Politics don’t just happen in Washington, DC! The purpose of this weekly newsletter is to promote progressive policies in the State of Michigan by contacting our state representatives and state senators directly.
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We put a lot of time into carefully researching these actions. But we can make mistakes. If you notice a mistake, please let us know! We’re very receptive to feedback :)
Look up your state representative and state senator and put them in your phone book for all future calling.
We recognize that calling your representatives and senators can be intimidating. For the pieces of legislation we highlight each week, our goal is to provide you with some basic data, analysis, and talking points for you to steer the conversation, but we encourage you to personalize your message in ways that make sense to you. When applicable, it’s particularly powerful to share your personal experiences and expertise related to given legislation.
If you reach voicemail, we encourage you to leave a message; you should receive a call back. Make sure to include your city or town so that the office knows you are a constituent.
The more you call, the easier it gets!
~When calling your representative and senator, also ask them about upcoming coffee hours!~
Some recently introduced bills (House Bill 4581 / Senate Bills 349 & 350) purport in different ways to protect free speech on college campuses, but do much of the opposite. There has been a nationwide movement that vilifies university and college campuses for banning hate speech, including trigger-warnings in syllabi, or canceling radical right-wing speakers in response to student protest. This movement systematically portrays college students and their professors as coddled and entitled. There isn’t room in this newsletter to discuss all the nuanced facets of this issue and the media that support it, but we encourage you to read more about it. We’ve included articles from both sides of the issue in the “more press” section below. For full disclosure: this newsletter believes firmly that college campuses bear no responsibility for protecting hate speech, and that student protest of ideas can and should be audible and visible and disruptive. It is this perspective that we take in our proposed actions.
House Bill 4581 and Senate Bill 349 and why they’re problematic
These bills call themselves “Free Speech Bills” and give four conditions that must be met for a public institution of higher education to “restrict expressive conduct.” The first of these conditions is that the restriction “is necessary to achieve a compelling governmental interest.” The immediate problem with these bills is that they give no definition of what “compelling governmental interest” means. In particular, is expressive conduct that includes hate speech protected?
Senate Bill 350 and why it’s problematic
As this MLive article and Michigan Daily article describe, the senate bill proposes using budgetary leverage to require publicly funded institutions of higher education in Michigan to adopt new policies that would, among other requirements,
One looming problem with this bill is its pure hypocrisy; it implies that speech at a microphone is protected, but disruptive protest to that speech is not. It is also problematic that it does not adequately define what it means to “infringe on the expressive rights of others”
Take Action:
Contact the Senate Judiciary Committee in opposition to SB 349-350.
If your state senator in on the senate judiciary committee (see list below), contact them directly. Otherwise, contact the chair and the minority vice-chair of the senate judiciary committee. Besides expressing your opposition to the bills, ask them the following questions in your voicemail or phone conversation:
Senate Judiciary Committee
Steven Bieda (Minority Vice-Chair)
Patrick Colbeck
Rick Jones (Chair)
Tory Rocca
Tonya Schuitmaker (Vice-Chair)
Chair | Minority Vice-Chair |
The Honorable Rick Jones Phone: (517) 373-3447 | The Honorable Steven Bieda Phone: (517) 373-8360 |
Contact the House Committee on Oversight in opposition to HB 4581.
If your state representative in on the House Committee on Oversight (see list below), contact them directly. Otherwise, contact the chair and the minority vice-chair of the house committee on oversight. Specifically, ask them the following questions in your voicemail or phone conversation:
House Committee on Oversight
John Chirkun
Joseph Graves (Chair)
Kevin Hertel (Minority Vice-Chair)
Martin Howrylak (Vice-Chair)
Brandt Iden
Steven Johnson
Chair | Minority Vice-Chair |
The Honorable Joseph Graves Toll-Free: (866) 989-5151 | The Honorable Kevin Hertel Toll-Free: (844) 543-7835 |
More press on the subject:
This article by Jim Sleeper (also included in last week’s newsletter) goes into a detailed analysis of the nationwide movement that portrays college students and coddled and entitled actors who shut down “free speech.” He points to The Coddling of the American Mind as the manifesto of the other side; this Atlantic article does a convincing job of belittling college students and professors, but Sleeper’s article provides an important context to the bigger movement that produced this kind of manifesto.
We’ve fought against Senate Bill 163 in several of our newsletters so far. This bill has passed the Michigan house and senate and, if signed by the governor, would allow the secretary of state to issue “a fundraising plate recognizing the Choose Life Michigan Fund.” In particular, the funds from this plate could go towards any organization that promotes alternatives to abortion, even if they don’t provide health care. Further, legislators have made it clear that, although organizations like Planned Parenthood provide essential services to pregnant women, they would not be eligible for any of the funds.
Governor Snyder has not announced whether or not he will sign this bill. Now is the time to contact his office and let them know you oppose Senate Bill 163
Snyder’s office: 517-373-3400
(Text taken from House Fiscal Agency analysis)
House Bills 4403-4408 are part of a larger effort to combat the opioid epidemic in Michigan and nationwide. Taken together, the bills would do all of the following:
Take Action:
Although these bills’ sponsors are Democrats, opioid addiction and overdose is a bipartisan issue that all of our legislators should be open to working on. These bills have cleared committee and will be voted on this week.
Call your representative in support of Bills 4403-4408
At the behest of wealthy special interests, including the DeVos family, bills were introduced May 23 in the Michigan House and Senate (SB 401 and HB 4647) which would close the Michigan Public School Employee Retirement System (MPSERS) to newly hired teachers. Created for newly hired teachers only a few years ago, the hybrid pension plan is fully funded and will provide a modest, but stable retirement benefit to school employees when they retire. High needs districts in our state have trouble hiring and retaining teachers-- killing this important employee benefit will only make things harder and hurt our state’s school-age children.
Take Action:
Contact the House Committee on Education Reform and let them know you oppose HB 4647. If your representative is on the committee (see list below), contact them directly. Otherwise, contact the chair and minority vice-chair of the committee (see contact info below).
House Committee on Education Reform
Julie Alexander (R)
Winnie Brinks (D)
Darrin Camilleri (D)
Stephanie Chang (D)
Kathy Crawford (R)
Daniela García (R)
Beth Griffin (R)
Pamela Hornberger, Vice-Chair (R)
Tim Kelly, Chair (R)
Jim Lilly (R)
Jeff Noble (R)
John Reilly (R)
Brett Roberts (R)
William Sowerby (D)
Adam Zemke, Minority Vice-Chair (D)
Chair | Minority Vice-Chair |
The Honorable Tim Kelly Toll-Free: (855) 945-3559 | The Honorable Adam Zemke Toll-Free: (855) 936-5355 |
Contact the Senate Committee on Education and let them know you oppose SB 401. If your senator is on the committee (see list below), contact them directly. Otherwise, contact the chair and minority vice-chair of the committee (see contact info below).
Senate Committee on Education
Darwin Booher (R)
Patrick Colbeck (R)
Hoon-Yung Hopgood, Minority Vice-Chair (D)
Marty Knollenberg, Vice-Chair (R)
Phil Pavlov, Chair (R)
Chair | Minority Vice-Chair |
The Honorable Phil Pavlov Phone: (517) 373-7708 | The Honorable Hoon-Yung Hopgood Phone: (517) 373-7800 |
(Text identical to last week’s newsletter)
House Bill 4105 attempts to explicitly take away cities’ rights to function as sanctuary cities. We featured an action against House Bill 4105 in our April 11 newsletter. The House Committee on Local Government will be having public hearings on this bill this Wednesday May 31.
Take Action:
If your representative is on the House Committee on Local Government (see list below), call them directly. Otherwise, contact both the committee chair and the minority vice-chair in opposition of House Bill 4105 and House Bill 4334 (a county-level version of the bill).
House Committee on Local Government:
Julie Alexander
Kathy Crawford (Vice-Chair)
Jim Ellison
Ben Frederick
Patrick Green (Minority Vice-Chair)
Roger Hauck
Gary Howell
James Lower (Chair)
Jeremy Moss
Jim Runestad
Terry Sabo
Chair | Minority Vice-Chair |
The Honorable James A. Lower Toll-Free: (866) 347-8070 | The Honorable Patrick Green Toll-Free: (888) DIST028 |
Suggested emphasis when talking to Republican committee members*:
(Also see our April 11 newsletter for more talking points and background.)
*Thank you to Indivisible groups from Michigan for these Republican-focused talking points.
What a long list this week! Here’s a checklist to keep track.