Chris Cargill: Governor needs check on emergency powers

By Chris Cargill

When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, he was rightly criticized for proclaiming about the nation’s problems that, “I alone can fix it.”

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee recently had his own Trumpian moment, proclaiming in a TV interview that “… there is only one person in the state of Washington who has the capability to save those lives right now and [that’s me].”

Inslee, of course, was talking about Washington state’s response to COVID. For nearly 19 months now, the governor has been the lone person making the decisions – on economic restrictions, vaccination and mask requirements, rent moratoriums – the list goes on. All the governor had to do was issue an emergency order, as he did in March 2020, and full powers were shifted to himself.

Governor Inslee may like one-man rule, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for the state.

There are 147 elected members of the Washington state Legislature, but stunningly the majority have willingly put themselves on the sidelines.

Washington state ranks near the bottom of states that provide legislative oversight of executive emergency powers. Why? The state bestows upon the governor the sole authority to determine when an emergency exists and when it will end. This is not good for self-government. It’s hard to get the consent of the governed when the executive has become inaccessible.

There’s no question that in a real emergency, governors need broad powers to act fast. Legislative bodies take time to assemble, so they can temporarily transfer their powers to the executive in an emergency.

But emergencies don’t last 19 months. When problems do last for extended periods, the Legislature needs to debate risks, benefits and trade-offs of various long-term approaches. Lawmakers may end up passing the very policies the governor would prefer, but they do it after deliberation as representatives of the people and do it in a public process.

Early in the pandemic, Washington allowed public construction during the shutdown but prohibited private construction. It allowed child care centers to open but closed schools. It deemed big-box stores as “essential” while small businesses were ordered closed. Had the Legislature been involved in creating policy it’s doubtful we would have seen these and other arbitrary policies and unlikely we would have been the third-to-last state to reopen.

Whether the limit is 14, 30, 45 or 60 days, at some point the executive branch should be required to receive permission from the legislative branch to continue making far-reaching policies under an emergency order.

It’s the Legislature, not the governor, that should make the laws we live under, and the governor is supposed to implement only laws passed by the Legislature.

In Wisconsin, for example, a state of emergency cannot exceed 60 days unless it is extended by the Legislature, and in Minnesota, a governor must call a special session if a “peace time” emergency lasts longer than 30 days.

Returning to democracy and legislative oversight is not a partisan issue. And in reality, it’s our doctors, nurses and first responders that have the true “capability to save lives,” not any single politician.

Chris Cargill is the Eastern Washington director for Washington Policy Center, an independent research organization with offices in Spokane, Tri-Cities, Seattle and Olympia. Online at washingtonpolicy.org. Members of the Cowles family, owners of The Spokesman-Review, have previously hosted fundraisers for the Washington Policy Center, and sit on the organization’s board.