Michigan lawmakers finalize $152M for new Selfridge mission backed by Trump

Michigan Senate unanimously approves $152 million for a new fighter mission at Selfridge Air National Guard Base
The money has been tied up in partisan fighting for weeks after the Republican-led state House first approved funding in March
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who still needs to sign the bill, called legislative approval “a huge, bipartisan win” for Michigan

LANSING — Michigan’s Democratic-led Senate on Wednesday unanimously approved $152 million in funding for capital improvements at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, putting an end to a weeks-long stalemate at the state Capitol.

The measure is expected to be quickly signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who said it was “critical” to deliver the funding by June 1 to secure a new fighter mission backed by President Donald Trump.

Both chambers had separately approved the funding in March and April, but Senate Democrats had included it in a larger spending bill that House Republicans objected to.

The money will pave the way for new fighter jets by shifting a runway and repairing various features of the base and the surrounding community impacted by that shift, according to the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency.

Related:

Whitmer applauded Senate approval of the clean House spending bill as “a huge, bipartisan win for Michigan” that will “grow our economy and make our country safer.”

“Today, we landed the plane,” she said in a statement, going on to also call on lawmakers to send “a balanced state budget to my desk before July 1 for my signature.”

The base’s commander, Brig. Gen. Leah Voelker, had previously told The Detroit News the base would require around $1 billion in upgrades over five to seven years to be ready for the F-15EX fighter jets and a squadron of KC-46A Pegasus refueling tankers.

Michigan previously committed about $63 million for upgrades at the base, and Whitmer previously promised $100 million in state funding to realize the fighter mission at Selfridge.

Congress included $20 million in a spending bill earlier this year, less than the $200 million requested by Michigan US Sens. Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin, both Democrats.

No one spoke to the bill ahead of its mid-afternoon passage in the Senate, but both Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, and Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt celebrated in statements.

The House spending bill had sat in the Senate since March, when Republicans in the lower chamber first introduced and quickly passed it.

House Democrats, who mostly voted against the bill at the time, objected to what they called a lack of transparency in the process.

Senate Democrats last month approved Selfridge funding as part of a $1 billion supplemental that also proposed withdrawing $350 million from the state’s Budget and Economic Stabilization Fund, commonly known as the “rainy day” fund, a move that Republicans decried.