COVID-19 relief, health care reform and more transparency: This week in Michigan politics – MLive.com

LANSING, MI - COVID-19 relief. Health care reform. Financial disclosures from state lawmakers.

The pace picked up in the Michigan State Capitol this week, with the Senate approving $1.9 billion in COVID-19 relief along partisan lines and the House introducing new legislative pushes to intervene in the prescription drug market.

In committees, lawmakers discussed investigating COVID-19 nursing home policy and questioned Gov. Gretchen Whitmers choice to lead the state health department.

Heres a look at Lansing happenings from the week of Feb. 22-26.

Sen. Jim Stamas listens as votes are taken at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing on Thursday, April 25, 2019. Neil Blake | MLive.comNeil Blake | MLive.com

Michigan Senate approves $1.9 billion COVID-19 relief plan amid fierce debate

The Michigan Senate approved more than $1.9 billion in COVID-19 supplemental appropriations Thursday, opting to provide piecemeal funding to various sectors affected by the pandemic.

Senate bills 29 and 114 were passed partisan lines 20-15 during the Feb. 25 session. The two bills would appropriate mostly federal dollars to fund vaccine distribution, COVID-19 testing, emergency rental assistance, school aid, plus an extension and increase on direct care worker payments.

The $1.9 billion package is about a third of Gov. Gretchen Whitmers initial $5.6 billion supplemental proposal.

Read more: Michigan Senate approves $1.9 billion for vaccine distribution, direct care worker payments, school aid

The vote took multiple hours to complete, in part due to debate over a provision that removes the state from sending vaccines to regions based on race, socioeconomic level, age and 12 other factors.

The removal of the states Social Vulnerability Index was introduced by Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, who argued that the index creates inefficiencies in getting seniors the vaccine and his proposal is about fairness.

Sen. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, argued Wednesday during the Senate Appropriations Committee that the current index distributes vaccines to communities more if you have minority status and you dont speak English that well than for someone who is over 65 years old.

The vaccine is not currently available for general public use.

I dont care what race they are. I dont care what ethnicity they are. I dont care what language they speak. These are the people who are vulnerable to die, Runestad said, referencing senior residents.

Sen. Erika Geiss, D-Taylor, called the amendment from Republicans racist bulls---.

Some of the same people pushing to deny using the SVI are among those who pushed against the most basic practice of wearing masks when around others, Geiss wrote in multiple posts on Twitter, who framed COVID early on as Black people were getting sick and dying as a Detroit problem, who said things like build a wall around Southeast Michigan, who fought the governor tooth & nail every step of the way claiming they had no legislative power but never introduced any meaningful legislation around addressing the pandemic. But now, suddenly, are demanding that the state ignore the most vulnerable communities. Its a bunch of racist bulls---.

Several amendments from Democrats put forward on the floor were voted down.

Senate begins vetting DHHS director

The Senate Advice and Consent Committee began its vetting process for new Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Elizabeth Hertel this week, who on Thursday told lawmakers the state is headed in the right direction on COVID-19 while asserting her departments authority to respond to it.

In the instance of a public health crisis or a public health emergency, its absolutely the responsibility of the state health department to take action and have that authority, she said.

Hertel, a former deputy director in the department, was Gov. Gretchen Whitmers pick to lead the MDHHS after former director Robert Gordon abruptly announced his resignation on Twitter last month. Its currently the highest-profile role subject to the Senates advice and consent process, which gives the chamber 60 days to reject certain gubernatorial appointees by majority vote.

Whether Hertels appointment wins approval from a majority of senators remains unclear. Senate Republicans have used the advice and consent process to reject 18 Whitmer appointees this year as a show of disapproval against the Whitmer administrations COVID-19 response.

The Advice and Consent Committee is expected to meet with Hertel again next week for further questioning.

Related: Michigan headed in right direction on COVID-19, MDHHS director says during Senate vetting

Joint resolution passes House, Senate buries in committee

On Wednesday, the Michigan House cleared a resolution to overhaul how lame duck works, voting 102-7 to require a two-thirds vote on any bill taken up after November general elections in even years.

The resolution is sponsored by Michigan House Speaker Jason Wentworth, R-Clare, and is part of his overall push to improve government transparency and ethics laws. He and other supporters of the lame-duck change such as Rep Terry Sabo, D-Muskegon, have said it would help prevent term-limited lawmakers from making major partisan policy changes at the last minute.

We have a problem when it comes to transparency and trust, and this is a great step out of many to help fix that, he said. Ive seen over the years, some pretty terrible lame duck activity...its just not the way the state government should be operating.

House Joint Resolution A was sent to the Senates Government Operations Committee.

Rep. David LaGrand speaks from the House Chamber floor at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing on Thursday, April 25, 2019.Neil Blake | MLive.com

Elected officials in Michigan would disclose financial records in new House bill

Michigan lawmakers are reengaging on an effort to mandate elected officials to fill out financial disclosure forms.

A previous effort fizzled in 2019, when a similar legislative package spearheaded by Rep. David LaGrand, D-Grand Rapids, failed to reach the House floor for a vote despite approval from House Elections and Ethics Committee.

LaGrand and a bipartisan group of House representatives are trying again to address the states lagging transparency rankings.

Michigan is one of two states and the only one with a full-time legislature with no requirement for state public officials to disclose basic financial information, including income sources, business investments, gifts and travel compensation. Michigan ranked last in the Center for Public Integritys 2015 State Integrity Investigation, a wide-ranging 2015 report that documented several facets of each states transparency laws.

Michigan House battling health care insurance industry to control drug prices

A bipartisan group of state House representatives on Wednesday introduced health care reforms that aim to cap costs on medications and improve transparency in the price-setting process.

The 15-bill package, sponsored by 10 Republicans and five Democrats, would attempt to control prescription drug pricing through various methods, including capping co-pays on medications such as insulin, regulating the middlemen between health insurers and drug manufacturers and requiring more reporting on how hospitals, pharmacies and insurers set prices.

A full list of the proposed reforms can be viewed here.

Read more: Michigan House package aims to curb skyrocketing prescription drug, health care costs

MDHHS director declines to committee invite to discuss nursing home policies

Despite an invitation from the House Oversight Committee, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services director Elizabeth Hertel declined to attend a Thursday hearing.

She instead sent a letter stating that the state has done an exemplary job of collecting, tracking and validating data on nursing homes.

Oversight Chair Rep. Steven Johnson, R-Wayland, wants several more questions answered, including how many long-term care facility residents died in nursing facilities versus hospitals and why the states numbers differ from the CDCs reporting on the state.

Johnson also alluded to New Yorks nursing home situation, where the state led by Governor Andrew Cuomo has underreported nursing home deaths according to the Associated Press.

These questions must be answered by our governor and DHHS, Johnson wrote in a statement. They continue to claim our state has the most accurate data yet have not supplied us with what we have been asking for weeks. The Oversight Committee also heard compelling testimony from residents that showed just how disastrous these nursing home policies are. Its time the Governor and DHHS listen to the people of Michigan.

Election reforms recommended by Auditor General make it out of committee

The Auditor General recommended in a 2019 a series of election reforms that included cleaning up the qualified voter files list of names, ensuring better training of local clerks and improving campaign finance reporting.

Three Republicans and two Democrats in the House sponsored five bills to address these problems. The same bills died in the last legislative session, but have made it out of the Election and Ethics committee for a future vote on the House floor.

House bills 4127-4131 would:

Related: Michigan Republicans want election reform. That usually means opposing absentee ballot expansion

Democrats push for expanded unemployment benefits

A group of House and Senate Democrats rolled out legislation aimed at increasing the duration of unemployment benefits and the amount of money those who qualify are eligible to receive.

Led by House Democratic Leader Donna Lasinski, D-Scio Twp., and Rep. Terry Sabo, D-Muskegon, in the House and Sens. Erika Geiss, D-Taylor, and Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, in the Senate, the legislation would restore the number of benefit weeks from 20 to 26 weeks, a policy proposal long supported by Democrats.

The bills would also increase the weekly maximum for unemployment benefits from $362 to $593 and would subsequently index that amount to 58% of the state average weekly wage annually. Unemployed workers who dont qualify for the weekly maximum unemployment benefit would receive 6.1% of their highest quarter earnings instead of the current 4.1%.

The package would reverse changes to the states unemployment system approved in 2012.

Continued here:

COVID-19 relief, health care reform and more transparency: This week in Michigan politics - MLive.com