Senate Government Operations committee debates Executive Order O1-25; former senator urges bill instead of EO

The Senate Government Operations Committee met to consider Executive Order O1-25, an administration proposal to elevate the Department of Public Safety to an agency and create a secretary and deputy secretary. Former Sen. Jeanette White, an invited witness, recommended the committee vote against the executive order and instead draft a bill so the Legislature can shape the new agency’s structure and related governance issues.

White told the committee, “my recommendation is that you vote against the EO and create a bill, not because of opposition to the creation of the agency, but because you can have input into the structure and work with the governor's office and others to create the best agency possible.” Attorney Jay Johnson, representing the administration, said the EO was intended as “the art of the possible” — a narrower, administratively simpler change to elevate public safety without reopening broader, controversial reorganizations previously debated in 2022.

Why it matters: Committee members framed the choice as a trade-off between speed and deliberation. Allowing the EO to stand would enact the structural change more quickly; voting it down and advancing a bill would give senators, stakeholders and affected agencies time to take testimony, refine department and division boundaries and address unresolved issues such as technology governance and where emergency medical services (EMS) should sit within state government.

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