West Virginia’s state of emergency over the covid-19 is moving toward an end under a proclamation quietly submitted by the governor earlier this month.
Under the proclamation filed with the Secretary of State’s Office on Nov. 12, the pandemic-related emergency declaration would wind down by Jan. 1, 2023.
Although the proclamation moving to end the emergency declaration was filed weeks ago, Gov. Jim Justice made no announcement and did not describe his reasoning until asked by reporters today.
“The truth is the state of emergency doesn’t affect a whole lot any more,” Justice said during a briefing today.
The governor added, “I saw no reason to make a great big hoopla out of it.”
But he encouraged West Virginians to continue to be careful and to keep vaccinations up to date. He praised his advisers for helping the state navigate the pandemic.
The main reason it’s coming up today is that House Majority Leader Amy Summers posted a comment on Twitter about the emergency declaration coming to an end. Reporters and other members of the public then picked up on her reference. Executive orders, like proclamations from governors, are publicly available with the Secretary of State.
Only a few states still have pandemic-related emergency orders in effect, and most of those that remain are set to expire soon.
The end of West Virginia’s declaration would be accompanied by termination of the various executive orders that accompanied it. The new proclamation explains that the timetable is to “give adequate time for emergency rules to be lifted and for statutory regulations to be reinstated without harmful effect on West Virginians.”
The governor wrote that “certain challenges resulting from the pandemic surely remain, but the time for emergency response has ended and the time for parties to come together, to pull the rope together, and to overcome these remaining challenges together under non-emergency processes is now upon us.”
Justice and his chief of staff, Brian Abraham, today said the emergency declaration had continued to affect only things the public generally wouldn’t notice, like purchasing procedures or licensing for medical providers.
“There was a period of time when I was just demanding of all my people that we doublecheck and triplecheck that with the lifting of it that we would not jeopardize any federal dollars,” Justice said today in response to a MetroNews question.
“So the bottom line is, there’s no need right now that we see it, for an emergency response. We’ve doublechecked to the best of our abilities that there’s not federal dollars out there that we’re going to lose in any way. Absolutely, we handled the tool that we had efficiently and I congratulate everyone, all across this state, who pulled the rope.”
The governor first declared a state of emergency on March 16, 2020, as the covid-19 pandemic began sweeping across the state.
The emergency declaration enabled the governor to restrict many aspects of public movement while also powering the response of government agencies.
A day after it was declared, the governor ordered the closure of all restaurants and bars, gyms and recreational facilities and more. Schools were closed through the spring, and their status the next fall was determined by color-coded maps of covid spread. Cabinet secretaries were empowered to allow non-essential government employees to work from home.
The National Guard was activated to help with a range of pandemic-related duties.
By spring 2021, West Virginia legislators were debating whether the governor’s emergency powers should have a time limit. The Republican majority in the House of Delegates, in particular, pushed a bill that would have required lawmakers to approve a time extension after a few weeks of an emergency declaration.
Senate and House leaders couldn’t agree on that policy, though, and so it died.
There was heightened talk this fall about the possibility of lawmakers revisiting limits to the governor’s emergency powers during the coming legislative session. That talk followed strained relations between Senate leaders and the governor following a dispute over a statewide ballot measure on personal property taxes.
In practice, the executive branch was using the emergency powers for less and less, although state government continued to handle federal pandemic relief funds. Justice also has continued to have regular briefings with state health leaders, urging the public to get or boost vaccinations.
West Virginia has recorded 7,605 deaths since the start of the pandemic.