Sept. 19, 2025 | This Week in Government: Senate Adds Monday Session Day, Bills That Could Run Alongside Budget Introduced

With the budget deadline less than two weeks away, the Senate took the step of adding an additional day to its calendar for next Monday, with the expectation of further session days on Mondays and Fridays to be added next week.

On Thursday, the Senate scheduled an additional session date for next Monday. The goal, the Senate majority floor leader told reporters, is to increase the number of days members are available to meet in the event of a budget agreement.

Sen. Sam Singh, D-East Lansing, said next week additional session days will be added for Friday, Sept. 26, and Monday, Sept. 29.

“We just want to give every opportunity for us to get to a deal, and prevent a government shutdown,” Singh said. “The Senate’s responsible and wanting to use every possible moment that we can to get to a final deal.”

Whether the Senate is in session or members are in committee hearings while budget work is being done remains to be seen, he added.

Singh said he is trying to be optimistic but was not pleased with where they are in the process.

“My hope is over the next few days, that we’ll be able to see a little bit more progress,” Singh said.

Also on Thursday, the Senate introduced several bills dealing with various state fees, which could possibly be moved in conjunction with the budget.

Of the 17 Senate bills that could move with the budget, one bill, (SB 573) would create a new earmark from Corporate Income Tax revenue to the Michigan Transportation Fund.

In the House, Rep. Bryan Posthumus, R-Rockford, wasn’t optimistic about the outlook of budget negotiations.

“We would have had a budget deal three months ago if House Republicans were willing to increase taxes. And we’re not, so we don’t have a deal,” he said. “Democrats want to raise taxes, and they want to find $4 billion of tax increases.”

Posthumus said proposals to increase the Corporate Income Tax, the personal income tax, and increase shipping fees that trucking companies pay are “non-starters.”

He said although it wasn’t time for the House to start adding days to the calendar, the Senate needed to get serious.

“We can only do so much in the House,” he said. “At this point, we’re sticking to what is on the calendar, and then maybe next week is probably when we’re going to start that conversation… there is still some time, but I’m nervous about it.”

Two bills seeking to place restrictions on the administrative rules process were reported to the House floor Thursday after receiving testimony last week.

The House Rules Committee reported HB 4039 and HB 4160, both of which were brought forth by Republican representatives seeking to reduce the regulatory influence of state government. HB 4039 would require state agencies or departments to eliminate two administrative rules for every new rule they promulgate, while HB 4160 would reinstate the “no stricter than federal” standard for state-level rules that was rolled back in 2023.

HB 4039 is modeled after a policy put in place by President Donald Trump during his first term, which required the same of federal departments and agencies. In his second term, the directive has been intensified to require 10 rules slashed for each new rule proposed.

The bills were opposed by the Michigan League of Conservation Voters and Michigan Environmental Council and supported by the National Federation of Independent Business.

House and Senate members from both parties expressed support Thursday for changing the state’s primary election in even-numbered years from August to May with one key lawmaker saying draft language could be ready for stakeholders as soon as next week.

Moving the state’s primary to an earlier date has been contemplated before and supported by election officials, though word first reported by The Detroit News that the Legislature is considering the change ahead of 2026 was a surprise.

Sen. Sam Singh, D-East Lansing, said Thursday he was confident that agreement can be reached with stakeholders to introduce and move the bills in the coming weeks following passage of the budget.

“My hope is that maybe at the end of next week, I might have some language that I can share with different stakeholders, and kind of see where people are at, and then if it feels like we’re making progress, then I’ll introduce those bills in short order,” Singh said.

Time is running short. With the primary filing deadline of the 15th Tuesday prior to the primary election, moving the primary to May 5, 2026, would mean a filing deadline of Jan. 20. That would substantially shorten the window for candidates who must gather petition signatures from registered voters to secure access to the primary ballot (governor, U.S. Senate, U.S. House) from the usual late April filing deadline.

Further, it would put pressure on those candidates to obtain their signatures in the dead of winter, generally a time when people are not outdoors and interested in listening to pitches from petition circulators.

Already one Democratic U.S. Senate candidate is slamming the move as a sop to the establishment. And there was heavy speculation of an ulterior motive to give the major party nominees more time to recover from their primaries given the presence of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan as a candidate without party affiliation who will be on the general election ballot. There was no immediate indication of whether the filing deadline for independent candidates like Duggan to file their signatures to access the November ballot at least 110 days before the election (in July) would also change.

Singh said he believed there is growing bipartisan support for making the proposed changes. Singh said the 2021 legislation was introduced by a Republican and that the issue has been out there for a few sessions now.

“I think most of my colleagues have heard the conversation from their local clerk, so I think there is an openness to have the conversation,” Singh said.

While the potential 2026 political considerations are new, clerks for years have said there is not enough time, especially with all the election law changes from Proposal 3 of 2018 and Proposal 2 of 2022, to get the November ballot ready in even-numbered years after the August primary. The August primary also historically has low turnout in the middle of the summer.

Singh said the idea to bring the proposal back up would affect all candidates equally, whether Republican, Democratic or independent.

Other groups, when similar bills have been brought up in the past, were concerned about the timing of property tax proposals depending on when the primary is set. The Legislature previously considered a June primary date in the 2021-22 session.

Rep. Rachelle Smit, R-Shelbyville, said an earlier primary would take pressure off clerks.

“It’s important because of all the changes that have been made recently. All the early voting that we have now, it’s just extended the whole voting process,” she said. “Having a longer period of time between the primary and the general, I think it sets us up better as a state to be able to properly go through everything.”

Smit said an earlier primary would give clerks, and voters, breathing room.

“There’s been an appetite for this for a while,” she said.

Rep. Rachelle Smit, D-East Lansing, worked on legislation to move the primary up to June last term.

“We worked with the clerks and the school boards to find a date that would be workable for everyone involved so that we wouldn’t have any negative impact on the way funding flowed,” she said. “We didn’t end up moving it forward because we weren’t able to get everyone on the same page with it, but I’m hearing it’s being considered again, so I would be supportive.”

With early voting and the extended period to receive overseas ballots, Tsernoglou said clerks are running into a time crunch between the August primary and the November general election.

“It would really just allow them the time to process the ballots in the way that they should be processed,” she said. “I’m fully supportive of giving them that time. I think that in order to preserve the integrity of our elections, it’s important that we listen to clerks.”

Tsernoglou noted that although the legislation may have political ramifications heading into the 2026 election, she thought it was good policy.

“It has an impact on petition signature gathers. … It gives candidates more time for the general election,” she said. “I think in general just having a longer period for the general election for us to get to know our candidates is a good side effect of this otherwise good policy.”

Rep. Stephen Wooden, D-Grand Rapids, minority vice chair of the House Election Integrity Committee, said he supported moving up the primary.

“There’s a reason clerks want it,” he said. “It’ll save taxpayer dollars to have to manage one election in June, rather than having two elections in May and August. We’ll give the public more time with party nominees to decide and make an informed decision on who they want to vote for.”

He said he was looking forward to reviewing the specifics of future legislation.

“I do think the fact that we have one of the latest primaries in the country, and that deprives the electorate from being able to have more time with their general election choices is something that we should address,” he said.

Smit said she was working with Singh to make sure all the pieces of the legislation were in place.

“There’s a lot to this package,” she said. “We’re all working together and getting it right.”

Among the spinoff effects that could need to be addressed: campaign finance deadlines, county political conventions, and state political conventions.

News of the possible legislation spurred a fundraising email from at least one candidate: Abdul El-Sayed, who is running in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary. He added that it likely would become law and reduce the length of primary campaigns, hurting campaigns that do not have the backing of large donors or political action committees.

“They’d love nothing more than to give their handpicked candidates a head start while people-powered campaigns like ours are forced to sprint,” El-Sayed said. “If the primary moves up to May 5th, having extra support in the bank will be critical to scale up our organizing immediately.”

Dearborn Public Schools Superintendent Glenn Maleyko will become a Lansing regular beginning in December, the Department of Education announced Tuesday, having signed a contract to officially become the next superintendent of public instruction.

Maleyko entered a contract with the State Board of Education set to begin Dec. 8 and last three years, MDE officials said. It was signed by the board’s President Pamela Pugh and Secretary Judy Pritchett.

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to support children and families, educators, and other school staff at all of Michigan’s public schools,” Maleyko said in a statement. “From my experience in Dearborn Public Schools and the relationships I have with educators across the state, I know that local districts, the Michigan Department of Education, and the State Board of Education are all strongly committed to doing whatever we can to improve student achievement. We already have much positive momentum – as evidenced by the metrics that track progress to meeting the eight goals in Michigan’s Top 10 Strategic Education Plan – and can do even better working together.”

Maleyko will succeed current Superintendent of Public Instruction Michael Rice, who will retire from the role on Oct. 3. Deputy Superintendent Sue Carnell will act as state superintendent in the interim until December.

Maleyko was selected by the board in August after two rounds of public interviews. He is the former president of the Michigan Association of Principals and Administrators and represents Michigan on the National School Superintendents Association Governing Board.

“The State Board of Education looks forward to Dr. Maleyko becoming state superintendent so that he can help us continue to advance Michigan’s Top 10 Strategic Education Plan and make further improvements to public education,” Pugh said in a statement. “In the meantime, we will be in good hands with Dr. Rice and then Dr. Carnell providing the leadership that has contributed to great progress toward our eight goals in the plan.”

With two weeks left in the fiscal year, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer returned to Lansing on Tuesday to give a speech urging speedy passage of the state budget to promote economic stability and make clear she is aligned with Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks as talks move forward.

Whitmer’s remarks, her first since returning from a trade mission to Japan, Singapore, and Germany and the first public appearance she’s made in Lansing since May, included praise for Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, noting that the Senate passed its budget on time “as they always have under Leader Brinks” and presenting the two Democratic principals as a united front available to negotiate with House Republicans. The governor also laid out the parameters she believes are necessary for a compromise in the Legislature.

“My budget team will be in the conversations but putting up the votes and actually passing the budget is the Legislature’s responsibility. If we do this right, we can all win,” Whitmer said in her address. “We can govern – which means we all compromise: the budget can deliver on my priorities to invest in our kids, fix our roads, helps us compete, and keep people safe. It can deliver on the Senate’s goals to protect Medicaid, feed kids at school, and support moms and babies. And it can deliver on the House’s goals, too – cut spending, fix local roads and increase transparency.”

Whitmer said she would not sign the House budget as it currently exists but would sign a proposal which includes parts of it.

“If the Legislature sends me a budget that includes these shared priorities, I will sign it,” she said. “I’ve signed six balanced budgets … four with a Republican Senate and House and two with a Democratic Senate and House. Every time, we got it done. Both Leader Brinks and I can tell you that it’s never easy, but when the job is done, it’s always worth it.”

The speech came amid reports of unsuccessful meetings between Brinks and House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, and more recently, a call between Whitmer and Hall over the weekend which left Whitmer feeling that Hall had moved the goalposts for negotiations. Despite all sides stressing the need for a budget deal, the partisan divide was apparent on Tuesday – Whitmer’s office invited Hall and Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Township, to join Brinks in the audience at Heritage Hall to view the speech, but they did not attend.

The speech wasn’t the only change in budgetary messaging from the Whitmer administration upon the governor’s return to Lansing. Beginning Monday, senior administration officials began issuing statements in opposition to the House Republican budget, including the directors of the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Department of State Police, and Department of Health and Human Services.

“The House budget plan slashes more than a third of MDARD’s budget, including nearly half of our general fund. This includes significant cuts to food safety work, emergency response and preparedness, and customer service operations. At a time when our federal partners are pushing for state governments to pick up the load, the House budget plan defunds our basic functions that help Michigan farmers continue operations, keep Michiganders safe from illness and more,” MDARD Director Tim Boring said in his statement. “I’m also concerned about what these proposed cuts mean for inspections that are required for Michigan products to reach international markets … House budget cuts will make government work worse for small business owners and threaten the rural economy.”

The statements from department directors, many of whom have been voicing anxiety about the budget situation all summer, underscored Whitmer’s criticisms of House budgets in her speech.

Although Whitmer did not speak to the media after her remarks, Brinks took several questions from reporters. She said despite the initial rift between Senate Democrats and the governor earlier in the budget process, their underlying goals have always been in sync.

“There always has been alignment on our core issues and core concerns that may not always have been communicated clearly by all parties, but we certainly share the desire to retain essential services that government provides,” Brinks said. “You heard the lists of things (like) the free breakfast and lunch, the different policies that we were able to put in place during the trifecta to help people make ends meet, housing investments, education investments. We have always shared those things. To be able to add roads to the list of things that we were able to achieve in the last two and a half years, working hand in hand with the governor and legislative leaders in both the House and Senate prior to this year, that’s always been a priority of ours.”

When asked by Gongwer News Service for his initial reaction to Whitmer’s remarks and the change in tone between her and Brinks, House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, did not stray from the message he’s struck over the past several weeks: while Democrats put up wasteful budgets and no real roads plan, he feels he can work with Whitmer – not Brinks.

“We need to eliminate all of the waste, fraud, and abuse in state government. House Republicans identified billions of dollars in waste, including thousands of phantom employees in our state departments and hundreds of grants for things like puppet art theaters and barbershop quartets. Our state has been funding that nonsense while our local roads and bridges continue to fall apart. It’s not right,” Hall said in a statement. “Democrats say there is zero waste in the state’s $80 billion budget, but that’s not true. We proved you can fix the roads with just the waste, fraud, and abuse in government if you make it a real priority, but Democrats can’t even put a roads plan on the table. Now that Gov. Whitmer is back from her travels and we can work through this, I think she and I can strike a deal.”

Brinks said at this point in the fiscal calendar, just about anything is on the table to avert a government shutdown. Up until now though, she said, negotiations have seemed to go well until “the progress suddenly seems to disappear.”

“We make progress and then things do not result in actual actions that could get us to the point where we have a budget that we can pass,” she said. “I think there’s a great deal of optimism that things that seem hopeful in conversations actually will be realized, but when push comes to shove, there’s just more delays and obstruction, and it’s simply not helpful.”

Rep. Ann Bollin, R-Brighton, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, told reporters Tuesday that it’s the Senate causing problems in the process, not the House.

“I haven’t seen the Senate shift at all,” Bollin said. “I think we’re more in line with the governor’s office.”

Bollin went on to say that House Republicans have “laid their cards on the table” to no response from the Senate. Any willingness to work on shared priorities, she said, has come from Whitmer’s office.

Hall and Bollin have argued all summer that House Republicans are aligned with Whitmer and Senate Democrats are at fault for any potential government shutdown. Whitmer herself has been largely quiet since the spring and has been accused by some Democrats of courting Hall’s favor and trying to undermine Brinks. But Whitmer, during her remarks on Tuesday and at other events in recent weeks, cemented her allyship with Brinks – throwing a wrench into the patterns of the last few months.

When asked if she thought Whitmer had been played by Hall over the past few months, Brinks declined to answer.

“That’s a question that’s undetermined,” she said. “You can ask the governor about that.”