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 Newman (R-Hutchinson) issued the following statement:

“Today I voted, again, to end Gov. Walz’s emergency powers. The ‘emergency’ portion of the outbreak is over and has been for some time. There’s nothing about the state’s response that can’t be managed in coordination with the legislature. This is particularly true now that we are in session every day. We can be nimble regarding any truly urgent threats; everything else should be managed the way the founders intended — with the legislature and the governor working in tandem. There simply is no longer a reason for one man to continue to maintain such an iron grip on expansive emergency authority.“