Executive power grab would eliminate three state laws

State Rep. Beau LaFave today supported a resolution blocking a power grab from the new governor that overstepped the fundamental division of powers between the governor’s office and Legislature.

LaFave, of Iron Mountain, said a recent executive order issued by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer would have eliminated three important environmental commissions established by the Legislature last year after former Sen. Tom Casperson put in a tremendous amount of hard work on the issue.

“This resolution sends a clear message to the governor that the Legislature will not tolerate executive power grabs,” LaFave said. “The Constitution establishes a clear separation of powers, and we have a duty to represent the interests of the people of Michigan and protect that fundamental right.”

The governor may issue an executive order to organize a state department in any way she sees fit. However, LaFave said when the executive order repeals laws, the Legislature has the constitutional duty to reject it.

If the governor’s executive order were allowed to move forward, it would have abolished review committees that provided important oversight of the Department of Environmental Quality and gave citizens long-overdue access to the rule-making process.

“This review process increased transparency and accountability in the DEQ, and we cannot allow laws to be abolished by the action of one person,” LaFave said.

LaFave is outraged that the governor has retaliated against the House’s resolution by asking the attorney general to throw out the law in the courts.

“Since the governor isn’t getting her way by repealing duly enacted laws by herself, she’s asking the attorney general to repeal the laws in the courts,” LaFave said. “This request for an attorney general opinion came only minutes before the House of Representatives voted to block her executive order. It hasn’t even been two months, and the governor is already acting more like a tyrannical monarch than a constitutionally elected co-equal branch of government.”

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