Mounted Michigan State Police in Lansing clearing the streets of thousands of demonstrators protesting right-to-work legislation. The actions took place on December 11, 2012. (Photo: Abayomi Azikiwe), a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
December 25, 2012 at 11:15 am
Abortion, EM bills among 40 Snyder expected to sign into law Wednesday
By Karen Bouffard
Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Lansing - Gov. Rick Snyder is expected to sign multiple bills into law Wednesday, making a dent in the tall stack sent to him by the Legislature before Christmas.
Snyder already has signed some of the most controversial bills passed late in the Legislature's lame duck session, including right-to-work legislation, personal property tax reform and bills to make it more difficult to recall elected officials—but he has not yet taken action on a new emergency manager law, abortion restrictions, medical marijuana regulations and other measures.
Snyder planned to sign some of the more than 40 bills pending before him during the extended four-day holiday weekend.
"There will be a fair amount of time over the holiday period where I'll have my stack of homework and some bills to look at," Snyder said Friday at a year-end meeting with reporters.
Snyder spokeswoman Sara Wurfel said Monday the governor will sign off on "a host" of bills Wednesday, but she couldn't say which ones.
The Republican-controlled Legislature passed 282 bills before adjourning for the year on Dec. 14 — more than 100 during their last two days when lawmakers met continuously for 18-and-a-half hours. Snyder has signed 90 bills passed in the lame duck session and is awaiting the arrival of 145 other bills caught in a legislative backlog in the House and Senate clerk's offices, Wurfel said.
Democrats and other opponents claimed the most divisive issues were pushed through in the "dark of night" to escape public scrutiny.
"It's kind of ironic for (Snyder) to think he now has to give these bill review when they weren't reviewed when they were jammed through the Legislature," Bob McCann, spokesman for Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer, said Monday. "He has some very offensive bills still in front of him that he's going to have to make a decision on."
Snyder last week vetoed a bill that would have allowed concealed weapons in public schools, a move that got national attention in the wake of school shootings in Connecticut that took the lives of 20 first-graders and six adults.
McCann said Democrats would like Snyder to again use his veto pen on abortion regulations he called "a direct attack on women's health care. Of Snyder's decisions on that and other divisive measures, McCann said, "Democrats are going to be watching."
Detroit News Staff Writer Chad Livengood contributed.
kbouffard@detnews.com
(517) 371-3660
From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121225/POLITICS02/212250362#ixzz2G6sdIhNi
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