Last week, the Michigan House of Representatives passed a proposal to put an end to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) hiring initiatives in Michigan’s state departments by requiring hiring decisions to be made based off merit-based factors. State Representative Joseph G. Pavlov (R-Smiths Creek), who has advocated for this policy since taking office, is one of the co-sponsors of the legislation and spoke in favor of the bill on the House floor.

“Merit should not be a partisan issue,” Pavlov said during his floor speech. “Merit based hiring and promotion is simple: you do a good job, and you’ll be rewarded. Why any other metric matters is a mystery. There is no place for DEI in our government.”

While Rep. Pavlov was drafting a set of bills that would have included this proposal and is still working to introduce companion bills, Democrat State Rep. Erin Byrnes (D-Dearborn) inexplicably submitted this legislation along with over thirty other Democrat sponsors despite having advocated for DEI initiatives for years. Despite them having seemingly re-introduced on accident legislation that was sponsored by Republicans last term, they have since maintained that it was intentional, and all but one of the original sponsors, State Rep. Dylan Wegela (D-Garden City), kept their name on the bill and voted in favor of it.

“Though the circumstances of this legislation getting introduced and passed were strange, this is still a great policy that will ensure taxpayer dollars go to hiring the best and brightest talents into public service,” Pavlov said. “The hard-working taxpayers of Michigan should be able to be absolutely certain that their government is doing its best to hire the most capable workers to serve them. State agencies giving preference to certain applicants based on their race or gender undermines this. The passage of this anti-DEI legislation marks a good first step towards putting an end to such practices.”