Legislature discusses adjusting Governor’s emergency orders

The state legislature is back in session. We talked with Senate President Karen Fann from district one and House Leader Rusty Bowers from district 25 about important issues going on right now.

We ask them about the vote-counting machines that were recently passed. Fann says their goal is not to overturn an election but to make sure the election laws are carried out properly. There’s been a lot of questions about the integrity of our electoral system this past year. Their goal is to answer all those questions and “put them to bed”. Bowers walked us through some of the steps they have taken in investigating the election. He hopes they can get to the end of it and move on.

We discussed adjusting the Governor’s emergency orders. Fann said many other states have passed legislation to adjust their governors’ emergency orders. Fann said they have found out emergency orders are meant for something that needs to be addressed immediately for “maybe 2 or 3 weeks” not months and months. Fann said we need to make sure the legislative body has a voice in what is going on. Bowers agrees that  The legislators need to be at the table but it is hard to know what to do on this new “turf”. The house has a group of people working on some proposals to figure this out.

We also talked about house members’ participation in the riots on January 6th. Bowers says he is satisfied with what he has heard from his members and doesn’t believe they caused it. If evidence came up that was contrary, he said it would be “important”. Lastly, we talk about their thoughts on the budget and if the Governor, the house, and the senate are all on the same page. The senate and the house will be having their first meeting about budgets this week.