(The Center Square) – Now that the end of disaster proclamations in Illinois has been announced, a nonprofit is calling for changes in executive powers.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced the nearly three years worth of monthly disaster proclamations will end on May 11, the same date the Biden administration announced the end of COVID-19 health emergencies.
The Biden administration had previously considered ending the emergency last year, but held off over concerns about a potential winter surge in COVID cases, which hasn’t materialized in Illinois and elsewhere.
“Since COVID-19 first emerged nearly three years ago, my administration has worked diligently alongside the federal government to battle this once-in-a-generation pandemic by following scientific and medical guidance to support frontline workers and save lives,” Pritzker said in a written statement Tuesday. “Our state’s disaster proclamation and executive orders enabled us to use every resource at our disposal from building up testing capacity and expanding our healthcare workforce to supporting our vaccine rollout and mutual aid efforts.”
Pritzker issued his 38th emergency proclamation earlier this month, extending his emergency powers through Feb. 5. When the latest proclamation ends in May, he will have held emergency powers for more than 1,150 days.
“It’s good that he’s finally ending it, but he’s not ending it because he’s ending it, it is because [President Joe Biden] is ending it, so he doesn’t deserve any kudos,” Ted Dabrowski, president of nonprofit government watchdog Wirepoints said. “He should have ended this months or maybe even two years ago.”
For more than two years, Republicans have been demanding the Illinois General Assembly check the governor’s authority. Dabrowski agrees and said the legislature needs to change the way Illinois deals with public health emergencies.
“We need our legislature and our executive branch and our judiciary to all work together to run this state and the way this executive order was set up was that Gov. Pritzker was able to unilaterally call the shots on many, many important decisions,” Dabrowski said.
Illinois is one of nine states nationwide that still call the COVID-19 pandemic a public health emergency, with eight of the nine led by Democratic governors.
