Major conservative groups backed by some of the Republican Party s wealthiest donors appear to be helping fuel a massive GOP state legislative push to limit the emergency executive powers governors across the country have wielded in an effort to combat the nations COVID-19 crisis.

For months, Republican legislators in several states have pushed bills to limit such powers, which have been used to implement restrictions on businesses, restaurants and public gatherings, as well as measures meant to slow the spread of the virus that has killed more than 450,000 Americans.

The legislative efforts have intensified over the first few weeks of 2021 as lawmakers in many states particularly those with part-time legislatures that ended their sessions in the earliest stages of the pandemic last year have returned to state capitals vowing to rein in governors they believe have overstepped their bounds. Lawmakers in more than two dozen states have now introduced bills to curb executive powers to declare or extend states of emergencies, which all 50 states have done during the public health crisis.

Many of the bills proceeding in those states and others appear to be based at least partially on model legislation proposed by the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization of thousands of state legislators and deep-pocketed corporate interests that has for years helped push conservative policy priorities on the state level, a HuffPost analysis of the bills found.

Republicans in states including Kentucky and Pennsylvania, both of which have already passed legislation to curb the executive powers of their Democratic governors, have insisted that they have pursued such measures to help constituents who are angry over business closures and other mandates. But the similarities in the bills going forward in various states and ALECs own proposal are the latest suggestion that supposedly fervent opposition to COVID-19 restrictions and the governors who have implemented them is an organized effort to create the guise of grassroots anger and help justify the passage of conservative legislative proposals nationwide.