Tri-City Sun

Earlier this month, State Rep. Annette Glenn (R-Midland) and a bipartisan group of her fellow lawmakers urged Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to terminate state Unemployment Insurance Agency officials.

The representatives accused agency officials of failing Michigan families at a time when the UIA needed to step up. Nineteen Republicans, including Glenn, and a Democrat sent a letter to Whitmer requesting her to respond to the UIA’s inaction to rising unemployment attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our state has been shut down for two months and we are still receiving calls from people pleading to get their assistance from the state,” the letter posted on the Michigan House Republicans’ website said. “It is clear to us the leadership in the Unemployment Insurance Agency is not doing the job they were put there for and it is time for us to move in another direction.”

Glenn said hundreds of unemployed constituents in Bay and Midland counties have reached out to her regarding their respective plights.

“UIA officials continue to let down families in Michigan who were laid off because of COVID-19,” Glenn said on her page on the Michigan House GOP’s site. “This isn’t acceptable, and it’s time we take immediate action to find a new leadership team from the private sector or government who can competently get people the help they need. We cannot wait any longer.”

Glenn added that the mid-Michigan area she serves is not just dealing with the coronavirus outbreak but last month’s flooding emergency.

“These past two and a half months have been difficult for families throughout the entire state,” she said on her website. “And for families here, people are not only struggling financially because of being laid off, but because of devastating flood damage.”