Life has come full circle for Caledonia Republican state Rep. Angela Rigas.

Nearly five years ago, Rigas faced a misdemeanor with a potential 90-day jail sentence for defying Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s pandemic edicts at a Capitol rally, where she dared to offer free haircuts amid the closure of all “nonessential” businesses.

Afterwards, Whitmer’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs attempted unsuccessfully to revoke Rigas’ cosmetology license, while the charge against her was eventually dismissed.

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The ordeal compelled Rigas to run for office in 2022, and this week she landed key committee assignments during her second term that put her in a position to ensure others don’t face a similar experience.

House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Twp., announced Thursday Rigas’ appointment to the lower chamber’s Committee on Oversight, serving as chair of the Oversight Subcommittee on Weaponization of State Government.

In addition, Rigas will serve as vice chair of the Oversight Subcommittee on Child Welfare System, and as a member of the Committee on Regulatory Reform.

“I want to thank Speaker Hall for entrusting me with these crucial roles,” Rigas said in a statement. “I know firsthand what happens when the government is weaponized against its own citizens.

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“In 2020, I was targeted simply for standing up for my rights, receiving a ticket for peacefully protesting and later facing an attempt by Attorney General Dana Nessel to strip me of my professional license,” she said. “I fought back and won in court, but many others aren’t as fortunate. As Chair of the Oversight Subcommittee on the Weaponization of State Government, I will make sure no Michigander has to endure similar politically motivated attacks. The people deserve a government that serves them, not one that silences and punishes dissent.”

The overreach, Rigas said, extend to the state’s troubled child welfare system, where multiple reports last year exposed numerous ongoing issues at the Department of Health and Human Services that are leaving kids at risk.

The issues ranged from DHHS’ failure to initiate investigations of abuse and neglect within 24 hours, as required, to placing children in homes with adults who had existing convictions for assault, domestic violence, and drugs.

A separate monitoring report for Dwayne B. v. Whitmer, a case that spawned a 2019 plan to improve DHHS, found the state failed to meet required performance standards in 22 of 28 areas monitored for compliance with the agreement.

One of those areas involves maltreatment in foster care, with DHHS reporting in fiscal year 2023 “the State substantiated 459 incidents … involving 437 children in DHHS custody, for an observed rate of 14.50 victimizations per 100,000 days in foster care,” though monitors couldn’t verify that information, according to the report.

“Our Child Protective Services system is broken,” Rigas said Thursday. “Too many families have been torn apart by government overreach, while children who truly need help fall through the cracks. We must hold CPS accountable, ensure due process for families, and protect the most vulnerable among us.”

Rigas’ committee assignments are part of a broader plan by House Republicans who on a majority in November to cut down on waste, fraud and abuse in state government through a revamped House Oversight Committee with subpoena power.

The House Oversight Committee provides critical checks and balances within the Legislature, 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.

“With our sweeping subpoena power, and a robust Oversight Committee, we will get to the bottom of cases where departments are breaking laws, ignoring laws, or spending tax dollars in contrary to the law,” Hall said last week in announcing Rep. Jay DeBoyer, R-Clay will chair the committee.

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

“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.”

Hall created six subcommittees that will assist DeBoyer in changing the dynamic: Weaponization of State Government, Child Welfare and the Department of Health and Human Services, Corporate Subsidies and State Investments, Public Health and Food Security, Homeland Security and Foreign Influences, and State and Local Public Assistance Programs.

“We are hiring a number of lawyers and investigators, people with prosecution experience and people with investigative experience,” Hall said. “We are not messing around. We are going to get to the bottom of misspending of government funds and also departments that are blatantly breaking the law.”