2020 House Bill 5916

Make Open Records Law apply to state during declared emergency

Introduced in the House

May 24, 2020

Introduced by Rep. Steven Johnson (R-72)

To amend one of the two Michigan emergency laws by establishing that when a governor declares a state of emergency this does not relieve the executive branch from the requirements of and its duties under the state Freedom of Information Act. This bill amends the 1976 "Emergency Management Act," which puts a time limit on declared emergencies and requires legislative consent to extending one. For most of the coronavirus epidemic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has based her authority to assume extraordinary emergency powers on a 1945 law that specifies no time limit on these powers and requires no legislative consent; House Bill 5917 would make the same change to that law.

Referred to the Committee on Government Operations