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Committee passes bill to give legislature review and 'kill switch' for statewide emergencies
Summary
Senate Bill 379 won committee approval to create a legislative review process for statewide emergency and public-health declarations, set county/percentage thresholds to trigger legislative involvement, allow concurrent resolutions to terminate emergencies, and require periodic review of directives; sponsor says the governor would sign the bill as presented.
Senate Bill 379, presented by Senator Kim Hammer, passed the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee after a presentation that described multiple checks on executive emergency authority. Hammer said the bill is intended to give the legislature a formal seat at the table during statewide emergencies and to create a mechanism (a concurrent resolution) to terminate declarations.
Key features Hammer described include: a threshold for a statewide public-health declaration (affecting 19 counties or 25% of counties) that would trigger legislative review; a process to submit executive orders and Board of Health directives to the Legislative Council/ALC for individual consideration rather than blanket approval ('no law‑rolling'); an eight‑day timeline to bring statewide public‑health declarations before the legislature; and an explicit ability for a simple majority to override any gubernatorial veto related to termination by concurrent resolution. The bill also contains temporary provisions that would expire when current emergency conditions lapse and contemplates delegating rulemaking to Legislative Council for extreme circumstances that prevent assembly.
Senator Sullivan asked whether the administrative branch supports the measure; Senator Hammer said leadership worked closely with the administrative branch and that the governor would sign the bill as presented. The committee adopted the measure by voice vote (formal tally not recorded in the transcript).
Hammer also described companion financial language to require legislative review before unanticipated discretionary federal funds are spent, including submission of spending plans to the legislature prior to expenditure.
