Congressman Fred Upton has signed on to a letter from several Republican members of the U.S. House asking Governor Gretchen Whitmer to ease some of the restrictions in her recent expansion to the stay home order. The members write the governor was right to issue the initial stay home order, but question aspects of the extension. Upton tells WSJM News some businesses should be allowed to operate.
“If you’re a roofer working on a roof and you’re not around anybody else, it seems like it would be a legitimate thing to continue,” Upton said. “An individual home builder or maybe a subcontractor, again keeping distance, yard work like landscapers, that type of thing. It just seems like we may have gone a little bit overboard and a number of us thought we ought to offer some constructive advice.”
Upton says people seem to be mastering the art of social distancing, and the letter to the governor suggests they can follow CDC guidelines.
“We were just trying to, in a very respectful way, trying to suggest some alternatives that I still would consider safe for the public.”
The letter to the governor cites some examples of how the order could be inconsistent, noting “within individual stores some entire sections are closed, while customers can still access other areas of the same building.” Upton says he believes the governor is within her rights, but he hopes she’ll consider what the delegation says.
