Senator Carla Nelson (R-Rochester) the Minnesota Senate today cast a bipartisan vote to end Governor Tim Walz’s peacetime emergency powers relative to the COVID pandemic. The vote aims to end the state’s longest peacetime emergency in history. Gov. Walz first put the state under emergency powers on March 13, 2020.

Senator Nelson issued the following statement:

“When the novel Coronavirus reached our shores, we didn’t have much information about it. It was perfectly reasonable for the governor to institute emergency powers in order to respond quickly. But as time has passed, we have learned much about the virus and Minnesotans have stepped up. We know how to social distance. We flattened the curve. Our hospitals and health care providers are prepared. We have made tens of thousands of masks. Our businesses know how to open safely, and their customers will return when they feel ready. There is no more emergency for the general public.

“A number of public health experts warn that we could see a resurgence of COVID cases this fall. We certainly hope not, but if that happens then it might be appropriate to declare a new peacetime emergency to manage our response. But the founders never, ever intended for emergency powers to run on and on, seemingly in perpetuity. It is time for the governor to end his emergency powers so the government can function with the checks and balances the founders intended.”

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