Standoff on FOIA reform and House transparency efforts continue as the sun sets on Sunshine Week

Yahoo

21-03-2025

Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall at a press conference on Jan. 23, 2025. | Kyle Davidson
For reporters and good government advocates, the push for greater transparency in Michigan has been constant and often disappointing, as efforts to reform the state's Freedom of Information Act have repeatedly died on the vine over the last decade.
As civic organizations across the nation amplify calls for transparency and open government in celebration of Sunshine Week, which lasts from March 16 through March 22, Democratic leadership in the Michigan Senate and Republican leadership in the Michigan House have deadlocked on two different proposals intended to hold elected officials accountable.
After the Senate's Jan. 29 vote to advance the bipartisan effort — symbolically introduced as Senate Bills 1 and 2, making it the Senate's first legislative priority for the session — Sens. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) and Ed McBroom (R-Vulcan) have found themselves in a similar situation to when their effort first cleared the Republican-led Michigan House almost a decade ago as they await action on the legislation in the state House.
Moss was hopeful they would be able to replicate the same success they saw in 2015 and pass their plan to extend FOIA to the governor's office and the Legislature through the Republican-led House. However, Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall quickly thwarted those plans, declaring the bills dead at a Jan. 30 press conference, telling reporters the bills would be referred to the House Government Operations Committee, which acts as a functional graveyard for legislation.
'People tell me that [the Senate] passed a bill, a watered-down FOIA bill. And you know, we're not going to pass that,' said Hall, who previously raised concerns about the state of Michigan's Freedom of Information Act in a March 2024 letter to then House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit).
While some Senate Republicans criticized the plan for a variety of exemptions, including constituent communications and records 'created, prepared, owned, used, in the possession of, or retained' by the governor, lieutenant governor and their offices for less than 30 days, the bills ultimately received broad bipartisan support, passing the chamber with a vote of 33-2.
Hall has instead focused on his own ethics, accountability and transparency plan — dubbing it the HEAT plan — which includes new rules for legislative spending initiative requests and legislation barring state lawmakers and their staff from entering into nondisclosure agreements alongside an expansion of the House oversight committee, which now holds subpoena power.
While five of the plan's six components have passed through the Michigan House, some with bipartisan support, their fate in the Democratic-led Michigan Senate is yet to be determined. Though Democrats have sought to tie-bar some pieces of the plan to FOIA reform, their efforts were ultimately unsuccessful.
'We all see HEAT is a much more significant transparency, ethics and accountability plan,' Hall said at a Feb. 20 press conference, criticizing the Senate's FOIA plan for not applying retroactively, with the bills taking effect on Jan. 1, 2027 if passed before the final six months of 2026.
McBroom previously told the Michigan Advance that he and Moss would have no problem doing something more immediate, noting the decision to structure the bills this way was due to the amount of time needed to implement the bills and the lack of consistency of records that are currently retained by policymakers without FOIA requirements in place.
While Hall has touted the HEAT plan as the 'most transformative' transparency and ethics package passed through the Legislature in many years, Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) said the package is picking at the edges when it comes to transparency and building trust with constituents.
'They're a useful distraction from the main transparency tool that we have. Nearly every other state in the nation has transparency and subjects the Legislature to the Freedom of Information Act. We've seen this with Trump. We're seeing it with Speaker Hall. You know, when they don't want to do something, they just distract and try to get folks focused on other less important or different things,' Brinks said.
Michigan is one of two states where the governor and the Legislature are exempt from FOIA, Massachusetts being the other. The state is also consistently ranked at the bottom for transparency and public accountability measures, with a 2015 report from the Center for Public Integrity ranking Michigan dead last. Another report from the Coalition for Integrity ranked Michigan 48th compared to the other 50 states and Washington, D.C.
Though she has had conversations on multiple policies with Hall, Brinks said she would characterize them as unproductive. While Brinks is absolutely willing to move 'good legislation' they'll need willing partners in order to have a conversation about transparency and ethics, and she said that's not something they have at the moment.
'There's no question that FOIA stands on its own, and it is the gold standard in terms of government transparency in the United States, and it's shameful that Michigan is nearly dead last every time there's an evaluation of our ethics standards in our state,' Brinks said.
Hall could not be reached for an interview due to scheduling conflicts. A spokesperson for Hall did not respond to a request for comment as of the time of publication.
Lisa McGraw, the public affairs manager for the Michigan Press Association said that comparing FOIA to Hall's transparency efforts was like comparing apples to oranges.
'They're all the same in that they hold folks accountable,' McGraw said, noting that they support the House's transparency efforts, 'but you know, first and foremost, I think they need to hold themselves accountable as far as allowing the public to see what they're doing.'
House Democrats have also reintroduced several bills aimed at improving political accountability by allowing the Secretary of State to take legal action to stop alleged campaign finance violations and limit the influence of lobbying and financial interests on lawmakers.
While the Michigan Press Association supported the bills when they were introduced in 2024, and is completely in support of more openness and transparency, the disclosure of campaign finance records and legislative records are needed to show the complete picture, McGraw said.
'For now, I'd be happy to have Michigan not be in the basement of ethics and transparency in the country,' she said.
While the Senate's FOIA bills are a great start, McGraw said she'd like to see less of an overall exemption on constituent communications, raising additional concerns on exempting the governor from FOIA on decisions to grant or deny a reprieve, pardon or commutation.
'I think that could end up being quite problematic, really, if something were to go wrong with someone who was released and, you know, we didn't know why,' McGraw said.
While she can appreciate the ideas behind the House's other transparency efforts, the fundamentals need to be in place first, McGraw said.
'And to me, the fundamental is subject yourself to FOIA,' she said.
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