The Minnesota Executive Council on Monday voted to extend the state’s peacetime emergency for COVID-19 and with it, the governor’s emergency powers.
Governor Tim Walz requested the extension last week as the state reported it was nearing a goal of reaching vaccination of 70 percent of adults 16 and older by July 1 and as cases and hospitalizations from the illness reached the lowest levels since last spring.
Walz told the council that the state needs another 30-day extension of the emergency to continue drawing down federal nutrition assistance funds and to avoid overwhelming the courts if the state’s eviction moratorium lifted.
“It is very clear now that we are in the final stages and most of the executive orders, as I have said, will unwind or have unwound or will in the near future,” Walz said. “Today is simply re-upping the state of emergency so that the status quo of the work that we’re doing continues.”
Members of the Executive Council include the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state auditor, and attorney general. Each of the officials are elected statewide and are Democrats.
The peacetime emergency has freed up the governor to implement laws without the approval of the Legislature, irking Republican lawmakers who’ve said lawmakers should be more involved in deciding the state’s plan to combat COVID-19. And under the emergency, Walz has activated the National Guard, put in place testing and vaccination programs, set temporary restrictions on businesses and social gatherings and required masks in certain settings.
Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said the state is taking steps toward eradicating the virus, but more needs to be done to boost vaccination numbers and to create an off-ramp for the state’s eviction moratorium.
“To continue making the progress we need against COVID-19 we do need to extend the peacetime emergency once again,” Malcolm said. “The pandemic itself won’t be over until the World Health Organization declares it ceases to be a threat.”
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said lawmakers in the divided Legislature were “very close” to reaching an agreement on such an off-ramp. The Minnesota Legislature is set to kick off a special legislative session on Monday to consider a veto of the 30-day emergency extension and to pass a $52 billion budget.
Legislative leaders on Friday said they were working through the weekend to forge compromises on 14 state budget bills. For weeks, legislative working groups had worked in private on the proposals but had failed to reach agreements.
Lawmakers have a June 30 deadline to wrap up a state budget. Without one, they could force a state government shutdown.
