Keweenaw Report Your Source for Local News and Sports
Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s signing pen was busy again yesterday. After approving more than 80 bills on Tuesday, the governor signed another batch into law yesterday.
Notably, she approved legislation that allows college student athletes to use their own names, images, likenesses, and reputations for financial compensation. A student cannot enter into an apparel contract that conflicts with the apparel contracts of their school. All contracts must be disclosed to the school before they are signed. Students will also be allowed to sign contracts with agents while in school. This won’t happen immediately – the bills take effect two years from today.
Most of the rest were limited in scope. One pair of bills allows officials to suspend child support payments if the payer is sentenced to more than 180 days in jail, and has no other resources to make the payments.
Whitmer also issued some vetoes.
As expected, she shot down a bill that would have changed the state’s public health code to require legislative approval for orders that last more than 28 days. The bill had been pushed by legislative Republicans in response to ongoing epidemic orders issued by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
One set of bills would have added Michigan to the Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact and the Nurse Licensure Compact. Whitmer said the move would not be allowed under the state constitution, and would require the state to “cede its sovereign interest in regulating health professions to an outside body.”
Whitmer turned thumbs down to a bill sponsored by Iron Mountain Republican Representative Beau LaFave, which would have allowed fuel sales from self-service pumps with no gas station employees on site. She cited safety concerns.
She also vetoed the Misrepresentation of Emotional Support Animals Act. The bills would have enabled landlords to verify if a pet is a legitimate, medically necessary support animal, and would qualify for an exception to a “no-pets” policy. In her veto letter, Whitmer acknowledged that a solution to the problem is needed, but said the bills allowed landlords too much access to detailed medical information about prospective tenants.
