(St. Paul, MN) – For the second time, Senator Jason Rarick and the Minnesota Senate voted 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 Rarick posted the following video press release to his Facebook page yesterday regarding the governor’s emergency powers. A transcript is posted below.
TRANSCRIPT:
“Hi everyone, Senator Jason Rarick here. If you have heard lately, the governor has been starting to make some announcements. Today he is saying he might allow schools to reopen on a part-time basis; they are still trying to make that decision. You have probably also heard he is considering requiring masks to be worn throughout Minnesota in any public place.
You know what? These can only be done by the governor if he continues with his peacetime emergency orders, ongoing, through the fall. We are anticipating a special session coming up on July 13 because he is going to extend those emergency peacetime orders, which will require a special session.
The first thing I guarantee that the Senate will do is vote, once again, to end those peacetime emergency orders. What we have to do is convince House Democrats to do the same. I have been hearing throughout my district and in many other places I have traveled: ‘enough is enough, and it’s time to end this.’ It is time for the legislature to be engaged and help decide the future and where we are going. That cannot happen unless the governor either ends this peacetime emergency, or the legislature votes to take it away.
Again, the Senate has already voted on this. House Republicans have brought it up repeatedly over in the House. If it does not pass through the House, this is just the Democrats playing games with the system, knowing this way they have total control.
And if you think this is the last thing they are looking to do you are kidding yourself, because the governor would love to keep these powers all the way to November and then through an executive order say ‘we will allow voting by mail.’ And I think many of us know what that would lead to.
So, please: if you know or have any contact with people that live in districts that are represented by a Democrat in the House, get a hold of them. Make sure they understand that they need to contact their representatives.
This has to end, and it has to end now.”
The vote to end the governor’s peacetime emergency powers was 36-31, with one Democrat joining all 35 Republicans supporting the resolution.