On Monday, the Senate passed legislation on a tripartisan 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.

S.F. 4 differs from current law, which 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.

 There is undoubtedly a role for emergency powers and affording our executive branch the flexibility to respond to a crisis, but as we quickly move past the year mark of Governor Walz enacting that authority its reasonable for Minnesotans to ask, “Was this the intent of those powers?”

Senate Republicans are committed to restoring Minnesotans’ elected voice to the process. That doesn’t mean we don’t want the Governor’s input, but it does mean that we want a collaborative process that encourages us to work together to find common ground solutions that serve all Minnesotans.

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.