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The COVID Project

Browse the Library

Browse by issuer

Who issued the orders: governors, State and local health officers, boards of health, mayors, county judges and commissions, sheriffs, courts, licensing boards, alcohol regulators, legislatures, the federal agencies and the President, tribal and territorial governments, and the organizers whose notices cancelled the meetings. Pick a kind of issuer, or a name, and open its instruments in the Library.

13,511 instruments indexed5,204 distinct issuer strings20 kinds of issuer
Find an issuer by nameSearch the Library

By kind of issuer

Who ordered what

State health officers and departments

1,179 instruments · 438 issuer strings

Public-health orders of State health officers, commissioners, secretaries and departments of health, often the instrument that turned a governor's policy into enforceable rules.

Most frequent

State-level instruments that name health

County and city health officers and departments

825 instruments · 294 issuer strings

The local health officers' orders: the county and city closures, caps and protocols that often ran ahead of, or outlasted, the State's.

Most frequent

County-level instruments that name healthCity-level

Licensing, labor and trade regulators

988 instruments · 528 issuer strings

The sector regulators: licensing boards, departments of consumer affairs and business regulation, labor departments and State OSHA plans, gaming, insurance and financial regulators.

Most frequent

Sector-regulator instruments

State legislatures and Congress (standing duties)

674 instruments · 443 issuer strings

The statutes already on the books that made compliance mandatory and set the penalties: the standing duties of every State and of the federal layer.

Most frequent

Standing duties

Federal agencies

1,199 instruments · 514 issuer strings

The federal layer: CDC, OSHA, CMS, TSA, DHS, FMCSA, USDA, the Department of Defense, OMB, GSA, FAA, the Coast Guard, the State Department and the other agencies.

By agency

Most frequent

Federal-level instruments

Tribal and territorial authorities

258 instruments · 59 issuer strings

Orders of tribal councils, presidents and health departments, and of the governors of Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Most frequent

Tribal-level instrumentsTerritorial instruments

By name

The three hundred most frequent issuers

Of 5,204 distinct issuer strings; each name opens a phrase search in the Library

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Method

How an issuer is placed

The Library records each instrument's issuer as the instrument names it, so the same office appears under several spellings and the same person under several titles. To browse by kind of issuer, this page reads the recorded issuer text and the record's level (federal, State, county, city, court, sector regulator, tribal, territorial, organizer) against a fixed list of words, in the order below; the first rule that matches places the record. The rules are plain and the placement is shown so you can judge it; the record page always carries the issuer as recorded.

OrderKind of issuerRule (the first that matches places the record)
1GovernorsThe issuer text contains "governor".
2State health officers and departmentsA State-level or regulator-level issuer whose text carries health, DHHS, HHS, DPH, surgeon general, medical officer, medical director or epidemiology.
3County and city health officers and departmentsThe same health words at county or city level.
4Boards of healthThe issuer text contains "board of health".
5MayorsThe issuer text contains "mayor".
6County judges, executives and commissionsCounty judge, commissioners court, board of supervisors, county commission, county executive, county administrator, county council or board, parish president, police jury, borough assembly.
7SheriffsThe issuer text contains "sheriff".
8Courts and judicial councilsLevel court, or the issuer text contains court, judicial, chief justice, chief judge, president judge, judges of or magistrate.
9Licensing, labor and trade regulatorsLevel sector regulator, or the issuer text contains licensing, board of, professional regulation, consumer affairs, gaming, racing, insurance, financial services, labor, OSHA, business regulation, commission, utilities, banking, real estate, economic development, agriculture or workforce.
10Alcohol regulatorsThe issuer text contains alcohol, liquor, beverage control, ABC or TABC.
11State legislatures and Congress (standing duties)A standing duty whose issuer names a legislature, general assembly, Congress, code or statutes, or whose character is statutory.
12Federal agenciesLevel federal (the agency is read from its name or acronym), or a federal agency named in full at another level, such as CMS acting as a sector regulator.
13The PresidentLevel federal and the issuer text names the President or the White House.
14Tribal and territorial authoritiesLevel tribal or territorial, or the issuer text names a tribe, nation, pueblo or band.
15Organizers of meetings, shows and seasonsKind meeting, or level organizer.
16Other city and county authoritiesCity council, city manager, council, town, village, borough, city of or emergency management, and any other county or city issuer.
17Other State authoritiesAny other State-level issuer.
18Legal authorities and court filingsKind law or gov.
19Foreign governments (context)Level foreign.
20Other or unstated issuersEverything else, including a blank issuer.