On Monday, the Senate passed legislation on a tri-partisan vote of 38-29, that would reassert a fair balance of governing power between the legislative branch and the executive branch during future states of emergency. The bill would require the Governor to obtain legislative approval to extend any emergency declaration beyond 30 days.

Current law allows the Governor to extend a peacetime emergency indefinitely for 30 days at a time and only grants the legislature the option to cancel emergency powers with a majority vote of both the House and Senate.

The Minnesota Senate passed the same legislation last session where it passed with bipartisan support by a vote of 36-31.

“Over the past year, Minnesotans have seen Governor Walz unilaterally make decisions for our state,” Senator Gene Dornink (R-Hayfield) said Monday, “and for many of them, these decisions have not been beneficial to their daily lives. I would think the governor would want input from the representatives and senators across the state before making any decision, pandemic or otherwise. We are the voices of the people across Minnesota and those voices deserve to be heard.”

Minnesota has been under peacetime emergency powers for just over a year now. The Governor has offered to end his emergency powers, but only if legislators agreed to pass a laundry list of partisan demands first.

Other provisions included in the legislation:

• The bill requires the Governor to give three days’ notice to the majority and minority leaders of each body if they intend to extend a peacetime emergency when the legislature is not in session.
• The bill prohibits the Governor from canceling an emergency order and issuing a new declaration for the same emergency in order to avoid approval by the legislature.
• The bill clarifies that if the Governor declares two peacetime emergencies concurrently, the same legislative approval of any extension past 30 days is required for the second emergency.