LANSING – The Michigan Senate on Wednesday passed a bill codifying community service as a potential requirement for recipients of the Partnership Accountability Training Hope welfare program.

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with requiring folks to have a little skin in the game,” Sen. Joe Hune (R-Hamburg), sponsor of SB 276 , said of the bill prior to a vote on final passage. “There is nothing wrong with having people do community service as they receive cash assistance from the government.”

The bill is specifically for those in the in the Partnership Accountability Training Hope program, for which the Department of Human Services already must determine participant eligibility in its work participation program. Only those who meet certain criteria based on age, medical condition and related factors can be exempt from having to do some kind of work program such as community service.

The legislation would add community service as one of the “activities in which the recipient is required or authorized to participate” in the PATH program.

Sen. Vincent Gregory (D-Southfield) proposed two amendments, both which failed predominately along party lines.

The first amendment would have required the DHS to pay for child care expenses incurred by a cash assistance recipient while that recipient participates in community service. Sen. Roger Kahn (R-Saginaw Township) and Sen. Bruce Caswell (R-Hillsdale) joined Democrats in support of the amendment. Sen. John Pappageorge (R-Troy) and Sen. Bert Johnson (D-Highland Park) were absent from session.

The second amendment would have essentially mandated that the unpaid work done by a welfare recipient met hourly standards in the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The bill was sent to the House, where it was referred to the Families, Children and Seniors Committee, on a 27-9 vote, with Sen. Steve Bieda (D-Warren) and Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood (D-Taylor) joining Republicans in support of the measure.

Gregory said he wasn’t exactly opposed to the mandatory community service aspect since PATH participants are already required to do it if possible, but he was opposed to codifying that provision into law.

“Michigan will no longer have the option if, during bad (economic) times, we don’t want to force people into community service,” Gregory said.

ORV BILLS: The Senate sent to Governor Rick Snyder a pair of bills allowing the use of off-road vehicles on road shoulders throughout the state, as well as providing for their use on freeways in some areas of the state (namely in the Upper Peninsula).

The Senate concurred in changes by the House on SB 50 by a vote of 26-9, essentially along party lines. Sen. Jim Ananich (D-Flint) voted in support of the bill while his Democratic colleagues did not. Sen. John Pappageorge (R-Troy), Sen. Virgil Smith (D-Detroit), and Sen. Bert Johnson (D-Highland Park) were absent at the time of the vote.

The Senate passed HB 4299 by the same margin.

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