Act for Public Health: Public Health Authority Limits

Since January 1, 2021, legislators in all 50 states have introduced bills limiting the authority of governors, state health officials, and/or local health officials regarding public health emergency orders in various ways. The legislative efforts to limit public health authority include bills that restrict the scope of an emergency order, bills that limit the duration of an emergency order or state of emergency, and bills that allow legislatures to terminate an emergency order.

This longitudinal dataset captures details of legislation limiting the emergency public health authority of state governors, state health officials, and local health officials introduced between January 1, 2021, and May 20, 2022, in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. This dataset contains parallel, often overlapping records to show multiple bills that may exist at the same time within a given state. States with such records are indicated on the map with an asterisk; individual record responses can be viewed by clicking on the state within the map or table view. Each individual bill is coded as a separate instance and labeled by its bill number. 

This dataset is one of six that were created in collaboration with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and the Network for Public Health Law as part of the Act for Public Health initiative.