Some Michigan health departments back off mask and quarantine orders after GOP budget provision targets their funding
CNN
Some Michigan local health departments are rescinding school mask mandates and other measures intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus after Republican state lawmakers approved a budget that threatens the funding of local health departments that issue those rules.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, signed the budget into law last week but insisted that the provision targeting mask requirements is unconstitutional and will not take effect.
"The legislature cannot unwind the Public Health Code in a budget bill or un-appropriate funds because they take issue with the actions of local health departments," she said in a letter to lawmakers then.
The Republican-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on Thursday morning will send a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland referring a potential criminal case involving former New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo to the Department of Justice, alleging he lied to Congress.