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Radio station WTOP is reporting that Washington, DC mayor Muriel Bowser has declared an "emergency" over a health insurance contracting issue. WTOP calls the order a "public emergency" and a "health systems emergency", but does not specifically state that it constitutes a State of Emergency as was called in 2020 over COVID-19.

It appears that Mayor Bowser's actual order of September 1 calls it a "Health Care Resources Emergency".

My question is, did DC really enter a State of Emergency over a health insurance funding or legal issue, or is this some other type of order that just happens to have the word "emergency" in it? If it is not a State of Emergency order, what kind of executive order is it?

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    This would also fit on skeptics FYI.
    – Ekadh Singh
    Commented Sep 2, 2021 at 18:51

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Yes; this order is a declaration of a public emergency in accordance with §7–2304 of the Code of the District of Columbia. This is the same type of declaration as was made in response to COVID-19 by Mayor Bowser in Mayor's Order 2020-045 in March 2020 that you mentioned in your question, although not a public health emergency as was declared in Mayor's Order 2020-046 under §7–2304.01.

Incidentally, DC is still in this original COVID-19 public emergency; Mayor's Order 2021-096 ended the public health emergency, but extended the public emergency to October 8th.

This is not, however, the same type of state of emergency as President Trump declared in DC in January 2021 - this was made under Title V of the Stafford Act, codified in 42 U.S. Code §5191.

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