For the second time, Senator John Jasinski (R-Faribault) 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.

“The reason for the governor’s emergency powers initially was so that we could quickly prepare for COVID, but we met that goal a long time ago,” said Sen. Jasinski. ”We have enough beds. Enough PPE. Enough resources. But local businesses are still suffering. Every single day I hear from more and more people telling me the governor is destroying rural communities. It’s time for him to begin working in good faith with the legislature.”

The vote to end the governor’s peacetime emergency powers was 36-31, with one Democrat joining all 35 Republicans supporting the resolution.