Senator John Jasinski (R-Faribault) and the Minnesota Senate voted today to end Governor Tim Walz’s peacetime emergency powers relative to the COVID pandemic. If the House agrees, it would end the state’s longest peacetime emergency in history. Gov. Walz first put the state under emergency powers on March 13, 2020.

Senator Jasinski issued the following statement:

“Today I voted to end Gov. Walz’s emergency powers. Rural Minnesota has not been impacted by COVID the same way the metro has. There have been 3 deaths in Senate District 24. Yes, those deaths are tragic and we value them just as we do all life. But the crisis is not among the general public; the crisis is in long-term care facilities. That’s where the governor should focus his time and energy.

“I have counted dozens of businesses in our district – so far – that will never reopen. Those are jobs lost. Livelihoods destroyed. I have people coming up to me every day saying ‘what is the governor thinking? He is killing our district, killing our city, killing our counties, killing our state.’ The governor has had plenty of time to do the right thing, but he has mismanaged the crisis.   

“The legislature and the governor should be equal partners, facing this problem together. It is time for him to end his emergency powers and start working collaboratively with the legislature in the best interests of Minnesotans.”

The vote to end peacetime emergency was 38-29, with three Democrats joining all 35 Republicans supporting the resolution.