Image: AZLEG.GOV
Posted By: David A. Lieb via AP
February 2, 2021
State
legislators are rising up against dictatorial governors to limit or
remove their ability to declare emergencies to impose draconian mandates
that cause damage to state citizens and economies. States, counties and
cities have immense, untapped power to push back against Technocrat
tyranny. ⁃ TN Editor
Irritated by the sweeping use of
executive orders during the COVID-19 crisis, state lawmakers around the
U.S. are moving to curb the authority of governors and top health
officials to impose emergency restrictions such as mask rules and
business shutdowns.
The push is underway in such states as
Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana and Pennsylvania,
where legislators are seeking a constitutional amendment to strip the
governor of many of his emergency powers.
Pennsylvania Republican
Sen. Wayne Langerholc said the amendment would “make it unequivocally
clear that our General Assembly is a co-equal branch … that we are not a
monarchy and that our voices matter.”
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf
and some of his counterparts around the country have argued that they
need authority to act quickly and decisively against the fast-changing
threat.
The coronavirus has killed an estimated 430,000 Americans
and is going through its most lethal phase yet, despite the rollout of
vaccines, with new and more contagious variants from abroad turning up
in the U.S.
State legislatures generally took on lesser roles
after the pandemic hit, with many suspending work or adjourning. It has
been governors or their top health officials who have set many of the
policies — imposing mask mandates, limiting public gatherings and
shutting down dine-in restaurants, gyms, hair salons and other
businesses.
Lawmakers in more than half the states have filed
bills this year to limit gubernatorial powers during the pandemic and
other emergencies, according to the National Conference of State
Legislatures. Most legislatures began their sessions this month.
Kentucky’s
Republican-led Legislature could consider as soon as next week whether
to override Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s vetoes of several bills that
would rein in his emergency powers.
Wisconsin’s GOP-controlled
Senate voted earlier this week to repeal Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’
emergency health order, which would end the state’s mask mandate. The
Republican-controlled Assembly called off a similar vote Thursday in the
face of criticism from health, school and business leaders and concern
that it could jeopardize more than $49 million in federal aid.
Wisconsin
Republicans have argued that Evers exceeded his authority by issuing
multiple emergency declarations during the pandemic, which enabled him
to extend the mask mandate beyond the 60 days allowed under the law
without getting the Legislature’s approval.
Evers contends that the changing nature of the pandemic warranted new emergency declarations.
The
amendment Pennsylvania Republicans are seeking to place on the May
ballot also would put a cap on the governor’s disaster declarations — 21
days, unless lawmakers vote to extend them. The Legislature also could
halt them at any time with a two-thirds vote.
Wolf has said that
prematurely ending his disaster declaration would itself be “disastrous”
for the state and that requiring repeated legislative approval “could
slow down or halt emergency response when aid is most needed.”
In
Michigan, House Republicans have threatened to withhold billions of
dollars for schools unless Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer cedes her
administration’s power to prohibit in-person instruction and sports to
local health departments. Whitmer called the move “cruel and reckless.”
Whitmer
was the target of an alleged kidnapping plot last fall by
anti-government extremists upset over her coronavirus restrictions.
Though
legislative resistance to executive coronavirus orders has fallen
largely along partisan lines in some states, lawmakers elsewhere are
pushing back against governors of their own parties.
Republicans
in the Arizona Senate want to end the broad emergency powers that GOP
Gov. Doug Ducey has used to limit large gatherings and business
capacities.
Ohio Sen. Rob McColley introduced a bill this week
that could rescind emergency health orders issued by Gov. Mike DeWine, a
fellow Republican. It would create a committee to retroactively review
them. DeWine vetoed a similar bill last year.
McColley said the
Legislature needs to take action “when the relatively unfettered power
of the executive branch during a time of emergency has lasted as long as
it has.”
Read full story here…
source: technocracy.news
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