Running head: LEGISLATOR

Adopt-A-Legislator
Tonita Baldridge
Marygrove College
Professor Diane McMillan
SW 314-51

LEGISLATOR

District:
Bert Johnson is the state senator in my district. I live in district 2. The boundaries of
district two are Grosse Point city, Grosse Pointe Farms city, Grosse Pointe Park city, Gross
Pointe Woods, Highland Park city, Hamtramck, and a portion of the eastside of Detroit.
Biography:
Bert Johnson is a Detroit native who lives in Highland Park. He graduated from the University
of Detroit Mercy and attained a degree in Criminal Law and Security Administration. Mr.
Johnson has been in politics since 2005. He started as a State House Representative for the
Democratic Party. He served for two years, afterwards, he ran for State Senate, and won in 2010.
He replaced Senator Martha G. Scott who no longer was eligible to run again. Bert Johnson won
the primaries in August and will be on the November ballot to be re-elected for State Senator for
the second term. Bert Johnson attends Harford Memorial Baptist Church and he also serves as
Treasurer of the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus just to name a few.
Committees:
Senator Bert Johnson is involved in a host of committees. He is on the Appropriate Committee
and serves as Vice-Chair of the DELEG, which means he is under the Chair person. He is also
on the Regulatory reform and the Redistricting committee. Mr. Johnson is also belongs to the
General Government and the Judiciary subcommittee. The Appropriate Committee deals with
spending in Lansing. The General Government and Judiciary subcommittee falls under the
Appropriate Committee. The General Government addresses issues with transportation housing
as well as urban development. While the Judiciary subcommittee deals with the civil rights of
individuals. Bert Johnsons Regulatory Committee addresses with regulating laws for business

LEGISLATOR

and his Redistricting Committee deals with the changing of boundaries for better representation
for voter constituents.
Bills:
Currently Bert Johnson has several bills hes working on. One bill is Senate Bill 0156 which is
one of the most recent bills to be introduced by Mr. Johnson. It was introduced on
September 28, 2014. This bill opposes any proposal that would tamper or eliminate Medicare as
it is to date. There are many people concerned about Medicaid being tampered with. Mr.
Johnsons signature bill was 1021. This bill allows a person who has been raped while being at a
health care facility such as a hospital, will have longer extended time to be examined. The time
spans was 24hrs to be extended to 120 hrs. It will also require the person who was violated to
have a rape kit available to them at all times. The bill will stop the health care provider from
billing the individual who has been victimized by someone in their facility.
Summary:
This assignment proved to be a little more difficult for me. Bert Johnson was on a lot of
Committees and subcommittee. This caused me to have to research what these committees were
about to enable me to know what I was writing about. I wanted to be able to explain what those
committees were about if I were to be asked. Once I did the research, I understood better about
the government systems and how important the committees really are in government. This
assignment prove to be very enlightening.

LEGISLATOR