Rep. Thomas Albert today voted with the state House to reverse the governor’s cuts to public safety, education, veterans’ services, health care, and several other programs the people of Michigan rely on every day. In total, $459 million was restored to critical government programs and $114.5 million was restored to the school aid fund.

“This is the first step to restoring critical funding that was cut by the governor,” said Albert, of Lowell. “Now that we’re working together, we must continue building on this positive momentum as next year’s budget process begins in the coming months.”

Albert voted to reverse nearly $15 million the governor cut from the county jail reimbursement fund. He’s also voted to restore $13 million to the program allowing sheriffs to hire patrols for secondary roads and allocate $10.5 million for the training of new corrections officers to address critical staffing shortfalls at Michigan’s prison facilities.

Albert also voted to restore funding for:

• Health care. The House plan restores $7.9 million for rural hospitals providing obstetrician care, $16.6 million for rural hospitals serving relatively high rates of Medicaid and low-income patients, $10.7 million to improve pediatric psychiatric services, roughly $1.5 million to help children with autism, and more than $1 million to fight opioid drug abuse.
• Education. The House vote would restore funding for school safety grants, literacy programs and isolated school districts, and ensure public charter school students get the same investment from the state as all other public-school students.
• Veterans. The plan would restore grants Whitmer vetoed to ensure military veterans can get access to services they need at the county level, along with several other veto reversals.

The measures approved by the House next advance to the Senate for further consideration.

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