Session Update: Senate Calls for End to Emergency Powers

With tri-partisan votes, the Minnesota Senate voted 38-29 Thursday, March 18, to end Governor Tim Walz’s authority to extend the COVID-19-related peacetime emergency. The latest executive order, issued March 15, is the twelfth 30-day extension of emergency powers from the Governor.

Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka urged a yes vote on SCR 5, arguing that emergency powers are no longer necessary due to low levels of hospitalization and the significant number of older Minnesotans who have received the COVID-19 vaccine. “It doesn’t mean an end of the seriousness of COVID – we need to pay attention to it – but what it does signal to Minnesota is that the legislative branch is now working with the Governor on all of the issues that we deal with,” he said.

Assistant Minority Leader Nick Frentz, DFL-North Mankato, pointed to the significant federal money the state is receiving because of the state of emergency. Specifically, Frentz identified the $31.5 million monthly assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides as many as 174,000 low-income households financial support to purchase food. “We lose money if we end the peacetime emergency,” he said.