This report contains House votes only. The Senate held no votes until Thursday, when it passed nearly 50 bills. Due to the volume of activity, key votes from this Senate session will be included in next week's Roll Call Report. This pattern is typical of a legislature in the final weeks of its two-year tenure.
Senate Bill 70: Create crime victim confidential address program: Passed 102 to 1 in the House
To establish an address confidentiality program for crime victims, with the state Attorney General giving a victim a “designated address” to which mail could be sent and then forwarded to the individual’s current location. This location would not be subject to disclosure under open records laws, and the person could also vote in elections using the designated address.
House Bill 5679: Remove retroactive restrictions from sex offender registry law: Passed 80 to 24 in the House
To revise the state’s public sexual offender registry law in response to a court ruling that banned enforcing new registrations, restrictions and requirements on individual registrants if these were not enforced when the individual was required to register. The bill would repeal provisions prohibiting a registrant from living, working or loitering in a “student safety zone,” which had been invalidated by a federal court. It would also expand or revise many of the items registrants must report including phone numbers, email addresses, vehicle registrations, temporary housing changes and more.
House Bill 5976: Revise certain licensed child care staff ratios: Passed 57 to 47 in the House
To allow a licensed “group child care home” that is currently permitted to take care of up to 12 minor children, and a licensed family child care home permitted to take care of up to six children, to accept an additional two children for several hours of care before and after school. A facility would have to get state permission first. As introduced, the bill would have allowed an additional five children in before- and after-school care. The bill was supported by licensees but opposed by regulators in the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs and by the state's main social welfare advocacy group.
House Bill 5731: Epidemic response bills – drivers license expirations: Passed 104 to 0 in the House
To extend until March 31, 2021 the deadline on renewing an expired drivers license with no fine. An earlier bill and law extended these deadlines until the end of 2020. The House passed the same extended deadlines for state identification card expirations and "enhanced" versions of both documents.
Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy are properly cited.