If there is one thing we have seen a lot of during Gov. Mike Braun’s first 100 days, it’s executive orders: 63 of them, to be exact.
If you are keeping track, that’s already more than the 56 former Gov. Mike Pence issued across his four-year term.
And it’s on the way to exceeding totals from former Govs. Eric Holcomb and Mitch Daniels, who both served eight years.
Holcomb issued 164 executive orders in all, though around half dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic. Daniels issued 175, with many being pardons for convicted Hoosiers; the issuance of pardons has dropped significantly since Indiana adopted an expungement statute.
Braun and Daniels have one thing in common — using executive orders in the first year to try to reshape state government.
Daniels took over in 2005, after 16 years of Democrats in the governor’s office.
His first 20 executive orders were significant alterations. One took away the right of state employees to collectively bargain; another required the Indiana Department of Administration to post written state contracts online; others created the Indiana Department of Child Services and the Office of Inspector General. Many of those had immediate impacts that Hoosiers could see.
How Braun is using the tool
Braun has done the same, even though Republicans have controlled all of state government since 2011. You would think that would mean fewer changes, but apparently not.
He used executive orders in the first few weeks to establish his new cabinet structure and to require state employees to return to work in the office, rather than working remotely. But he has also used many orders to simply draw attention to priorities.
And then there is the nationalization of federal politics. For instance, Braun declared there are just two genders, male and female, and eliminated state diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
“The tone of state politics has shifted with this polarization,” said Michael Wolf, a political science professor at Purdue University Fort Wayne. He noted that Braun’s order switching DEI to MEI — merit, excellence and innovation came just before President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
“(It) received a ton of national media attention — and it was straight from the hymnal book that is popular with the Republican chorus,” Wolf continued. “That’s not to question how genuine those beliefs are, it is just noteworthy that this theme has been so important in the national narrative and Braun was able to be right out front with the executive order, where legislation would have taken considerably longer.”
Braun also has ordered various studies on topics such as employment best practices, diet-related chronic disease, and laws and policies that disincentivize marriage.
Just this week, the governor added two more executive orders to develop a statewide water planning framework and create a body to investigate the recovery of rare earth elements from Hoosier coal sites.
Elizabeth Bennion, chancellor’s professor of political science at Indiana University South Bend, noted governors usually use executive orders to “circumvent” the Legislature or “in response to delegation from” the Legislature” — but said “neither of these seems to be the major reason that the Braun administration is issuing executive orders.”
“Instead, the governor seems to be responding to expectations of policy leadership,” Bennion said. “These expectations are, to a large degree, self-created through his own desire to lead the state in a specific policy direction and his promises on the campaign trail.”
She added that the substantive impact of the orders is not yet known.
Wolf observed that Indiana is one of only a handful of states that has no constitutional or political tradition of legislative oversight of executive orders.
“Hoosier governors can reorganize government through executive order and have no formal provisions restricting the use of EOs, where many or most other states have some restrictions by procedure or by legislative check,” he said. “Even the structure of the cabinet system is based on gubernatorial power and not derived from the Constitution or statute.”
Executive orders themselves aren’t a bad thing, but the increasing reliance on them is something to keep an eye on.
Braun is using them heavily to score political points. At this pace, he will blow by his predecessors.