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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and a pair of Democratic lawmakers offered a tale-of-two-jails on Friday after a group visited the Washington, D.C. jail, where pre-trial defendants from Jan. 6, 2021, are being held.

Greene led the trip to the D.C. jail and was joined by other members of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee from both parties. Greene who previously visited the facility in November 2021 and has been pushing to return since earlier this month said shewanted to tour the jailto address the human rights abuse inside.

But after emerging from the facility, lawmakers from opposite parties offered contrasting accounts of the conditions they had just witnessed.

What we saw today is exactly what weve known all along its a two-tiered justice system, and theres a very different treatment for pre-trial Jan. 6 defendants and the inmates or, you know, other charged defendants and inmates, Greene told reporters outside the jail. A protester blew a loud whistle during her remarks.

These men are being held, their due process rights were being violated, and they have been mistreated, she added, calling the defendants political prisoners.

Greene said the group was not able to tour the entire jail, but they did go into the Jan 6 pretrial defendant wing.

They told us stories of being denied medical treatment, they told us stories of assault, they told us stories of being threatened with rape and guards laughing about it, she said.

The congresswoman did, however, say that there had been some changes since her previous visit to the facility, noting that the jail was cleaner. But she claimed that the inmates had to clean up, scrub the floors, scrub the bathrooms, scrub their cells and paint the entire area, and that happened in this past week before lawmakers were allowed to tour the facility.

After the visit, the two Democrats who took the trip to the jail Reps. Robert Garcia (Calif.) and Jasmine Crockett (Texas) rejected Greenes description of the conditions Jan. 6 defendants were in.

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These are people that are being treated quite fairly, Garcia told MSNBCs Deadline: White House during an interview. These were conditions where they have access to medical care 24 hours a day, they have tablets for entertainment. Obviously they are being treated by the folks that are there with what their needs are, they can communicate with their families, and theyve done a huge harm to our country.

And so to see Marjorie Taylor Greene right now going on media, lying about the visit, saying that they were in terrible conditions, is just not true, he added.

Crockett who previously worked as a public defender said she witnessed privileged people during her visit to the jail in an interview with MSNBCs The ReidOut.

The privilege that I saw was actually quite astounding, even though we were supposed to talk about or review how bad the conditions were, she added. If anything, I have never seen a jail that afforded so many privileges to anyone and as I said, Ive been licensed in Texas, Arkansas and in federal courts for almost two decades.

The Texas Democrat said its kind of like theres seemingly two versions of what happened on Jan. 6; I had a completely different experience walking into this jail.

Greene and two other GOP lawmakers sent a letter to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) earlier this month asking that she direct the D.C. Department of Corrections to arrange for lawmakers to visit and review the facilities.

The DC Jail Facilities reported mistreatment of pre-trial detainees connected to the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, raise the Committees and Members concerns that DC and DOC is violating detainees constitutional and human rights, the letter reads.

Last year, dozens of Jan. 6 detainees asked to be transferred to the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, claiming that there was black mold in the facility and worms in their food.

The request came to fruition on Friday, when a group of bipartisan lawmakers visited the facility. The Washington Post noted that the Jan. 6 defendants were in the newer Correctional Treatment Facility, and not the Central Detention Facility, which is older.

Garcia and Crockett were the only two Democrats to attend. A spokesperson for Oversight Democrats on Friday said the Democrats on the trip will cut through Republicans attempts to whitewash the dangerous realities of January 6.

There has to be someone that was gonna keep them honest, Crockett said after the visit. I mean, we know that the people that were going on this trip especially the one that led this trip they have a little bit of an issue with the truth.

A number of other Republican lawmakers joined Greene, including Reps. Byron Donalds (Fla.), Eli Crane (Ariz.) and Anna Paulina Luna (Fla.).

Following the visit to the jail, Greene claimed that Jan. 6 was not an insurrection.

Now for two years, weve heard the story from the people on the Jan. 6 committee, weve heard the story about how it was an insurrection and Im gonna tell you something right now, it was not an insurrection, Greene said. And President Trump did not tell anyone to go into the Capitol that day. And as a member of Congress who lawfully objected against Joe Bidens electoral college votes, I was following my duty and so were my colleagues that also did the same thing.

What we have to do is we have to work as hard as possible to defund the two-tiered justice system. And we have to return freedom and due-process rights to these pre-trial Jan. 6 defendants, she added.

Garcia said the worst part of the visit was when we actually saw the inmates, the Republicans rushed to them like they were celebrities.

Talking to them, patting them on the back, interacting with them. These are folks that showed no remorse, he added, referring to the Jan. 6 defendants.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

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Greene, Democrats offer tale-of-two-jails after visit with Jan. 6 defendants - Yahoo News

For years, party insiders have stressed that the donor class is too focused on federal races, and the highest profile ones at that. The lack of attention paid to state contests has not only led to more conservative policy outcomes in the states, they warn, but less Democratic talent moving through the ranks.

The DLGAs pitch to donors and other party leaders is a bench-building one: Todays lieutenant governors are tomorrows senators and governors. They also note that Democratic lieutenant governors best represent a party that increasingly relies on the support of non-white and women voters. Of the 25 Democratic second-in-commands, which includes states where the secretary of state fills that role, 14 are women and 12 are people of color.

It is the most diverse organization of elected officials in the country, said Austin Davis, who was recently elected as Pennsylvanias first Black lieutenant governor. If you look at the number of lieutenant governors that elevate whether to the U.S. Senate, whether its governor, whether its Congress this is clearly a bench of folks who are going to be leading our party into the future.

The DLGA is looking to fashion itself as a training ground for up-and-coming Democrats, connecting them with donors and helping them build policy chops as they consider their political futures beyond their current role.

For a long time, I think the role of lieutenant governor was sort of in the background, Peggy Flanagan, the Minnesota lieutenant governor who serves on the organizations executive committee, said in an interview during a meeting of the organization in Washington this week.

Two of Senate Democrats highest profile midterm recruits were lieutenant governors: Mandela Barnes, who narrowly lost in Wisconsin to incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson, and now-Sen. John Fetterman, who won a close contest in Pennsylvania against Trump recruit Mehmet Oz. And overall in 2022, four now-former lieutenant governors won election as their states chief executives, either winning a term outright or winning a full term of their own after previously assuming the governorship following a resignation.

DLGA leadership says that it is eager to foster members future ambitions. Kevin Holst, who was recently named the committees executive director, noted that would-be donors can form relationships early with a future rockstar in the party.

Holst said that, beyond putting LGs forth as key fundraisers, one particular area of focus would be turning the committee into a centralized services hub for current and aspiring lieutenant governors.

Its a unique committee in which we are focused on electing more LGs, but we recognize that LG isnt likely the endpoint for a lot of these elected officials, he said. Can we provide the fundraising support? Can we help with press support? Can we help with profile building in their states?

Republicans also have a party committee focused on lieutenant governors, which is an arm of the Republican State Leadership Committee. The GOP version focuses on all down ballot races in states, including state legislator and secretary of state contests. The RSLC lieutenant governors website notes that these experiences often prepare our lieutenant governors for higher office, and that over a third of the countrys Republican governors were previously lieutenant governors.

Two tests in the upcoming years for the DLGA will be North Carolina in 2024 and Virginia in 2025, states where the lieutenant governor is elected independently of the governor.

The officeholders in both states are currently Republicans and both are considered potential gubernatorial candidates in the upcoming cycle.

Part of the impulse behind getting involved in these races is because Democrats lost an ultimately consequential race in North Carolina in 2020, a race the committee says it spent $1 million on. Now Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a controversial and bombastic Republican in the state, is a likely candidate as Republicans look to flip the governorship next year.

LG was a race that many people didnt pay attention to in 2020, and now it is biting us in the ass, Holst said.

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Democrats have a diverse bench waiting in the wings. They just need to pitch it to donors. - POLITICO

WASHINGTON In the nation's capital, the debate over banning TikTok has largely focused on whether the app's Chinese parent company poses a security threat to Americans.

But behind closed doors, Democrats are also being forced to weigh whether blocking the popular video platform could come with heavy political costs.

In 2020, Aidan Kohn-Murphy used TikTok to rally support for Joe Biden. Now, he's trying to use the platform to stop Biden from killing it.

Im not defending TikTok as a company, Im defending my entire generation, said the 19-year-old Harvard freshman who, as a high-schooler during the 2020 campaign founded a group called TikTok for Biden. It has since changed its name to Gen Z for Change and formally incorporated as a political nonprofit and, according to Kohn-Murphy, it now includes 500 creators with a combined 500 million followers on multiple platforms.

If they went ahead with banning TikTok, it would feel like a slap in the face to a lot of young Americans, he said.Democrats dont understand the political consequences this would have.

As the Biden administration considers banning the Chinese-owned short-form video platform with some 150 million U.S. users, young progressive activists and the older Democratic strategists trying to reach them are worried that the officials making the decision very few of whom likely regularly use TikTok have no idea how central the platform is to the lives of many in a generation that is just coming of age politically.

Gen Z the teens and 20-somethings born after 1996 skew overwhelmingly liberal and Democratic. Their stronger-than-expected turnout in the 2022 midterms was partially credited with salvaging what otherwise might have been a disastrous election for the Democratic Party.

They're still a small portion of the electorate just 9% in 2022, according to NBC News exit polls but their ranks are growing every year as more turn 18. And not all members of the generation use the app, but 1-in-5 say they get political information from TikTok, the same portion who cited teachers and classmates as information sources, according to a recent survey.

Some worry that if Washington bans Gen Zs favorite app for reasons that most are likely unfamiliar with accusations that the app is collecting user's location data and sharing it with the Chinese government it might leave a lasting political mark on an entire generation, depressing turnout, increasing apathy and shaping their view of the role of the federal government.

Banning TikTok? I mean, are you trying to engage young voters or not? What are we doing here? Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., a former middle school principal and member of the progressive squad said in an interview. They will absolutely stay at home. Theres no question about that.

I think weve sort of reached two conclusions here. The first is that the politics of this are very rough. And the second is that all of that has to be set aside because of nonhyperbolic national security concerns, said another Democratic member of Congress who has used the platform but supports a potential ban and who requested anonymity to speak candidly. I dont know that theres a balance to be struck. I think there might just be a political price to be paid.

Even Bidens commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, acknowledged the danger in a candid interview with Bloomberg Businessweek. The politician in me thinks youre gonna literally lose every voter under 35, forever, she said, before going to explain why a ban may still be necessary.

The politician in me thinks youre gonna literally lose every voter under 35, forever.

Democrat campaign operatives have increasingly seen the value of using the platform to reach young people including those working for Biden, who have on multiple occasions invited young TikTokers to the White House to help push their message on Covid vaccines, the War in Ukraine and their climate goals.

It can be hard for older Americans even older millennials who came of age with Facebook, but before Twitter to appreciate the centrality of TikTok in the lives and identity of Gen Z.

About 62% of TikTok U.S. users are under 30 and market research shows many young people turn to TikTok to look up information even before a Google search. A recent Quinnipiac poll showed that while 49% of all Americans support banning TikTok, 63% of 18-to-34 year-olds oppose the ban.

John Della Volpe, a pollster who specializes in young voters and authored Fight: How Gen Z is Channeling Their Fear, compares the platforms significance to Seinfeld for Gen X. And he said the data privacy concerns driving the potential TikTok ban are not as salient to young people.

They kind of feel like the cats already out of the bag on their data, he said. Disrupting or censoring one of Gen Zs main entertainment outlets without clearly communicating the personal and national security risks would meet a certain backlash.

Kurt Bardella, a Republican-turned-Democratic strategist who also works with entertainers, just returned from a country music industry convention in Nashville where he was surprised to find that even stars who broke through on TikTok were unaware of its potentially imminent demise.

I asked one of the artists who has done very well on TikTok if he had a plan B and the artist had no idea what I was talking about. And that was very illuminating to me that people whose livelihood depend on this had no idea, he said. I imagine theres a lot of young people, frankly, who have no idea that the cord could be unplugged any day or any week now. I think it will come as a massive shock.

It could very well be their first foray into politics for many of them and their first experience with how politics directly impacts their life, he added.

On the other side of the issue, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he worries about Chinas ability to use TikTok for content manipulation or propaganda, particularly with young people, noting that Chinese children are exposed to entirely different types of content on the app than Americans.

When asked about Raimondos remarks, Warner acknowledged that there is a political reality but added that if TikTok goes away, he thinks the market will create an alternative one that isnt ultimately controlled by an authoritarian regime.

Ioana Literat, a professor at Columbia Universitys Teachers College, has been studying young people on TikTok since before it was TikTok, when the app was called Music.ly, and even one of the biggest political hashtags during the 2016 election had only 1,600 videos.

Since then, the app has exploded in popularity and become undeniably the go-to place for young people today and the meeting place for an unusually cohesive generational community.

Its become inextricably linked to Gen Z culture. Its almost synonymous with Gen Z culture, said Literat. Theres such a strong sense of generational identity on TikTok and theyre self-consciously painting their generational self-portrait in real time. There are tons of videos that in effect say, GenZ is like this, Gen Z is not like that.

The generational identity forged on TikTok values political activism and expression, Literat said, calling the platform such an important political sandbox for young people in addition to being an effective way to organize them.

Literat is unsure that GenZ TikTok users will migrate en masse to another platform, given their enmeshment in the platform and its vaunted algorithm that, unlike Facebook or Instagrams, spotlights content from unknown creators that can turn students into stars overnight.

Young people see politics personally, she said. Taking away from them this platform that is so important in their personal lives will further tap into their personal view of politics and I dont think they will take it lightly.

Victoria Hammett, a 24-year-old progressive TikToker and abortion rights activist, said political creators want new rules applied to all social media platforms, not just TikTok. By banning TikTok, we would just be allowing Meta to further monopolize this space, she said of Facebook and Instagrams parent company.

Still, Democratic strategist Andrew Feldman said banning the app may well be worth the political cost especially since polls show Gen Z voters overwhelmingly agree with Democrats on nearly every issue.

The question here is what price are we willing to pay to put up with TikTok? he said. Yes, absolutely this is a political challenge, because this is Gen Zs favorite social media platform. But at the same time, theres a real cost here [to letting the app continue as is] and Democrats need to have a moral compass.

Even if Biden does this, we still have the high ground with young voters, we can still maintain the voting bloc, Feldman said. I see us winning every other issue. Thats not going to change just because we ban TikTok.

Alex Seitz-Wald is a senior politics reporter for NBC News.

Sahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.

Carol E. Lee contributed.

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TikTok ban would be 'a slap in the face' to young Democratic voters, activists warn - NBC News

But Sinema may be making the Democrats deliberations easier.

As she races to stockpile campaign money and post an impressive, statement-making first-quarter fundraising number, Sinema has used a series of Republican-dominated receptions and retreats this year to belittle her Democratic colleagues, shower her GOP allies with praise and, in one case, quite literally give the middle finger to President Joe Bidens White House.

And thats before an audience.

Speaking in private, whether one-on-one or with small groups of Republican senators, shes even more cutting, particularly about Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, whom she derides in harshly critical terms, according to senior Republican officials directly familiar with her comments.

Sinemas sniping spree has delighted the Republican lawmakers, lobbyists and donors whove taken in the show, giving some of them hope that she can be convinced to caucus with the GOP, either in this Congress or in the case shes reelected as an independent.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who Sinema has assiduously courted, remains skeptical, however. Believing she remains a Democrat at heart, McConnell has focused on trying to recruit a non-controversial Arizona Republican into the race, somebody who could attract the moderate GOP voters and independents Sinema would need to win the purple state as an independent.

Its entirely possible, however, that such a Republican doesnt run or cant clear a primary in Arizonas MAGA-fied state party. Former Gov. Doug Ducey has made clear hes not interested, first-term Rep. Juan Ciscomani is likely to accrue more House seniority, and the most attainable option, Karrin Taylor Robson, just lost the gubernatorial primary to Kari Lake. With near-total name identification among Arizona Republicans and the affection of one Donald J. Trump, Lake would enter the Senate race as the odds-on favorite to be the GOP nominee.

Which all raises the question for McConnell: Should his efforts to woo a mainstream Republican fail, would he be better off attempting to cut a deal with Sinema or hope a candidate like Lake can prevail in a three-way race against a current and former Democrat? One potential arrangement: Sinema could remain an independent but caucus with the Republicans in exchange for a ceasefire in spending from the National Republican Senatorial Committee and McConnells Super PAC.

Otherwise, McConnell could find himself ushering the election-denying Lake into the Senate, a step he may be less inclined to take as he considers his legacy and, more proximately, the group of mostly newcomers whove already tried to overthrow him once from his post. Remarkable as it may sound, on the vote that counts the most for the longest-serving Senate leader, the one to extend his record further, the independent may be more likely to support McConnell than the Republican.

At least one prominent Senate Republican is hoping McConnell attempts a negotiated peace with Sinema.

If he hasnt he should, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who has worked closely with Sinema, told me. Romney jokingly said that McConnell should even offer her the gavel of the influential Senate Finance Committee to sweeten the deal.

Just as notable, Romney said he hopes Sinema is reelected regardless and was open to stumping for her in Arizona, which has a significant population of Mormon voters.

Im not saying no, I could very easily endorse Sen. Sinema, he said, calling her one of the senators that is able to pull people together and actually get legislation passed.

At the risk of spoiling the fun for political junkies and students of third-party campaign history, this all could be moot.

Some of Sinemas friends believe shell retire rather than risk losing. To borrow the old line about the Clintons, after her taste of high finance on the fundraising circuit, shes become like the Episcopal priest in the humble rectory who was surrounded by money in his pews and wanted a cut. (Her appetites for luxury hotels, car services and charter flights, as laid out in her campaign finance reports, are ample.)

Sinemas office didnt respond to emailed messages.

Whats clear after the last few months, though, is that it could prove even more awkward than it already is for her to remain even nominally part of the Democratic Party.

Those lunches were ridiculous, she told a small group of Republican lobbyists at a reception in Washington this year in explaining why she had stopped attending her caucus weekly luncheons in the Capitol, according to an attendee.

First off, she explained, she was no longer a Democrat. Im not caucusing with the Democrats, Im formally aligned with the Democrats for committee purposes, Sinema said. But apart from that I am not a part of the caucus.

Then she let loose.

Old dudes are eating Jell-O, everyone is talking about how great they are, Sinema recounted to gales of laughter. I dont really need to be there for that. Thats an hour and a half twice a week that I can get back.

Now she was rolling.

The Northerners and the Westerners put cool whip on their Jell-O, she shared, and the Southerners put cottage cheese.

Cue the groans.

Turning more serious, but continuing to dismiss her colleagues, Sinema boasted that she had better uses of her time than those dumb lunches, which the windiest lawmakers can drag out but are also used to discuss substance and strategy.

I spend my days doing productive work, which is why Ive been able to lead every bipartisan vote thats happened the last two years, she said.

It was the sort of comment that reminded me of what one of her Democratic colleagues, a confirmed moderate, told me in private earlier this year about Sinema: Shes the biggest egomaniac in the Senate.

In fairness to Sinema, as Dizzy Dean purportedly said, it aint bragging if you really done it. And she was at the forefront of a series of bipartisan achievements in the last Congress, including on infrastructure and gun control. Along with needing her 51st vote this year, thats why the White House was just as restrained about Sinema leaving the party as Senate Democrats.

Yet in private, she hardly returns the favor.

In the fall of 2021 as my colleague Alex Burns and I reported in our book, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for Americas Future she used a Republican-heavy fundraising reception to criticize the president for what she suggested was hypocrisy. Noting that Biden had at times opposed lifting the debt ceiling while in the Senate, Sinema said that makes it harder for folks to be somewhat righteous on the matter.

This year, at the same fundraiser where she complained about Jell-O, she was even more pointed.

After thrilling the Republican lobbyists by saying that the countrys declining faith in courts is the Senates fault for eliminating the judicial filibuster (read: Harry Reid, not Mitch McConnell, started this), Sinema recounted how she was able to get a federal judge from Arizona easily confirmed in the divided Senate.

A White House aide telephoned Sinema last summer, she said, and told her shed have to make sure all 50 Senate Democrats at the time were present for the vote to confirm Roopali Desai to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Sinema said she told the aide there was no need to fret because the vote would be bipartisan.

Then she revealed who the aide was, saying that was Klain, as she quickly flashed her middle finger in the air to demonstrate what she thinks of the powerful and now-departed White House chief of staff.

After the laughter died down, Sinema boasted that Judge Desai picked up 67 votes in a swift confirmation and then got in one final dig at the White House. I did not call Ron back, she said.

At another Republican-filled fundraiser in Washington this year, Sinema chided Schumer.

Taking questions around the room, as she prefers to do rather than give remarks, the Arizonan encountered a lobbyist who said he was hoping to work with the Senate Democratic leader on finding a compromise over energy permitting. Sinema looked at the lobbyist and shot back: Oh, good luck, according to an attendee.

Its not just liberals who shell take aim at, though. At fundraisers, Sinema has mocked the name Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) bestowed on the climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, likening it to the moniker of the initially unpopular health law now known as Obamacare: the Affordable Care Act.

And when a Republican donor told the Arizona senator that it was not Manchin but Sinema who carried the water for us in this last Congress, she responded: Youre hired.

When the donor said, Without you our taxes wouldve gone through the roof, she concurred: They would have.

On Manchin, Sinema complained that people often assume that were the same person but then twice noted to the corporate crowd that she has better tax policy ideas than the West Virginian, who remains a traditional Democrat when it comes to taxing the wealthy.

Its hard to overstate Sinemas closeness with private equity, in particular. She spent part of her 2020 summer recess interning at a Sonoma winery owned by an executive in the industry; she single-handedly ensured taxing carried interest on private equity earnings was kept out of the IRA legislation, as Schumer memorably blurted out. And one senior administration official told me theyve concluded the way to win Sinemas vote on a crucial agency nominee is to have private equity executives weigh in with her.

After raising large sums from the finance industry in New York and a range of corporate lobbyists in Washington this year, Sinemas Republican donor tour took her to the resort community of Sea Island, Georgia, earlier this month for the American Enterprise Institutes annual forum there.

Seated with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Sinema used her time on stage at the conservative think tanks conference to hail her relationships with Collins and two other Republicans, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and, especially, former Ohio Sen. Rob Portman.

She sidestepped questions about her political future to the dismay of some would-be No Labels donors in the audience looking for a 2024 horse and offered an above-it-all presentation in which she disparaged Washingtons ways and said she didnt like characterizing ones rivals.

Multiple attendees told me that her comments were met with a warm response in the room from the major donors, a demographic that skews old, rich, white and male, doesnt much like Trump and sure wishes more Democrats talked like Sinema.

Among those in the room who actually work in politics, and werent just hearing from Sinema for the first time, the reception was far more restrained. Which is to say if they had let their eyes roll collectively it may have caused tidal activity in the Atlantic.

This, along with the basic mathematical challenge of winning as an independent in polarized times, may be Sinemas ultimate challenge: the risk that the voters will eventually catch up to her schtick.

As in: The senator lamenting Washington name-calling and cynicism before an audience of AEI contributors told another, smaller crowd earlier in the year that House liberals were crazy people, that most of my colleagues just arent familiar with tax policy and wondered why other senators didnt leverage the 50-50 Senate to be a pain in the ass like her.

She may be a pain in the ass, but her obstinance is going to ensure she has plenty of money in the bank.

Sinema is going back to Sonoma in May for a $5,000 per-person Weekend of Wine and Food, according to an invitation. August will bring a Maui event for her leadership PAC. And then in the fall, shell head up to mountains around Sedona, Arizona.

Whats less clear is if by then shell still be using her current fundraising consultants, Fulkerson, Kennedy and Company. The Democratic firm also represents another, more prominent senator: Charles Ellis Schumer.

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Sinema Trashes Dems: 'Old Dudes Eating Jell-O' - POLITICO

Union activists scored a major victory Tuesday when Michigan Democrats voted again to repeal "right-to-work" in Michigan and reinstate the state's prevailing wage law, sending the legislation to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for her signature.

Right-to-work allows those in unionized jobs to opt out of paying union dues and fees. Republicans in the state put the law on the books in 2012 amid massive protests by labor advocates who argue it weakens unions and erodes their bargaining power.

Republicans repealed Michigan's prevailing wage law in 2018. Democrats want to reinstate it to require union-level wages and benefits for workers on state-funded construction projects.

The state House previously voted on its own set of bills earlier this month while the Senate Democrats took up their bills last week. Votes Tuesday in both chambers to tweak the final versions of the bills brought them across the finish line. All bills passed on party-line votes.

The following bills are poised to head to Whitmer's desk:

Whitmer is expected to sign the legislation.

More:Michigan Senate Democrats pass bills repealing right-to-work law

More:Michigan House passes bills to repeal right-to-work

Democrats attached appropriations to the bills for the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity to respond to public questions about the legislation and implement the changes. The spending included in the legislation means voters won't have an opportunity to subject any of the bills signed into law to a referendum.

The move mirrors what Republicans did in 2012 when they passed right-to-work.

At the outset of her first term, Whitmer promised to veto legislation that circumvents the referendum process. But it does not appear she will issue a line-item veto to remove the spending from the bills before signing them.

"The governor intends to sign legislation restoring workers' rights as passed by the Legislature," said a spokesperson for Whitmer.

Free Press staff writer Arpan Lobo contributed to this article.

Clara Hendrickson fact-checks Michigan issues and politics as a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Make a tax-deductible contribution to support her work at bit.ly/freepRFA.Contact her at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on Twitter @clarajanehen.

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Michigan Democrats vote once more to repeal right-to-work - Detroit Free Press