Senator Irwin’s statement is as follows:
We were just treated to a fiery, impassioned attack on the administrative state and I know the passion that motivates those feelings is real. I know the stories that members tell about agencies making life difficult for businesses and individuals in their communities are real as well. Certainly, we can find anecdotes of excesses and I think that’s in part what motivated the Legislature a long time ago to take away the department’s authority to promulgate rules under this part. In doing so, the Legislature said at the time that we don’t support the administrative state, we want these rules to be written by the Legislature. I’m sure all of you have seen during your time in Lansing that sometimes the Legislature isn’t quick to act. Sometimes there are powerful forces that prevent the Legislature from acting. Sometimes even when action is obviously needed, like for instance when Governor Milliken took action to save Lake Erie in the 1970s, sometimes that action wasn’t going to come from the Legislature because of the influence of those powerful forces, because of the influence that money has over the decisions here in Lansing.
That’s why I’m rising to support this legislation. I think it’s important that we restore the administration’s authority—authority this Legislature once gave a previous administration—to protect the water in our state. I know that everyone feels as though the water beneath them and the air above them is theirs when they’re standing on their property, but we have to recognize that this water flows between us, that this air floats between us. It’s a resource we share, it’s a resource we have to share, no matter how much we don’t like it, no matter how selfish we may want to be, no matter how much one business may want to appropriate the value of those resources into their pocket. These are shared resources, and that’s why its important we give the department the authority to protect our shared resources.
While other members may not be hearing from their residents about those kinds of issues, I can tell you I am. In my community, in the community of Ann Arbor, residents were drinking water for years that was contaminated with PFAS because of a plating operation in Wixom. I would have loved if DEQ had the authority to address emerging contaminants when we found out that that NPDES permit the city of Wixom had was causing pollution to go downstream and into the bodies of over 100,000 people—men, women, and children. It’s not just the people who have to drink these contaminants, it’s not just the people who are incurring a greater risk of cancer, that are clamoring for these kinds of protections. There are also businesses that care about this, there are also outdoor recreation businesses, there are also outfitters, there are also—I hear from brewers frequently who say we need to protect clean water here in Michigan. It’s one of the special things we have, it’s one of the things that makes our product special. Please don’t let these other people with their products make it impossible for us to make our products.
That’s what this is about. That’s what’s at stake here. Restoring the department’s ability to stand up for clean water, to protect our people from cancer, to protect our businesses that depend on our water from those who would seek to use it and abuse it for their own personal gains. This is something we share and it’s something we ought to take seriously, our relationship together around water.
Senator McBroom’s statement is as follows:
I want to thank, through you, my colleague from the 15th District for his remarks and his passion too for his district and people. I certainly appreciate and respect that. I would simply rise to just offer that the department is not without resources or opportunity. They still have emergency rulemaking authority and all the power that comes along with that, which is not something that is unsubstantial but is very real and something they’re very experienced at utilizing, and something that provides a great mechanism for them to come to the Legislature and say on this very specific thing, we need you to act with urgency. And yet, over the years of using those emergency powers, I cannot remember a single time during my time in the Legislature that they have done so.
The following bill was read a third time:
Senate Bill No. 868, entitled
A bill to amend 1998 PA 58, entitled “Michigan liquor control code of 1998,” by amending section 105 (MCL 436.1105), as amended by 2022 PA 226.
The question being on the passage of the bill,
The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows: