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(WXYZ) – Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is calling on the Michigan legislature to pass several measures, including a $ 100 million COVID-19 relief bill.
The request came in a letter Wednesday to Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, House Speaker Lee Chatfield and House Minority Leader Christine Greig. The State House and the Session resume their sessions on Tuesday, December 1.
Related: Active COVID-19 Cases Up 375% in Last 6 Weeks
It comes after Whitmer called for more federal aid to help fight COVID-19, and she also thanked Shirkey and Chatfield for urging the federal government for additional economic aid in a meeting with the President Donald Trump last week.
“This is the most pressing public health emergency our state has faced in our lifetime, and it demands our full, immediate and unified attention,” Whitmer wrote. “I hope that when the legislature reconvenes next week, we can work together in a bipartisan fashion on the following priorities during the few remaining session days of 2020 to address the public health and economic crises our state is facing. currently facing. “
In the letter, Whitmer set three goals: pass a $ 100 million MI COVID-19 relief plan, pass a permanent extension of unemployment benefits, and pass a bill that would protect public health. She said the state cannot wait for support from the federal government.
“It is crucial for us to come together now to adopt a targeted, state-based economic stimulus package of up to $ 100 million that will provide direct financial support to families and small businesses that have been hardest hit by the pandemic, ”she wrote. .
Michigan’s unemployment benefits are in the bottom third of the country, Whitmer said, and said legislation that temporarily extended benefits to 26 weeks expired at the end of the year.
“If we don’t take bipartisan action now, thousands of Michiganders could lose their benefits right after the holidays,” she wrote. “Let’s work together again to make this expansion permanent.”
Finally, she calls on lawmakers to pass bills requiring masks in public and focus on spending to test, spread PPE and more. Currently, the state has a mask warrant under an epidemic order from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
“While there is real hope on the horizon with the availability of more vaccines in the weeks and months to come, we are entering what could be a very dark and deadly winter,” she wrote.
You can read the entire letter below.
Letter to quadrant 11.25.2020 through WXYZ-TV Channel 7 Detroit on Scribd
Additional information and resources on the coronavirus:
Click here for a page with resources including an overview of COVID-19 from the CDC, details on Michigan cases, a timeline of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s orders since the outbreak, the impact of the coronavirus on Southeast Michigan, and links to more information from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, CDC and WHO.
Display a global coronavirus tracker with data from Johns Hopkins University.
See full coverage on our Continuous cover page of the coronavirus.
Visit our The Rebound Detroit, a place where we work to help those financially affected by the coronavirus. We have all the information on everything that is available to help you get through this crisis and how to access it.
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