Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer addresses the 2025 state budget impasse and the damage of federal tariffs on the state’s economy Sept. 16 at Heritage Hall in Lansing, Mich. (Ben Solis/Michigan Advance)

The legislative earmark reforms championed by Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, during the fraught 2025-26 budget process became law Tuesday after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the House and Senate’s respective bills into law.

Whitmer signed House Bill 4420 and Senate Bill 596, now Public Acts 32 and 33 of 2025.

The laws together would institute new earmark rules initially instituted in the GOP-controlled House during the budget process, which were later adopted by the Senate, run by majority Democrats, as bargaining chip to end the stalemate that saw the government shu

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