How to Testify at the Michigan Legislature: A Practical Guide for Families
Three minutes. That’s often all the time a family gets in front of a legislative committee. Used well, it’s enough time to change a vote. Here’s exactly how to use it.
Use BillTrack50 to identify a bill affecting your family, find its next scheduled committee hearing, and plan your testimony using the structure in this guide well before the hearing date arrives.
How committee hearings actually work
Public hearings typically include a sign-up process, often same-day, and a strict time limit per speaker, commonly around three minutes.
Structure beats length, every time
A tightly organized three minutes covering a clear ask, a specific personal example, and a concrete number outperforms a rambling five minutes.
The cost comparison argument carries real weight
Community-based care costs roughly $42,000 to $70,000 annually per person, compared to over $188,000 annually for institutional care, according to National Council on Disability data.
Bring a written copy to leave behind
A one-page written version of your testimony, left with committee staff, extends your three minutes well past the hearing room.
Committee members are people doing their jobs
Respectful, specific, prepared testimony tends to land better than testimony assuming bad faith on the part of any specific legislator.
Follow-up correspondence extends your impact
A brief thank-you note referencing your specific testimony, sent after the hearing, keeps your family’s concern visible past the hearing day itself.
Your three minutes, structured
Your name, your connection to the issue, direct and brief
Exactly what you want the committee to do, stated plainly
One concrete, specific example, not a general history
One cited, sourced number that reinforces your ask
Restate your ask, thank the committee, stop talking
Odessa had never spoken publicly before her first committee hearing, and she nearly talked herself out of it the morning of. She used exactly the structure in this guide: fifteen seconds of introduction, a direct ask, ninety seconds on her son’s specific experience losing day program hours, one cost-comparison figure, and a fifteen-second close. A committee member referenced her testimony by name during the bill markup the following week. The provision she’d asked about was amended.
When you’re preparing to testify, here is exactly what to do
Escalation ladder
- 1Identify the specific bill and its next scheduled committee hearing.
- 2Write your three minutes using the five-part structure above.
- 3Practice reading it aloud with a timer at least twice before the hearing.
- 4Arrive early enough to complete the sign-up process without rushing.
- 5Bring a one-page written copy to leave with committee staff.
- 6Send a brief thank-you follow-up note referencing your testimony afterward.
Have ready
- A specific bill identified and tracked, with its next hearing date known
- Three minutes of testimony written using the five-part structure
- At least two timed practice readings completed before the hearing
- A one-page written copy prepared to leave with committee staff
- A follow-up note sent to the committee after the hearing
Three minutes is genuinely enough time, if it’s used deliberately. Odessa’s story is available to any family willing to prepare and show up.
Odessa had never spoken in front of a room of strangers in her life, let alone a legislative committee, and she nearly turned around in the parking lot the morning of her first hearing. She’d prepared exactly three minutes of testimony the way a friend at a support group had walked her through: a brief introduction, a direct ask, ninety seconds on her son’s specific experience losing day program hours the previous year, one carefully cited cost figure, and a short close. A committee member referenced her testimony by name during the bill’s markup session the following week.
Understanding the mechanics before the hearing day
Michigan legislative committee hearings on bills relevant to disability services typically include a public sign-up process, often available the same day as the hearing, and a strict time limit per speaker, commonly around three minutes, sometimes less depending on how many people have signed up. Arriving early enough to complete sign-up calmly, rather than rushing in at the last minute, removes one significant source of unnecessary stress from an already nerve-wracking day.
A structure that makes three minutes genuinely effective
A tight structure outperforms a rambling appeal nearly every time: roughly fifteen seconds of direct introduction, thirty seconds stating the specific ask clearly, ninety seconds on one concrete personal example rather than a general family history, thirty seconds on a single cited, sourced data point, and a fifteen-second close restating the ask and thanking the committee. This structure respects the committee’s limited time while still leaving a genuine, specific impression.
The cost comparison argument, used carefully
National Council on Disability data places community-based care costs at roughly $42,000 to $70,000 annually per person, compared to more than $188,000 annually for institutional care, a striking figure worth citing directly when relevant to the specific bill under discussion. This kind of concrete fiscal argument often lands with legislators in a way that complements, rather than replaces, the human story at the center of the testimony.
What happens after the three minutes end
Leaving a one-page written copy of the testimony with committee staff extends its life well past the hearing room itself, since written testimony often becomes part of the official record reviewed during later bill markup. A brief, specific follow-up thank-you note sent to the committee after the hearing, referencing the testimony directly, keeps a family’s concern visible during the period when a bill is actually being amended and voted on.
Odessa’s three minutes started with her nearly turning around in a parking lot. They ended with a legislator referencing her testimony by name during a markup session, and a bill provision that changed as a direct result. That same three minutes, structured well, is available to any Michigan family willing to prepare and show up.
Jim Palasty is the founder of OASIS for Autism and a single father of an adult autistic daughter in Michigan.