MANAGEMENT UPDATE.

B&G’S EXCLUSIVE EXECUTIVE ORDER UPDATE

At the end of each calendar quarter, we review substantive executive orders signed by the nation’s 50 state governors. Our focus is on orders that concern management, performance, and policy issues, bypassing executive orders that deal with a state’s response to weather or other immediate emergencies. (We also bypass executive orders that merely repeat or renew a very similar order that’s gone before.)

Between January 1 and March 31, we looked at about 80 executive orders signed by governors in 29 states. To avoid hyperlinking to every executive order we mention below, we invite readers to use the map in our Resources section that connects with the executive order websites in each of the 50 states.

As in our overview of executive orders in the last quarter of 2023, the most common involve the creation of new task forces, advisory councils and working groups. In early 2024, Artificial Intelligence was the most common task force/advisory council topic, with new orders in Alabama (2.08.24), Massachusetts (2.15.24), Rhode Island (2.29.24) and Virginia (1.18.24). In addition, Maryland set up an AI subcabinet (1.08.24). (Washington also addressed the AI topic with an executive order that lays out a specific timetable for when different AI tasks will be finished (1.30.24).

Another common topic for executive orders has been government reorganization. Between January 1 and March 31, examples included Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry’s order to consolidate Natural Resource and Energy Related Executive Branch Functions (2.05.24); Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s separation of the Governor’s Office for Children and the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention and Policy (1.01.24); Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s newly created Department of Lifelong Education (1.17.24), and the creation by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem of the Bureau of Human Resources and Administration (1.09.24).

In the last quarter of 2023, we were able to group executive orders into a handful of topic categories. This was a bit trickier this time, with fewer orders that were similar to each other. Workforce issues did come up a few times, with new Gov. Jeff Landry declaring a “State of Emergency” due to a Louisiana Police Officer Shortage (2.15.24); Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon creating his healthcare workforce task force, and Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey’s signing of an order to institute “Skills-Based Hiring Practices.” (1.25.24).

Several orders also touched on budget and taxation issues; immigration, and infrastructure topics, but we saw very little that focused on mental health or affordable housing and Oregon’s Gov. Tina Kotek was the only governor to sign a new order relating to drug abuse, when she declared a “State of Emergency Due to Fentanyl Use in Portland City Center” (1.30.24).

As we’ve observed in the past, new governors are often the most active executive order signers, especially in their first months in office. In fact, the nation’s nine new governors last year, signed 31 executive orders prior to January 25, 2023.

Louisiana’s Gov. Landry proved the point. As the nation’s only new governor in 2024, he was, by far, the most prolific producer of substantive executive orders between his inauguration on January 7 and March 31. In addition to creating three new task forces and one new council, his executive orders included:

Streamlining permitting processes for the oil and gas industry
Setting the state’s departments on a frugality path “to mitigate the state’s impending fiscal cliff”
Laying out a plan to identify, quantify and mitigate the “Adverse Effects of Illegal Immigration”
Tackling the police shortage
Establishing an emergency operations plan for Louisiana.

Otherwise, the areas for which executive orders mandated study were all over the map. A sampling, in order of signing date:

Montana Property Tax Advisory Council (1.11.24)
Massachusetts Inter-Agency Task Force on Ensuring Affordable High-Quality Child Care (1.16.24)
North Carolina Joint Reentry 2030 Council (1.29.24)
Kentucky Domestic Violence Working Group (2.12.24)
Rhode Island Health Care System Planning Cabinet (2.28.24)
Wyoming Healthcare Workforce Task Force (2.29.24)
Illinois Advisory Council on Financing and Access to Sickle Cell Disease (3.18.24)
Louisiana Workforce and Social Services Reform Task Force (3.27.24)