LANSING Michigan s Republican-led House on Monday capped its two-year session by finalizing a $465 million spending bill to fund additional COVID-19 testing, vaccine deployment, small business relief and worker assistance.
That’s atop the $900 billion federal relief package Congress is expected to begin voting on later Monday.
The state relief package sailed through the lower chamber in a 97-5 vote, opposed by a handful of small-government Republicans and Democrats concerned by an unrelated provision that would allow trucks carrying hazardous materials to cross the Ambassador Bridge into Detroit.
The House vote ended a week-long negotiation over COVID-19 relief. Talks were complicated by Republican animosity of Whitmer s coronavirus restrictions, including continuation of a ban on indoor restaurant dining, and the pending resignation of state budget director Chris Kolb, who is leaving the administration next month for a job at the University of Michigan.