Statement from state Rep. Kevin Hertel (D-St. Clair Shores) on Gov. Rick Snyder’s signing of bipartisan bills reforming Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency:

LANSING — Today, Gov. Rick Snyder ceremonially signed into law a package of bills reforming Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency. The bills resulted from the bipartisan workgroup formed to investigate it after the UIA’s faulty MiDAS program falsely accused thousands of unemployment fraud. State Rep. Kevin Hertel (D-St. Clair Shores) served as a member of the workgroup and sponsored legislation in the package. In response, Rep. Hertel issued the following statement:

“With this legislation we’ve taken the first step to ensure that the wrong done to tens of thousands of Michiganders will never happen again. People who were falsely accused of fraud lost homes, vehicles, savings — nearly everything they had. We must take the next step to make these families whole again. We created a false fraud relief program to help these victims and my Democratic colleagues and I will continue fighting to fund it as we finalize the budget. We need to help these UIA victims get their lives back. Anything less isn’t good enough.”