After nearly 16 months, the Minnesota Legislature has ended the peacetime emergency for COVID-19 declared by Gov. Walz in March of 2020. 

Early Wednesday morning, the Minnesota House, on a motion made by House Republicans, adopted an amendment to the State Government Finance Bill that ended Walz’s emergency powers, which he was about to surrender come August 1. However, under heavy pressure from state politicians, Walz released a press release saying the emergency situation with COVID-19 would end Thursday, July 1 instead.

Walz made his move as Minnesota House members debated the state government budget omnibus bill this week, facing an 11:59 p.m. deadline Wednesday before state agency and services could start shutting down. House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler, D-Golden Valley, shortly before midnight Tuesday offered an amendment to end the emergency, which he said was negotiated with the Republican-controlled Senate.

The emergency powers have ignited a months-long, partisan debate in St. Paul over executive authority and the separation of powers. Legislative Republicans — including Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-East Gull Lake —  have said Walz overstepped his bounds as governor, and that the Legislature should have been involved in pandemic-related policies and programs. Walz has maintained that a pandemic is an ongoing emergency, and that the nation’s only divided Legislature wouldn’t be able to act quickly enough in an ever-evolving health care crisis.

Gazelka and his colleagues want to rewrite state law “to make sure that no governor can ever again abuse emergency authority like Gov. Walz has for the past year.”

“House Republicans are thrilled that the peacetime emergency has come to an end,” said Gazelka. “But it’s clear that emergency powers are in desperate need of reform to strike a proper balance between the executive and legislative branch.”

In his news release, Walz defended his use of the peacetime emergency, saying it “allowed us to respond quickly and effectively to the pandemic this past year.”

“We built testing sites from the ground up, we secured emergency personal protective equipment to protect our healthcare workers on the frontlines, and we developed a nation-leading vaccination program to get life-saving shots into the arms of Minnesotans,” he said.

The bill subsequently passed the House, and was approved by the Minnesota Senate. Under Chapter 12, peacetime emergencies are terminated following a majority vote by both bodies.