For the second time, Senator Julie Rosen (R-Vernon Center) and the Minnesota Senate voted today 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.

“Earlier today I voted to remove the governor’s emergency powers,” said Sen. Rosen. “The virus has not hit rural Minnesota the way it has the metro, and it is completely unfair to treat us like it has. In a floor speech last month, I encouraged the governor to come visit our communities in southern Minnesota and other Greater Minnesota districts around the state to see what’s happening on the ground. I hope he takes me up on that suggestion, because by-and-large his closures have been causing the devastation, not the virus. It’s time for the governor to give up his powers and work with the legislature, so that we can address the unique needs of our individual districts and speed up the recovery process.”

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