A tip of the hat for Detroiter Gilda Radner who inspired the title of today’s post. But the expression perfectly captures the way it’s been for animal-friendly legislation moving (or not) in this session of the legislature.
The Democratic trifecta that took control of both chambers of #MILeg and the Governor’s office in early 2023 portended good things for animal advocacy. The pent-up demand for animal welfare legislation was almost palpable among animal advocates. While this is not a partisan issue in theory, in reality the use of legislation to improve the lives of animals … or to simply leave them alone … jibes more with one party’s philosophy than the other’s. There are exceptions, of course, and it is important to work across party lines.
Yet things have not panned out as we near the three-quarter mark of The 102nd, and other distractions loom large over the ability to pass some of the truly good bills that are languishing in committee.
Here are three explanations:
First, the incoming Democrats had not had a trifecta for over 30 years. They had lots of issues to work on that, frankly, took a higher priority than animal welfare.
Second, the majority was a slim one in both the House and Senate. After the 2022 election, Democrats held a 56-54 majority; the Senate was an equally narrow majority of 20-18. With the 2023 election, things became even closer in the House. Two Democratic members ran for mayor in their respective cities and both won. That left a 54-54 tie when the House reconvened in January after a longer-than-usual recess from mid November (a story for another day). Although Dems retained control of the Committees and leadership positions, there was very little appetite for bringing up many bills during the period until a special election was held to fill the 2 vacant seats on April 16. Democratic candidates won both elections. The House is now back to the 56-54 Democratic majority. However,…
Third, as we enter May, next year’s budget is now top priority for leadership. In fact, as of this writing, all “policy” (i.e., non-Appropriations) committees will not meet until the budget is done. AFA was expecting a hearing on the bills revising animal crimes Sentencing Guidelines (HBs 5587 through 5593) which we support and have worked on for several years. We’re still on-call to attend this important hearing to testify once the budget is completed.
Of course, there is summer recess and then election season. But we’ll persist as we always have.