Hall is changing the state House to something we’ve never seen before

Among insiders, the job of state House Speaker is widely considered state government’s toughest job.

The Speaker not only oversees 109 other state representatives with competing interests and constituencies, but he’s also the gatekeeper. What issues get taken up? Which issues are getting buried? These decisions are those of the Speaker of the House.

It explains why the Speaker’s office is Grand Central Station inside the state Capitol. Historically, lobbyists, special interests and legislators’ cycle in and out day after day. Take up this bill. Kill this bill. Put this in the budget. Take this out of the budget.

It happened all the time. Until now.

Rep. Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp.) has transformed the job into something completely different. Remember Schoolhouse Rock? “I’m Just A Bill?”

Today’s sequel has Bill growing a long, gray beard chained in committee, not jumping around with the governor’s signature.

Matt Hall doesn’t see his job as traffic-copping legislation from all comers. His job (in no particular order) is to:

 – Flyspeck the administration, Secretary of State and Attorney General with his seven oversight panels (one full and six subcommittees).

 – Slice out as much government spending and vacant government jobs as humanly possible through a protracted budget process.

 – Control the public narrative through numerous, hour-long press conferences that often wear down the reporters.

 – Push to the governor’s desk clearly articulated big-ticket priorities– more road funding, tipped wage restoration, paid sick leave reform, transparency in legislative earmarks and an economic development reform (see prior column).

To fully appreciate the transformative change Hall is bringing to the job, look at these numbers.

Since the advent of the full-time Legislature in 1965, the Michigan House and Senate have produced an average of 376 public acts a year with the Governor’s signature. The fewest number of bills signed into law during any given year since 1965 was 168 in 2021. The most is 747 in 2002, John Engler’s last year as governor before Democrat Jennifer Granholm took over.

In the era of horse and buggy, when the Legislature met every year for a few months between 1837 to 1851, lawmakers averaged 151 public acts every year.

As of today, the Hall-led state House in 2025 had passed a grand total of 35 public acts.

Thirty-five.

We have a few more session days left and rumor has it they’re going to pass several dozen bills, but this historically low clearance level is significant. It’s not just a fun factoid to share at a cocktail party with public policy nerds.

The legislature has been turned on its head. Traditional interest groups who stir the drink with fundraisers and political contributions are being told to stand in the back of the line.

How long will they put up with being told that their issue – which may have overwhelming support – isn’t moving?

Elected House members who need a niche bill passed to take care of a local issue are told “not today” again and again and again.

How long will they stand around waiting with a finger up their nose?

Some of their colleagues get to grill Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson about her strange refusal to release election worker training documents. 

Others get to badger the DNR for aggressively enforcing regulations on the treatment of injured wild animals. 

Others get to ask Michigan State Police Col. James Grady why he isn’t quitting when 97 percent of his underlings think he’s doing a terrible job.

But most don’t get to play pinata with department heads and state bureaucrats like a cat playfully batting a toy mouse on a string.

They’re passing one-chamber bills that the Senate is putting in the freezer until some of their own bills move. 

Who knows. Maybe it’s all Hall’s master plan. Maybe he’s building up pent-up demand so he can open the flood gates at the very end.

Whether he is or not, one thing is for sure. 

Hall has changed the game.

(Kyle Melinn is the editor of the Capitol news service MIRS. You can email him at melinnky@gmail.com.)