COLUMBUS, Ohio—Gov. Mike DeWine on Thursday spoke out strongly against legislation that may soon reach his desk that would strip him and his administration of the authority to issue statewide health orders designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
“It would be a disaster,” DeWine said of Senate Bill 311, which the Ohio House was preparing to give final approval to on Thursday afternoon. The Greene County Republican said he would have “a moral obligation” to veto the measure.
SB 311 would ban the Ohio Department of Health from issuing mandatory quarantine orders enforced against people who are not diagnosed as sick or directly exposed to disease.
It would not void existing statewide orders, including the three-week 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew announced by the governor earlier this week, a renewed statewide mask mandate, and a “stay-at-home” order like the one DeWine imposed last spring. But it would prohibit such orders from being issued in the future, and it would allow lawmakers to vote to rescind any existing state health order.
If SB 311 becomes law, the governor said, it would hamstring his ability to respond to a number of crises, from pandemics to biological weapon attacks.
DeWine said it would prevent him and future Ohio governors from imposing travel restrictions to limit people coming from pandemic hotspots. It would also prevent the state from issuing quarantine orders in the event of a biological attack or a hazardous accident, he said.
He said health experts have advised him not to support the bill.
“This bill would make Ohio slow to respond to a crisis. It would take tools away from this governor and future governors,” DeWine said. “It would put the lives of Ohioans in jeopardy. This bill is a disaster.”
The Ohio House was set to vote on SB 311 later on Thursday afternoon. It’s just the latest in a series of bills the Republican-dominated Ohio legislature has passed since the coronavirus crisis emerged this spring to rein in the governor’s power to issue health orders. Those measures include:
- Senate Bill 374, a bipartisan bill co-sponsored by Senate President Larry Obhof, a Medina Republican, that would repeal a three-month-old executive order from DeWine requiring bars and restaurants to stop serving alcohol after 10 p.m.
- Senate Bill 31, the House version of which would require local health officials to get written approval from contract-tracing participants. House and Senate members still have to work out in conference committee whether to keep the contact-tracing provision in the final version of the bill.
- Senate Bill 375, which would void a DeWine administration coronavirus order closing county fairs except for junior fair activities. The Ohio Senate passed it on Wednesday.
Shortly after the governor’s remarks, the House voted along partisan lines to reject a separate, Democratic-sponsored resolution to require all members to wear face masks while at the Statehouse.
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