WATCH/EXCLUSIVE: Bill limits governor’s emergency powers

By Madeline Shannon
The Center Square

The governor’s ability to act unilaterally during states of emergency would be limited, if a new California bill becomes law.

Assembly Bill 1835, introduced by Assemblymember James Gallagher, R-Chico, would limit a state of emergency that a governor can declare to 90 days, unless the Legislature votes to extend it.

“There’s definitely times during an emergency when a governor, an executive, needs to act to protect life and property,” Gallagher told The Center Square in an exclusive interview this week. “However, there also needs to be some checks and balances on that.”

Gallagher aims to do what he said is a similar process in local governments throughout the state, as well as the legislatures of other states.

“That gives the ability to the Legislature to review the emergency, what’s going on, and then have some say in whether those emergency powers continue,” Gallagher said. “We think it’s a good reform.”

The bill was born out of a response to the state of emergency in California during the COVID-19, pandemic, when Gov. Gavin Newsom, then in his early tenure as governor, declared a state of emergency in the state that lasted for years. Newsom declared the state of emergency on March, 4, 2020, at the outset of the pandemic. The Democratic governor declared the state of emergency over on Feb. 28, 2023.

“We did see, I think, pretty gross abuses of executive power,” Gallagher told The Center Square. “He’s shutting down churches, shutting down restaurants, literally changing election law with an executive order rather than through the policy-making body. Those were all things that I think were pretty gross overreaches.”

While the Legislature already has the power to convene to vote to end a state of emergency declared by the governor, no law in the state currently automatically ends a state of emergency, allowing it to last for as long as the governor wants it to, Gallagher said.

“That puts the onus back onto the policy-making body to review that and see if we’re moving in the right direction or if there’s changes that need to be made,” Gallagher said.

The California Emergency Services Act allows the governor to declare a state of emergency if the local emergency authority in one community is unable to respond adequately to an emerging threat on its own. This law also gives the governor complete authority over state agencies and police power to respond to the emergency.

Other lawmakers were unavailable to respond to The Center Square’s request for comment on the legislation. The governor’s office said through a spokesperson on Friday that the governor’s office does not typically comment on pending legislation.