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WASHINGTON -- A congressman from West Virginia questioned the governor of Michigan for criticizing the federal response to the pandemic while being slow on her part.
Rep. David McKinley, R-1st, asked Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer why she waited to request a federal emergency declaration until March 26 after 12 other states did so, about the number of deaths in nursing homes in Michigan and about her allegations that state contracts for equipment were being canceled because the federal government told vendors not to honor them.
"These are serious allegations," McKinley said Tuesday during an online hearing of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigation hearing about governors responding to the pandemic.
Trump declared a national emergency on March 13, McKinley said. Sixty people had died of the virus in Michigan by the time the request was made, he said.
"Gov. Whitmer do you regret not acting sooner?" McKinley said.
The more than 1,200 deaths of nursing home residents in Michigan is about a quarter of the deaths in the state, but Whitmer has not required mandatory testing of all nursing home residents and employees, McKinley said.
Whitmer, a Democrat, said the country lost valuable time in the early days of the pandemic. The Defense Production Act could have been used for equipment, such as swabs.
"What we know in this country, is that the enemy is not one another, it's a virus, and the virus doesn't stopped at the state line and it doesn't stop at the party line," she said. "We have to band together to address the crisis that has ravished our nation. That has killed over 100,000 Americans. That has unemployed 40 million Americans. Until we get our arms around the health crisis, the economic crisis will be longer and deeper."
Whitmer said when states were told to contract on their own for supplies, she created a procurement office in the state operations center. When contracts were coming due, the state was told they would be delayed or canceled, she said.
States were bidding against each other and the supplies were going to the federal government, she said.
"I acknowledged that publicly. You know what, Republican governors acknowledged that same thing," Whitmer said. "For whatever reason, I've gotten the criticism for raising that."