Senate committees advanced two bills that would limit the governor’s powers related to emergencies.
House Bill 2014 asserts the Legislature’s role of approving expenditures even in situations like the recent rounds of federal relief. The bill cites a $150 million limit for the governor’s spending authority of unanticipated federal dollars during emergencies without legislative approval.
The Senate Finance Committee approved that bill on Friday afternoon. It was approved by the House of Delegates last month.
House Bill 2003 would establish a 60-day time limit for emergency declarations unless the Legislature would extend the time. A legislative extension could last 30 days more — or the Legislature could remove the declaration.
The Senate Government Organization Committee advanced that bill Friday. The bill now would go to the Senate Judiciary Committee. It, too, has already been approved by the House.
Senator Bill Ihlenfeld, D-Ohio, proposed an amendment that would clarify that the bill applies to the current state of emergency.
Members of the Senate Government Organization Committee approved the amendment. A provision like that was debated vigorously in the House, which considered and then dropped language like that.
“I think it’s important that we clarify how this bill would impact the current state of emergency that we’re in. And I think it’s important that the Legislature have a greater voice in states of emergency, including this one, for a variety of reasons,” Ihlenfeld said.
“There’s still a lot to be done with regard to this state of emergency. There are still a lot of resources that are coming to our state that we haven’t received yet. There are still a lot of resources we’re sitting on now, and I think the Legislature should have more of a say, more of a role.”
For more than a year, Governor Justice has been making decisions about the coronavirus pandemic with orders based on his own State of Emergency declaration last March 16 and a section of state code describing the governor’s emergency powers.
The orders cite one of those powers giving the governor the authority “to control ingress and egress to and from a disaster area or an area where large-scale threat exists, the movement of persons within the area and the occupancy of premises therein.”
In other words, Justice has been citing the large-scale threat of the virus to restrict people’s movements. That included a stay-at-home order last spring, the closures and reopenings of schools, restrictions on visits to nursing homes and hospitals, a mandate on facial coverings, crowd limits in restaurants and bars and more.
Lawmakers also have been watching Justice’s use of CARES Act relief funding. West Virginia received $1.25 billion in federal relief, and the administration has held millions of that in reserve. The state Auditor’s transparency website reflects $647,102,893 still on hand. The governor has allocated much of that to unemployment insurance.
Another $1.25 billion is expected to flow to West Virginia state government under the next round of federal relief.
Legislators talked about imposing restrictions on the governor’s emergency powers last spring and summer — and finally are voting on bills during the annual regular session.
“So this is 23 pages of what people were crying for last year to have a special session to try to have the elected legislators have say-so in the expenditures,” said Senator Rollan Roberts, R-Raleigh, noting that lawmakers could have an oversight role for the upcoming billion dollars.
Other senators asked questions aimed at clarifying whether there could be any unintentional consequences of state legislative oversight of money that has already been defined by their congressional counterparts.
More questions explored whether future legislatures might have to come into session during a pandemic or another emergency to allocate unanticipated federal funds.
A month ago, Justice suggested legislation restricting the executive’s emergency powers is an overstep.
“For future governors, I would hope and pray that we don’t strip away their powers to act because you elected them to act,” he said. “From the standpoint of getting 500 different opinions on something, you’ll have a real mess.”