Gov. Matt Meyer’s recent vetoes included one of a law aiming to limit his office’s ability to declare emergency orders.
Delaware law currently says the governor can issue an emergency order and renew it every 30 days without limit. The bill Meyer vetoed would have capped emergency orders to 180 days. Lawmakers unanimously passed the measure earlier this year, allowing the General Assembly to terminate, amend, or extend a governor’s emergency order after 180 days.
Meyer said he rejected the bill because it “would create a constitutional standoff precisely when Delawareans need decisive action.”
But State Rep. Bryan Shupe (R-Milford) argued the lack of limitations hurt Delawareans during the COVID pandemic, when emergency orders kept many local stores closed.
"People...lost their jobs because the revenue just didn't come in," Shupe said. "Even though big box stores were still allowed to operate in the state of Delaware, like Lowe's, Home Depot, and Walmart."
Shupe noted Republicans have sought a cap to the governor emergency authority since 2020. It finally passed the General Assembly this year.
Meyer's veto added that while he understands the context of the pandemic, the law is flawed because it directs lawmakers to use concurrent resolutions, which don’t need the governor’s signature. Because these lack full legal weight, Meyer said it makes the measure constitutionally defective.
Current Delaware law does require the governor’s emergency orders to explain the circumstances, areas threatened, conditions that created the emergency, and what will make termination of the emergency possible.
The vetoed bill’s main sponsor, State Rep. Rich Collins is retiring, but Shupe said he plans to bring the measure forward again.
"When something becomes an important issue for the executive branch in Delaware, it seems that an emergency label is placed in front of it or beside it so those powers can be used," he said. "There needs to be some codified checks and balances."
Delaware law says the governor can use “all available state government resources as reasonably necessary to cope with the emergency.”
Meyer's veto also argued checks do exist on emergency powers through the judicial branch. Some groups did pursue this route during the COVID pandemic and were awarded settlements. The veto referenced a federal brought agains the state by a New Castle area pastor over restrictions on places of worship during the pandemic.
According the National Conference of State Legislatures, Delaware's legislature is not the only one to contend with and challenge executive emergency powers since the pandemic.
It said, "the pandemic forced policymakers to reckon with the fact that not all emergencies can be bound within tidy limits of days or weeks."
The NCLS said in 2023 alone, 29 states brought forward more than 100 measures to limit its executive's emergency powers. But a majority of these failed.
This is not Meyer's only Sept. 30 veto. He also nixed SB 231, HB 393, and SB 279.
