(St. Paul, MN) – The Minnesota Senate produced a bipartisan vote to end Governor Walz’s peacetime emergency powers relative to the COVID pandemic today. If the House agrees, it would end the state’s longest peacetime emergency in history. Walz first put the state under emergency powers on March 13, 2020. 

“The emergency powers the Governor has extended for a record amount of time have gone beyond the original intent of the law and have bordered into unconstitutional territory,” said Senator Paul Utke (R-Park Rapids). “Our people have a right to worship as they see fit, pursue their careers, and maintain businesses that took years to build. This is no longer about health. This is about power being vested in one man while over 200 people elected to represent their area are left out of the process. This is unacceptable, and it was my duty to vote for an end to Governor Walz’s powers.”

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