State Rep. Jay DeBoyer will chair the House Oversight Committee for the 2025-26 legislative term, Speaker of the House Matt Hall announced today.

The House Oversight Committee will provide a critical checks and balances component within the Legislature. It is tasked with handling issues involving state government, including reviewing audit reports released by the Auditor General and legislation addressing governance of the Legislature, state departments and agencies.

“It is my honor to serve as chair of this committee, and I thank Speaker Matt Hall for entrusting me with this role,” said DeBoyer, of Clay Township, who also serves as Associate Speaker Pro-Tempore in the House. “Over the past few years, we have seen egregious and flagrant abuses of the public’s trust, wasteful spending, severance payments to government officials in exchange for their silence, backroom corporate welfare deals that use hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, and more. We have a duty to report to taxpayers that their government is working effectively, efficiently and transparently and that their tax dollars are being respected. When government falls short in those efforts, people lose faith in the system. This committee will work to provide that transparency and restore the public’s trust in our institutions.”

The Oversight Committee will follow a different and expanded structure this term to give the people of Michigan the most detailed look possible on how their government is operating and how public dollars are used. Six Oversight subcommittees will focus on the weaponization of state government, child welfare, corporate subsidies and state investments, public health and food security, homeland security and foreign influence, and state and local public assistance programs.

“Many people throughout our state feel that corruption and mismanagement are plaguing multiple layers of government, and they want it cleaned up,” DeBoyer said. “These subcommittees are going to bring government back to the people and hold unelected bureaucrats accountable. They will serve as dedicated panels that will be able to focus on specific issues and see where there is a need for reform, instead of hopping around every two or three weeks to different issues in order to check boxes.”

DeBoyer noted that there were over 50 reportable findings across state departments in audits done by the Office of the Auditor General from 2022-24, but few committee hearings that would help ensure compliance and that problems were being shored up.

“That’s an irresponsible action out of the administration and a controlling party in the House,” DeBoyer said. “But that’s going to change starting today.”

DeBoyer is in his second term representing the 63^rd House District, which encompasses southern St. Clair County and northern Macomb County. During the previous legislative term, he frequently spoken on the House floor on government transparency, needed guardrails for state spending, efforts to curtail unalienable Second Amendment rights, and other issues.

PHOTO INFORMATION: State Rep. Jay DeBoyer (left), who will serve as the House Oversight Committee Chair for the 2025-26, speaks to media on Thursday, Jan. 23 at the state Capitol in Lansing. Speaker of the House Matt Hall announced that DeBoyer will lead the committee and joined DeBoyer when the announcement was made public.