ... happens during lame duck.”

Robert McCann, a spokesman for Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer, said he agrees with Richardville’s desire to be prepared. But he cautioned that the party in power can’t control everything.

“Obviously what happens on Election Day can influence ... what becomes a priority to them,” McCann said. “We may see complete chaos during lame duck.”