ED McBROOM

LANSING — State Sen. Ed McBroom has rejected a request to appear publicly before the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection in Washington, The Detroit News and other news sources reported Friday.

“Every member of this body should take offense to this notion that we should be expected to present our work to the federal government,” the Republican from Waucedah Township said in a speech Thursday on the Senate floor.

“I don’t work for you,” the senator said in reference to the U.S. Congress. “I work for and only answer to the Michigan Senate and the people of the sovereign state of Michigan.”

McBroom is chairman of the Senate Oversight Committee that investigated Michigan’s 2020 presidential election. After months of research, it concluded in June 2021 there was no widespread or systemic fraud and that citizens should be confident the election’s outcome represents the “true results.”

Democrat Joe Biden defeated then-President Donald Trump by about 155,000 votes, or 2.8 percentage points, in Michigan.

McBroom told The Detroit New he has answered “preliminary questions” submitted by the U.S. House’s Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol but draws the line at giving public testimony.

The committee began holding a series of high-profile public hearings last week.