House Oversight panel adopts rules expanding subpoena authority, authorizes chair to subpoena Department of State records

The Michigan House Oversight Committee voted to adopt a set of additional committee rules covering subpoenas and depositions and authorized the committee chair to execute a records-only subpoena for Department of State materials on training of local election officials.

Chair Matt DeBoer, chair of the House Committee on Oversight, moved the authorization and framed it as necessary because, he said, "the Michigan House of Representatives has the right to know how Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is instructing local election officials to conduct the elections within the state." The committee approved the rules and later approved the chair's authorization to issue a subpoena by roll call votes.

Why it matters: The committee cited repeated unsuccessful requests for the materials and said the Department of State's refusals left the committee no practical alternative. Representative DeBoer said the chair had sent letters on March 12 and April 4 seeking the documents and that deadlines set in those letters were missed. Representative Schmidt, whose earlier attempts to obtain the records were described in committee remarks, had sought the materials for roughly four months, according to the motion's recitation.

Committee members asked for specifics about how the new rules will work in practice. Representative Sarah Polanski asked whether non-deposition subpoenas would require advance notice; the chair replied that the committee would "authorize the issuance" in this…