By Laura Weber, Michigan Public Radio Network
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-926329.mp3
LANSING, MI –
Lawmakers are just a few days away from the deadline to finish the state budget. They approved a few more pieces Tuesday, but there's still work to be done.
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The Legislature approved a Higher Education budget that had at one time been fairly controversial. Earlier this year the budget included a measure that would require universities to report their involvement with embryonic stem cell research. The universities did not like the measure, which was eventually stripped from the final deal.
Democratic state Representative Joan Bauer says that was the only acceptable outcome.
"It was pretty much nonnegotiable for me, and most of the members on the House side, in terms of Democrats, that we felt that that did no belong in the Higher Ed budget," she says.
It's unclear whether the Republican senators who pushed the stem cell measure will try to raise the issue again. But now lawmakers turn their focus to the remaining budgets for the Department of Transportation and the Department of Human Services. They have until Friday to complete the work.