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Gov. Whitmer speaks at Congressional hearing about governors and COVID-19

Updated  June 2, 2020 5:24pm EDT
Coronavirus in Michigan
FOX 2 Detroit

(FOX 2) - Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer participated in a Congressional hearing Tuesday, June 2 on governors battling the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The hearing is entitled On the Front Lines: How Governors are Battling the COVID-19 Pandemic. Gov. Whitmer is one of three governors speaking, along with Governor Jared Polis from Colorado and Asa Hutchinson from Arkansas.

Gov. Whitmer advocates for federal partnership at Congressional hearing

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer participated in a Congressional hearing Tuesday, June 2 on governors battling the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Gov. Whitmer's prepared remarks show she will be talking about Michigan's initial lack of personal protective equipment, testing, contact tracing, the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities, the economic impacts and her MI Safe Start plan to re-engage the economy. 

Just yesterday, Gov. Whitmer announced plans to move all of the State of Michigan into Phase 4 of her plan. You can read more about that here.

And even though she never mentioned him by name, the governor did repeat her criticisms of President Donald Trump, using such words as "dangerously inefficient," "lack of centralized coordination," and "irregular and unpredictable."

"We are grateful for every ounce of support we've gotten and FEMA Region 5 has been really good to work with. The issue that has been hard for us to hit our goals is that when we're expecting shipments, they don't reflect on what we are planning for," she said. 

But the president had his Republican defenders on the committee and they came after her, also blaming her for delaying her request for federal emergency declaration and for her handling of nursing home deaths. 

Michigan Republican congressman Tim Walberg challenged her for allegedly putting seniors with COVID-19 back in nursing homes.

"We recognize that in retrospect probably the number of decisions we would have made some adjustment," she said. 

Walberg also criticized the governor for not spending federal dollars she now has with local government and yet he complained there she was, asking for more.

"We can't do this alone. We need a federal government partnership here and I think the bottom line is we really need additional flexibility and additional resources," she said. 

So far the president and the Republican Senate have not signed off on the additional federal aid the governor wants.