(St. Paul, MN) – Governor Walz called the legislature into the fifth special session this year on Monday.  Once again, the Senate majority brought forward a resolution to remove his emergency powers. The resolution passed with a vote margin of 36 in favor to 31 against. Senator Torrey Westrom (R-Elbow Lake) made the following comment about the resolution –

“I have and will continue to vote for the removal of emergency powers from the Governor. The goalposts keep moving – first, we had to flatten the curve. That was done, and our hospitals handled an influx of patients with no shortage of ICU beds or ventilators. We did not even get close to the Governor’s prediction of 70,000 Minnesotans dying from Covid-19 by the end of June 2020. Then, the Governor came up with dials to determine the number of people allowed in businesses, churches, and restaurants. That was done to all Minnesotans and without legislative input. Now, the administration appears to focus on the positive case rate, rather than hospitalization or death. Throughout all of this, our elderly, the vulnerable population, were continually sent back to their community living spaces after testing positive. The result was one of the highest death rates for the elderly in the nation – an abject failure in Governor Walz’s leadership.

“Today, our hospitals are still greatly equipped to handle the low numbers of Covid patients and provide quality care. Case rates may rise as we battle through to build “herd immunity,” but thankfully death rates from Covid remain low.  Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially recommended against government lockdowns, citing their multiple damaging effects. I and other Republican legislators recommended against full lockdowns from the beginning of the emergency.

“Therefore, there is no reason for the Governor to keep trampling on our Constitution while he clings on to Emergency Powers to exclude the legislature and dissenting voices. The Minnesota Constitution clearly states the Legislative branch is a co-equal branch to the Executive branch, and there is no basis to allow the Governor keep the entire state under one-person rule and ignore the elected legislators, who are there to create and pass laws.”

WHO recommendations: https://nypost.com/2020/10/11/who-warns-against-covid-19-lockdowns-due-to-economic-damage/