Lansing Update: What the Final Frantic Week of Lame Duck Means for MCC
Posted December 20, 2024
Legislative Lame Duck Nearing End—What It Means for MCC Legislation
The final week of the legislative session saw both a surprising abrupt end to the House session this year and a marathon, 24 hour-plus Senate session that started Thursday and was still going as of today.
In the House this week, the chamber struggled to get to the minimum number of members needed to conduct business. Efforts to coax missing members—which included one Democrat member and the entire 54-member Republican caucus, who were protesting for various reasons—were ultimately not successful. The House adjourned Thursday in what would be its last substantive day before the session ends without passing anything.
The Senate missed out on an entire voting day Wednesday due to a member absent out of protest, but returned Thursday and conducted a marathon session that lasted more than 24 hours, passing dozens of bills that had already cleared the House.
While there’s plenty more to what happened this week and why it did, for Lansing Update readers, the takeaway is that much of the legislation MCC was watching or advocating on is now dead for the session, especially because the House did not finish work on any bills the Senate sent over.
All introduced legislation expires at the end of the two-year session, which concludes with the end of 2024. That means several issues MCC was advocating for—like more school safety funding for nonpublic schools and legislation to allow undocumented Michiganders to apply for driver’s licenses—will not happen this session.
But the collapse of the legislative process in the House also means several policies opposed by MCC will die—including bills mandating contraception coverage on religious employers, as well as proposals to shield abortion providers from liability.
However, because the Senate did continue to meet Thursday and into Friday, a few pieces of legislation MCC was working on did advance, including bills backed by MCC requiring schools to send notice to parents of children about state laws regarding the safe storage of firearms.
Another set of bills that could still get the Governor’s signature include a series of school safety bills supported by MCC to enact proactive policies to prevent school shootings, which passed the Senate. A package that will allow the state to apply for driver’s licenses on behalf of prisoners returning to society also cleared the chamber.
Otherwise, the 102nd Michigan legislative session is all but over. MCC will be releasing its annual advocacy report in the new year to recap all MCC’s legislative advocacy activities.
Count Down to Christmas With the ‘O Antiphons’
With the legislative session now all but over, attention rightly shifts to the coming celebration of Christmas and the Nativity of Our Lord.
This past week, MCC has invited its social media followers to pray and reflect on the “O Antiphons” in the run-up to Christmas. The O Antiphons refer to the short prayer that precedes the Magnificat prayer that is recited in the daily evening prayer in the Church’s Liturgy of the Hours, specifically those for the days of December 17–23.
As the U.S. bishops describe the O Antiphons:
They are a magnificent theology that uses ancient biblical imagery drawn from the messianic hopes of the Old Testament to proclaim the coming Christ as the fulfillment not only of Old Testament hopes, but present ones as well. Their repeated use of the imperative “Come!” embodies the longing of all for the Divine Messiah.
To help in intensifying the countdown to Christmas, you too are invited to join in praying and reflecting on the O Antiphons, by following along on MCC’s social media channels, where the O Antiphon of each day is posted. More reflections for the O Antiphons can be found online, as well.
Merry Christmas From MCC!
With this being the last Lansing Update of the year, MCC would like to wish all Lansing Update readers and members of the Catholic Advocacy Network a blessed and joyful Christmas celebration.
May Christmas and the liturgical season that follows it be an occasion to reflect on and rejoice in God becoming man out of love for us.