In the midst of the continuing spread of the coronavirus in Michigan, the Michigan Legislature has scheduled a special session for Friday to create an oversight committee to examine how Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has responded to the crisis as well as consider bills that would strip the governor of some of her powers.

The extraordinary move, at a time when Whitmer is looking to extend her stay-at-home order past its May 1 expiration and encouraging all Michiganders to confine themselves to their homes as a way to stop the spread of the coronavirus, is a sign of an escalating rift with Republicans in the Legislature, who are eager to have her reopen the state's economy.

Speaker of the House Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, tweeted: "The House & Senate will convene tomorrow to create a special oversight committee on COVID-19 to examine our government’s response. Michigan needs to handle this pandemic seriously yet properly. It’s what the people deserve, and we will see that it happens."

The Senate also will consider a pair of bills that would repeal the 1945 Emergency Powers of the Governor Act, which gives wide power to the governor to declare a state of emergency in times of “great public crisis.”

More:Republicans introduce bills to strip power from Whitmer, but she promises a veto

More:Gov. Whitmer warns Michigan: Some form of stay home order will exist for a while

Another bill would amend the Emergency Management Act of 1976, which allows the governor to declare a state of emergency for up to 28 days, to reduce the number of allowable days to 14.

Even if the bills pass both the House and Senate, Whitmer has promised to veto the bills that were introduced in the wake of a protest that attracted thousands of people to Lansing to show their disdain for the stay at home orders.

"Of course, I will veto bills that they send over to limit the executive power. I've been very clear about that from day one," she said Thursday. "Those blatant power grabs are bad in good times and dangerous in times of crisis."

Whitmer said the Legislature is struggling to figure out a way to stay relevant during the coronavirus crisis.

"And certainly they have a role to play. We have really bent over backwards to make sure that we're sharing information with them. And I think it's worked pretty well. It's not perfect and we don't agree on everything to be sure. But we have gone out of our way to try to keep them included so that they knew what and why the actions that I was taking were necessary."

Since the first two cases of coronavirus were reported in Michigan on March 10, nearly 34,000 people have tested positive and 2,813 people have died.

Democrats were furious that Republicans were making them come to Lansing at a time when they're supposed to be practicing social distancing. Two members of the House — Reps. Tyrone Carter and Karen Whitsett, both Detroit Democrats — have tested positive for the coronavirus and Rep. Isaac Robinson, D-Detroit, died of suspected coronavirus infection.

"To make a pandemic a political ploy is just obnoxious," said House Minority Leader Christine Greig, D-Farmington Hills. "It's another political stunt that's not putting the health of the state as a top priority."

She wondered whether she would see the same thing happen in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the other two states that tipped the scales toward Republican Donald Trump in the 2016 election cycle. Both states have Democratic governors and Republican-controlled legislatures.

"This clearly took a political turn last week," Greig said. "And we heard about this from a tweet. I think the speaker is taking a play out of Trump's playbook."

Sen. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, said the move to schedule a special session was reckless, irresponsible and dangerous at a time when the virus seems to be slowing down in southeast Michigan, but heating up in some counties outstate.

"This is shameless partisan politics," he said. "A lot of the assumptions that are driving the other side, is based on that feeling that they’re immune to this crisis. But they're 10 days behind Detroit."

But Republicans, who weren't scheduled to meet again until April 30, said it was time to put some checks and balances back into the political culture in Lansing.

“The 1945 law is more vague and less constrained. We do not feel that law applies to the situation we’re facing today,” said Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, last week after introducing the bill. “And we feel that we have a balance of power in state government and we need to put more legislative control into that power balance.”

Whitmer first declared a state of emergency on March 10, when the first two cases of coronavirus were reported. On March 16, she closed restaurants and bars, then issued her first stay-at-home order on March 23.

When the first state of emergency was about to expire, the Legislature voted unanimously to extend it to May 1, although Whitmer had wanted it to last through mid-June. The protests and legislative backlash erupted after Whitmer made the stay-at-home order more restrictive on April 9, putting stricter rules on which businesses had to close and banning travel to second vacation homes as well as trips between households.

“After that happened, when the governor tightened up some restrictions, that’s why you saw the backlash,” Barrett said last week. “The governor is no longer acting in a rational way.”

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal.