Whitmer says she won’t give up pandemic powers despite billion-dollar relief package
(The Center Square) – Despite more than $1 billion on the line for Michiganders, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told national media she doesn’t intend to give up the pandemic powers she’s held for nearly a year.
On MSNBC, Whitmer argued the GOP-led legislature is holding back some federal funding as a negotiating tactic so she’ll relinquish her administration’s authority to shutter schools and unilaterally issue emergency orders.
“They know that’s never going to happen,” Whitmer said, suggesting she aims to block parts of the Republican-backed COVID-19 recovery plan.
“For our legislature to play this dangerous game with resources we desperately need is really disappointing,” Whitmer said.
The latest wrestling match between the Democratic first-term governor and the GOP-majority legislature falls almost directly on the first anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past 365 days, the legislative and executive branches have fought over the governor’s power to shutter industries and suspend Freedom of Information Act inquiries via executive order.
Lawmakers are sending Whitmer a $4.2 billion spending plan contingent upon tying nearly $1.2 billion in federal funding to bills that would limit the Whitmer administrations’ pandemic powers.
About $840.7 million of school district funding is tied to the enactment of HB 4049, which would prohibit the state Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) from closing schools to in-person instruction or banning school sports under a COVID-19 epidemic order.
HB 4047 ties roughly $350 million of federal funding for COVID-19 epidemiology and lab capacity funding to the enactment of SB 1, which would limit the state health department’s ability to issue emergency orders for more than 28 days without legislative approval. HB 4047, if enacted into law, would allocate $600 million toward food assistance, $547 million to COVID-19 testing, $110 million toward vaccine distribution, and $33 million toward mental health and substance use disorder grants.
The proposed legislation seeks to transfer authority from state government to local health departments. Furthermore, local health departments would be required to adhere to specific COVID-19 data benchmarks before halting in-person instruction or banning school sports.
The plan “provides an opportunity for the governor to allow local health departments to make their own science-based decisions about whether their schools should be open — rather than leaving the entire state vulnerable to the governor’s unilateral decisions,” House Speaker Jason Wentworth, R-Farwell, said in a statement.
Tori Sachs, executive director of Michigan Rising Action, criticized Whitmer for refusing to relinquish year-long pandemic powers just a week after reporters exposed her administration paying more than $253,000 in secret taxpayer-funded payouts to former administration employees, some of which were protected by confidentiality clauses.
“It’s no surprise Governor Whitmer is desperately clinging to power as her scandals continue to pile up,” Sachs said in a statement. “Whitmer’s refusal to address the hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars she used as hush-money for former state officials reveals how out of step her priorities are with those of Michigan families.”
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