AGO 5883.

• Court: Michigan

Michigan Attorney General Opinions 1981. AGO 5883. April 10, 1981STATE OF MICHIGAN FRANK J. KELLEY, ATTORNEY GENERAL Opinion No. 5883LEGISLATURE: Enactment of bill incorporating provisions of another bill by reference STATUTES: Adoption by reference of enacted statute or act While the Legislature may not incorporate by reference the language of a presently pending appropriation bill into a public act, it may incorporate by reference entire sections of a previously adopted appropriation act or a new act containing general limitations upon appropriations. Honorable Gary M. Owen State Representative The Capitol Lansing, MichiganYou advise me that the Legislature is proposing to incorporate by reference in appropriation acts certain language regulating the expenditure of appropriations. The language to be incorporated by reference would be included in the body of an appropriation bill, such as the appropriation for the Department of Agriculture (House Bill 4131), and that language from the bill as enacted into law will be incorporated by reference in all other appropriation bills for fiscal year 1981-82 in the following manner: 'Sec. ___. The appropriations made and the expenditures authorized under this act and the departments, agencies, commissions, boards, offices, and programs for which an appropriation is made under this act are subject to part 2 of the Act No. ___ (House Bill No. 4131 of the 81st Legislature) of the Public Acts of 1981.' (fn1) Thus, your question is whether language of an appropriations bill which has not been enacted into law may be incorporated by reference in a separate bill. (fn2) The principle of statutory incorporation by reference (also called 'reference statutes') prevails in Michigan. City of Pleasant Ridge v Governor, 382 Mich 225, 246; 169 NW2d 625, 630 (1969), where the Court reviewed the Michigan and federal cases upholding the doctrine of incorporation of the terms of a statute by reference and quoted, with approval, the following language: "The adoption of an earlier statute by reference makes it as much a part of the later act as though it had been incorporated at full length. [Citations omitted.]' Engel v Davenport (1926), 271 US 33, 38 (46 S Ct 410, 70 L Ed 813)". 'Statutes which refer to other statutes and make them applicable to the subject of the legislation are called...