Act for Public Health: Reallocation of Public Health Authority

About this dataset:

COVID-19 reinvigorated debates in several states on well-established statutory emergency powers and public health authority, with several state legislators aiming to transfer these powers to new entities. These bills seek to remove an emergency power from a governor or health official and give it to the state legislature or another official or agency.

This longitudinal dataset captures details of legislation attempting to reallocate public health authority 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.