Lansing — A Michigan Senate committee approved Wednesday a bill that aims to prevent the state's Unemployment Insurance Agency from going forward with a push to recoup jobless aid overpayments, made during the COVID-19 pandemic, from as many as 350,000 people.

Some lawmakers have reported receiving a deluge of calls from constituents in recent weeks after the agency began sending out letters because a court settlement lifted a lengthy pause on its collection efforts. Jason Palmer, the agency's director, said in a statement on Sept. 8 that his staff was " legally obligated " to seek the repayments from the pandemic — five years earlier — if they were improper.

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