Parson will sign Missouri bill curbing local health department powers during pandemics

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Tuesday will sign a bill curbing the power of local governments to close businesses, schools and churches during health emergencies, despite his approach during the COVID-19 pandemic to leave restrictions up to each local authority.

Those restrictions enacted in the state’s metro areas drew heavy backlash from Republican lawmakers, who this year pursued a variety of ways to rein them in.

Under the legislation passed last month, closure orders by local health departments during state-declared emergencies, as well as capacity restrictions for public or private gatherings, can only be in effect for 30 days in a six-month period. After that, they’ll have to be extended for 30 days at a time by a majority vote of the city or county council.

Local health orders during non-emergencies would be in effect for 21 days before requiring a vote.

Health orders issued by local governments have all been lifted, but critics say the legislation could constrain the way health departments respond to future pandemics. Kansas City lifted all its capacity and operating restrictions on businesses in April.

Health officials around the nation last year stressed social distancing and restricting indoor gatherings as primary ways to combat the fast-spreading virus. But Republican lawmakers called the orders that shut down indoor dining or forced businesses to close altogether an overreach of government power.

Despite calls to do so from medical organizations and health experts, Parson declined last year to issue a statewide mask mandate or any orders to close businesses and repeatedly touted a “balanced approach” to the pandemic. His stay-at-home order, issued in the early days of the pandemic, allowed all businesses to continue operating as long as they followed an order not to exceed a capacity of 10. He allowed that order to expire last June, declaring Missouri “fully open for business.”

The governor emphasized that he would not supersede stricter rules imposed by city or county officials, such as in Kansas City or St. Louis County. In November, his spokeswoman Kelli Jones told the Associated Press he has “been very clear and consistent about his support for local control.”

But he’s made clear he didn’t agree with the orders.

“I don’t think there’s any question sometimes that on the local levels, they stepped over their bounds in different areas,” Parson said this year.

Jones declined to comment until the bill signing Tuesday.

The bill also bans any government or public entity in Missouri from requiring a COVID-19 vaccine to access public transportation or other public services.