The emergency powers that Gov. Tim Walz has used over the past two months to combat the coronavirus pandemic are scheduled to expire Wednesday unless he extends them for another 30 days.
The governor plans to announce his decision on an extension that day, a spokesman said Monday.
Walz has the legal authority to keep his emergency orders in effect for another month, but if he does, House Republicans have threatened to block passage of a massive public infrastructure funding bill that he has proposed. House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, said GOP lawmakers want and deserve to have a say in the COVID-19 orders that are having a devastating effect on the state’s economy.
“We want to take up a bonding bill when the emergency powers are over,” Daudt said. He contended Walz no longer needs to make prompt, unilateral decisions.
“What is the emergency at this point, when all the decisions that needed to be made quickly he’s already made?” Daudt asked.
SWEEPING AUTHORITY
The DFL governor said last week that he still wants a bonding bill, which he calls a “local jobs and projects” package, but he would not give up his emergency powers to get it. He asserted those powers are needed to respond quickly to fast-moving COVID-19 developments.
Walz declared a peacetime emergency on March 13, which gave him sweeping authority to take unilateral action under the state’s emergency powers law. He extended that emergency for 30 days on April 12.
He has used those powers to close schools, implement distance learning, order people to stay at home when possible, shut down bars and restaurants for dine-in services, deploy the National Guard to help provide relief and provide financial aid to people affected by COVID-19.
The measures were meant to slow the spread of the lethal virus and help build up the state’s capacity to respond. As of Monday, 591 Minnesotans have died and 11,799 have had laboratory-confirmed tests of the coronavirus.
Republican lawmakers want Walz to open schools, churches and businesses to relieve the economic damage caused by the actions.
$2 BILLION BILL UNVEILED
Walz has said — and legislators in both parties have agreed — that a bonding bill is urgently needed to create jobs in a state whose workforce has suffered stunning losses due to the pandemic and the government’s response.
In January, the governor proposed a $2 billion public works bill to fund state and local infrastructure projects across the state. The state would borrow that money by selling bonds to be repaid with interest to investors. Hence the name “bonding bill.”
That was to be the main task for the 2020 legislative session, which ends next Monday. But so far, lawmakers have done little on a bonding bill.
That is, until Monday, when the House DFL majority unveiled its version of a $2 billion public works bill. It will get its first hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee Tuesday, which is virtually certain to send it to the floor for a vote later this week.
There’s a catch, however. DFLers can’t pass the bill on their own. It takes a three-fifths majority to increase the state’s bonding debt, which means Republicans can — and Daudt said they will — block it if Walz doesn’t give up his emergency powers.
There’s a strong chance that the dispute over bonding and emergency powers will not be resolved before the regular session ends next Monday. But that doesn’t mean the proposed construction projects are dead for the year. A bonding bill could be revived in a special session, which is likely to be called this spring or summer to provide more COVID-19 relief.