Honorable Doug Burgum Office of Governor 600 East Boulevard Avenue Bismarck, ND 58505‐0001

April 14, 2020

Governor Burgum,

While recognizing Executive Branch authority to act in the time of a bona fide state emergency within the bounds of the Century Code, the North Dakota Constitution, and the United States Constitution, as members of the Legislative Branch, we are concerned primarily with protecting our state citizens’ rights pertaining to life, liberty, and property.

As you have said, the state of North Dakota is at less than 1% of hospital capacity. The stable and low number of new COVID‐19 cases per day in the state as reported by the ND Department of Health underscores this fact, and removes any perceived need to continue select Executive Orders.

Executive Orders 2020‐14, 2020‐21, and 2020‐21.1 particularly restrict personal liberty of movement and assembly. Executive Orders 2020‐06, 2020‐06.1, and 2020‐06.2 particularly restrict the use of personal property in the form of business transactions between workers, employers, and customers. While these executive orders may have been issued with honorable intentions, they have resulted in immeasurable social and economic harm to families and businesses of all sizes.

It is imperative that North Dakota businesses be allowed to open their doors while encouraging them to implement safeguards to protect their employees, customers, and themselves. Failure to do so will likely result in many more businesses closing their doors and people losing their jobs. We urge you to rescind these Executive Orders, or at the very least, let them expire. We strongly request that you refrain from extending them or instituting others that unnecessarily harm the economy and prolong the phase of COVID‐19 communicability. We believe any additional executive orders should be limited to lifting burdensome regulation and assisting the at‐risk population.

Respectfully,

Rep. ‐ District 38 Rep. – District 38 Rep. – District 7 Rep. – District 45 Rep. – District 36 Rep. Aaron McWilliams – District 20 Rep. – District 3 Rep. – District 3 Rep. – District 26 Rep Kathy Skroch – District 26 Rep. Jeff Magrum – District 28 Rep. Matthew Ruby – District 40

Senator Pro‐Tempore Oley Larsen