LANSING, Mich. (MIRS News) – The legislator with the most bills signed into law during 2022 was former Sen. Wayne Schmidt, a Traverse City Republican and past chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on K-12 and the Michigan Department of Education and Transportation.

In 2022, Schmidt had nine bills signed by the Governor to become official Public Acts (PAs), including SB 871 – now Public Act 73 of 2022 – expanding the Michigan Department of Transportation’s deadline to distribute a report and strategic implementation plan to state leaders for highway tolling from July 8, 2022 to Jan. 31 of this year (recognizing COVID-19 as a delaying factor that impacted the study).

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Two senators followed Schmidt last year when it came to having the most bills turned into PAs by Gretchen Whitmer. Returning Sen. Jim Runestad (R-White Lake), the past chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and past Sen. Curtis VanderWall (R-Ludington), a new state representative and past chair of the Senate Health Policy Committee and Senate Human Services Committee, each had eight bills signed into law during 2022.

For VanderWall, his successful legislation last year featured SB 247 – Public Act 60 of 2022 – which limited commercial insurers to 72 hours for responding to urgent pre-authorization requests from physicians regarding certain prescriptions and advised treatments.

Runestad found success with legislation like his SB 691 – now Public Act 174 of 2022 – authorizing law enforcement to pursue enhanced criminal penalties against individuals who solicit or conspire to steal retail merchandise with compensation-earning ambitions.

The particular bill from Runestad was backed by Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel, and the Republican lawmaker described the legislation as seeking “to hold accountable those at the top of the criminal ring who benefit from coercing youth and vulnerable individuals to commit organized retail crimes on their behalf.”

In the House, seven lawmakers in 2022 tied for having the most bills signed into law from within their respective chamber. They were returning Reps. Andrew Fink (R-Hillsdale) and Graham Filler (R-DeWitt);  previous Reps. Julie Calley (R-Portland), Mary Whiteford (R-Casco Township), Steven Johnson (R-Wayland) and Tommy Brann (R-Wyoming) and former Rep. Roger Hauck (R), who’s returning this year as a state senator.

Each of these 2022 state representatives had six bills turned into PAs.

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Throughout 2022, Whitmer signed 278 bills into law, featuring 202 bills from the House introduced between the start of 2021 to the end of last year, and 76 bills from the Senate.

Last year, the House held 54 active, attendance-taking session days and the Senate held 62, while during 2021, the House took attendance on 91 days and the Senate did so on 90. However, despite the Legislature reportedly being more active in 2021 than in 2022, which is often the case when comparing election years to non-election years, the Governor actually signed off on more PAs last year than she did in 2021.

For example, in 2021, there were fewer PAs created (168) than there were for any year throughout the past six decades.

Democrats with the most bills signed into law during 2022, while Democrats were still operating a Republican-led legislative majority, were past Rep. Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) – who’s returning this year as the new Senate Appropriations Chair – and past Rep. Richard Steenland, a Roseville Democrat who was defeated by new Rep. Kimberly Edwards (D-Eastpointe), an Eastpointe social worker who won against the incumbent 51.9% to 48.1% during the August Democratic primary.

Anthony found success last year with legislation like her HB 4416 – now Public Act 234 of 2022 – that set up a user-friendly process for erasing discriminatory language from housing deeds, prohibiting the recording of restrictive covenants that could be used to target African Americans, Jewish Americans, women and other populations.

For Steenland, his HB 5248 – allowing cities with a population of less than 15,500, as well as larger cities through voter approval, to raise money for police and fire through a special assessment – became Public Act 228 of 2022.

Rep. Angela Witwer (D-Delta Township), the new House Appropriations chair; past Reps. Sara Cambensy (D-Marquette) and Tim Sneller (D-Burton) and former Rep. Alex Garza – who was defeated by new Republican Rep. James DeSana 51.5% to 48.5% – followed Anthony and Steenland by having three bills signed into law each for 2022.

In the Senate, returning Sens. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) and Paul Wojno (D-Warren) and term-limited Sen. Curtis Hertel were tied as being the Senate Democrats with the most PAs for 2022, with each having two bills signed into law.