2 Legislative Staffers Have COVID-19, Dems Say ‘Pause’ Needed On In-Person Sessions

Susan Demas, Michigan Advance

President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday appeared maskless for hours in front of the state House Oversight committee and is now hospitalized for COVID-19. Now that Giuliani may have unknowingly spread COVID-19 to state lawmakers, some Democrats are concerned about in-person sessions.

Speaker Lee Chatfield (R-Levering) announced in a statement that the House will not be voting or taking attendance Tuesday because “multiple representatives have requested time to receive results from recent COVID-19 tests before returning to session, out of an abundance of caution.”

The House is scheduled to have regular sessions Wednesday and Thursday. Michigan only had six more scheduled voting days before the term ends.

Chatfield still holds strong though that Giuliani’s COVID-19 diagnosis is not a threat to state lawmakers, staff and others in attendance at last week’s meeting on unproven allegations of election irregularities. Chatfield says Giuliani has said he tested negative for COVID-19 before arriving in Michigan.

In a statement Monday morning, Chatfield said legislators, staff and members of the audience in the committee room were “far more than six feet away from him” and he states the CDC does not recommend these individuals to quarantine.

New: Ingham Co. orders mandatory quarantine for Oversight Committee participants after Giuliani’s COVID-19 diagnosis

“People using Mayor Giuliani’s diagnosis for personal or political gain tonight need to stop and follow the science and follow the experts’ recommendations,” he added.

On Monday, Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail ordered lawmakers, staff and others who attended the House Oversight Committee hearing to quarantine until Dec. 17 because of Giuliani’s COVID-19 diagnosis, as the Advance has reported.

“Those who were present without a mask and those who were within 6 feet of Mayor Giuliani must quarantine for the safety of others. I wish Mayor Giuliani a full and speedy recovery,” Vail said in a statement.

Vail said it will be up to local health departments across the state to monitor whether or not lawmakers from outside of Ingham County follow the order.

Dr. Farhan Batti, a primary care physician with the Committee to Protect Medicare, tweeted to Chatfield, saying that “the facts show that people can test negative for the virus early on and still be shedding it.”

“Mr. Giuliani needlessly put people’s lives at risk, and your caucus allowed it,” Batti added.

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Rep. Laurie Pohutsky (D-Livonia) also took aim at Chatfield’s statement that Giuliani’s diagnosis is not a threat to those he came in contact with in Michigan.

“Your microbiologist colleague here. This is terribly inaccurate. It’s entirely possible to test negatively during the incubation phase and still be contagious. We don’t even know WHEN Giuliani tested negative, so that could be entirely irrelevant,” Pohutsky tweeted Monday.

“Additionally, six feet is a best practice. It doesn’t account for all factors, such as, say, a 4.5 hour long committee hearing where an unmasked lawyer shouts endlessly at a room filled with people,” she added.

In response to Chatfield’s criticism of people politicizing COVID-19, House Minority Leader Christine Greig (D-Farmington Hills) said that it’s been happening from the start on both sides of the aisle.

“When you choose to ignore a pandemic and proceed with political grandstanding, that is politicizing it, as well,” Greig said. “But in terms of this very specific positive status. … [Giuliani] put a lot of people at risk by coming in and grandstanding on these unsubstantiated conspiracy theories and I’ve never seen anything like it.”

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“We need to pause and just turn down the temperature here, and I think that’s where they can really show some leadership and show that they’re not politicizing things,” she added.

According to a letter from the Senate Business Office to senators and staff obtained by the Advance, two staff members have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

One of the staff members presumably contracted the disease on the day of the hearing which Giuliani attended, but it is unclear whether or not the COVID-19 case can be traced back specifically to the hearing.

This staff member was in the Capitol and the Senate building on Wednesday and Thursday, and tested positive on Saturday.

The staff members were not named in the email.

Chatfield spokesperson Gideon D’Assandro declined to comment whether or not any members of the House have tested positive for COVID-19 and Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake) spokesperson Amber McCann did not respond to the inquiry.

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A number of state lawmakers have tested positive for COVID-19 this year, but it’s unclear just how many exactly because it’s not within legislative policy to disclose that information to the public.

Michigan Republican Party Chairman Laura Cox tested for COVID-19 after meeting with Giuliani without masks hours before the Oversight Committee hearing. She said that she will self-quarantine until she receives the results from her test.

Giuliani also visited the state legislatures of Arizona and Georgia last week, and the Arizona Legislature has since cancelled all sessions in both chambers this week.

Greig said that the Legislature should be working on a reduced schedule and only addressing “high-priority COVID-related legislation” following the news of Giuliani’s COVID-19 diagnosis.

“I really think we need to modify the schedule based on the priority of the bills and also give members time to make sure that members in that committee room have time to test several days in a row to make sure that they are OK,” Greig said.

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Greig introduced House Resolution 245 in April that would have allowed for remote participation in House sessions and committee meetings, but the resolution has not moved out of the Government Operations Committee since the day it was introduced.

“Every single day I’m reminded how short sighted it was for Republicans not to take that up. We could have had those issues settled,” she said. “It’s frustrating to me that they continue to stay in the dark ages in terms of modern day governance. This is not unusual for other states to do this, and their stubbornness in moving forward is irresponsible. we should have had this a long time ago.”

Incoming House Minority Leader Donna Lasinski (D-Scio Twp.) took to Twitter Monday and reiterated that the Legislature should be able to meet remotely during the pandemic.

“I wish my colleagues well who may have been exposed, but again if we were able to meet remotely, or if, at the bare minimum, GOP Leadership were to take the #COVID19 pandemic seriously, we would not be in this position,” Lasinski tweeted.