LANSING (WKZO) -- Michigan is closer to establishing an authority to make use of a 30.6-million dollar federal grant to set up a health exchange under the Affordable Care Act.  MIRS News reports that the Michigan House Appropriations Committee voted Wednesday morning 24-3 in favor of going forward with legislation that provides a supplemental appropriation for federal funding to set up a state-federal partnership health exchange.

Though some Republican lawmakers in the House had argued that the state should not accept the federal funding and should push back against health care reform, many others said it was the right call to move ahead for future health care reform efforts.