For the 6th time, the Minnesota Senate today voted to end Governor Tim Walz’s peacetime emergency powers relative to the COVID pandemic. The state is currently in the midst of its longest peacetime emergency in history. Gov. Walz first put the state under emergency powers on March 13, 2020.

Senator Scott Jensen (R-Chaska) issued the following statement:

“At the initial stages of the outbreak, we granted Gov. Walz significant leeway to navigate an outbreak none of us knew much about. But now it’s December. The legislature is set to reconvene in just a few weeks. There is no decision that the governor has to make in such a short time frame that would rise to the level of a peacetime emergency; there is no decision that must be made so quickly that he cannot work on with the legislature.

“The founders never intended for one man to have so much power. Those of us who serve in government have a shared responsibility for navigating the pandemic. It should not be one man or woman shouldering the entire burden. The governor should convene a decision-making committee made up of majority and minority leaders in both the House and Senate, available within a 24-hour notice, who can help guide the state’s response.

“What the governor is doing — holding an iron grip on power, choosing which businesses can operate, telling Minnesotans who they can socialize with — is wrong. We can address the unique needs of the pandemic without resorting to monarchical rule. It’s time for the governor to give up his emergency powers and work with the legislature on the state’s response to Covid.”