Gov. Abbott renews Covid Emergancy Disaster Order not to use the powers to help, but to prevent local officials from enacting their own rules.
Posted by
Qale
Oct 25 '22, 08:42
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Gov. Greg Abbott renewed Texas’ pandemic disaster declaration for the 31st time last week, extending his emergency powers at least until Nov. 18 — and he has no plans to end it anytime soon.
Texas is one of 12 states that still have a COVID emergency order in effect, according to a national tracker by the National Academy for State Health Policy. The proclamation gives Abbott broad authority to respond to the pandemic and allows him to speed up the delivery of resources to counties in need.
But Abbott’s office said he continues to renew the pandemic order not necessarily to utilize those powers but to keep local officials from taking them.
“Ending the COVID disaster declaration would allow local governments to once again enforce occupancy limits, mask mandates and vaccine mandates,” said Renae Eze, a spokeswoman for Abbott. “Gov. Abbott will not let any government trample Texans’ right to choose for themselves or their children whether they will wear masks, open their businesses or get vaccinated.”
Abbott has all but single-handedly controlled Texas’ response to the COVID crisis over the past two and a half years. In the pandemic’s early days, Abbott joined other governors in instituting a statewide mask mandate and capacity limitations on businesses — but he quickly abandoned those policies after facing intense backlash from more conservative members of his party.
Instead, he further consolidated his own power and cracked down on city and county governments that wanted to keep the restrictions in place. Abbott last year issued executive orders barring local officials from instituting mask or vaccine mandates, but state lawmakers only codified the latter during legislative session.
Renewing the disaster declaration allows both executive orders to remain in place, Eze said.
The move doesn't surprise political scientists who have studied how Abbott has handled the pandemic.
“The governor has seen the benefits of having these emergency powers and is reluctant to unilaterally disarm and return to the constitutional status quo,” said Mark P. Jones, a politics professor at Rice University.
Abbott could theoretically end the pandemic emergency and issue new executive orders, “but then, why do so if you can just extend the disaster declaration for 30 more days?” Jones said.
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