Lansing, MI – Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is once again asking state lawmakers for a permanent extension of unemployment benefits due to COVID-19.
The governor took aim at the Republican-led state legislature during her Tuesday COVID-19 briefing, urging them to take action on a number of issues, including bipartisan COVID-19 restrictions, unemployment benefits and a $100 million stimulus plan.
Whitmer said: “I appreciate the Senate’s expansion of unemployment benefits to 26 weeks, through March, but we really need to work together to pass a permanent extension to protect the countless Michiganders and their livelihoods.”
Whitmer said thousands of Michiganders are in danger of losing benefits at the end of the year.
Tension between Whitmer and the Republican-led Legislature has existed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Lawmakers didn’t approve of Whitmer’s emergency orders issued throughout the pandemic, saying she shouldn’t be able to make such decisions without their approval.
Legislators eventually got their way when the Michigan Supreme Court ruled the law Whitmer was using to issue those orders is “unconstitutional.”
MDHHS then came out and issued its own orders, which mirrored many of the ones that were previously in place.
Gov. Whitmer and MDHHS Director Robert Gordon held a news conference on November 15th to announce stricter COVID-19 rules were being put in place for three weeks, from November 18th through December 8th.
On December 7th, the pause was extended an additional 12 days — until December 20th — so officials could gauge the impact of the Thanksgiving holiday.
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