Michigan lawmakers seek to question Whitmer on state’s coronavirus response

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer delivers a brief update on the dam breach and flooding throughout Midland County at Meridian Elementary School in Sanford on Wednesday, May 27, 2020.

The two Michigan Republicans leading the legislature’s probe into the state’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic want to hear directly from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Rep. Matt Hall, R-Marshall, and Sen. Aric Nesbitt, R-Lawton, who chair the Joint Select Committee on the COVID-19 Pandemic, sent a letter to Whitmer this week asking her to participate in an upcoming hearing.

Referencing Whitmer’s recent testimony before a Congressional subcommittee, Hall and Nesbitt asked Whitmer to answer questions for people “who live a little closer to home.”

“With your participation, we can decipher these decisions in a more in-depth fashion than with a departmental head or through a daily news briefing, while upholding state government as accountable and transparent to the people it represents,” the letter reads.

The committee has previously heard from the state’s Unemployement Insurance Agency and the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity and has focused heavily on delays many people who became unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic are facing.

“The officials from those departments were unable to answer many of our questions and when I asked who would have those answ... (Read more)

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