DETROIT — Republicans in the Michigan Senate want to offer $1.25 million in grants for county prosecutors who pledge to investigate Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the state health department regarding nursing home policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was not made immediately clear why local prosecutors would need additional funding to launch an investigation, or whether lawmakers knew of local officials who wanted to investigate the correlation of state policy to nursing home deaths but could not for a lack of money.
The proposal, passed 20-15 on a party line vote Thursday, would allow prosecutors to receive up to $250,000 to launch this criminal investigation.
"This bill provides resources to the county prosecutors to do what our attorney general has refused to do: investigate the deaths of thousands of mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers on behalf of those who were lost," said state Sen. Lana Theis, R-Brighton.
Democrats blasted the move; Sen. Adam Hollier, D-Detroit, called it a state-sanctioned bribe for prosecutors. Hollier and others argued there is no evidence any policy from the governor or the state directly caused the death of a nursing home patient because of COVID-19.
"You cannot ask and put an appropriation subject to an investigation of your own political adversary," said state Sen. Curtis Hertel, D-East Lansing. "No one in the world would take that seriously."
The measure would need to be approved by the full House and signed into law by the governor to take effect.
Approximately 16,000 Michigan residents have died since the start of the pandemic, with the largest portion of those deaths representing residents of long-term care facilities.
Republicans continue to allege a Whitmer order in the early days of the pandemic required nursing homes to take COVID-19 positive patients, even if they did not want to do so. They say there needs to be a criminal investigation into whether anyone at a home who did not have COVID-19 was infected and died because of a nursing home being forced to take an infected but recovering patient.
Whitmer, the state health department and industry leaders say despite the wording of the policy, no homes were ever forced to take COVID-19 positive patients. They point to data showing Michigan was in no way an outlier in terms of nursing home deaths or cases, and a law passed by state lawmakers in the fall with the support of every Republican but one allowed nursing homes to take COVID-19 positive patients if certain safety measures were in place.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel recently declined a request from Senate Republicans to open an investigation into Whitmer and her policies. She said there is no evidence of criminal misconduct and her office is not in the business of political inquiries.
Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido, a former Republican state senator, is investigating nursing home deaths in his county. While he has said he lacks any concrete evidence of misconduct by state leaders, he has asked local residents to submit information about loved ones who died at nursing homes.
