How long should Minnesota’s governor have emergency powers?
And has the current situation, now 18 weeks in and remaining in effect for another 30 days, been too long for Gov. Walz to have sole authority on dealing with the coronavirus outbreak?
“The emergency powers were for things like a natural disaster, where you have to make a whole bunch of decisions really quickly, and once things stabilize, then the emergency powers blink off,” said State Rep. Pat Garofalo (R-Farmington).
“Pandemics are kind of their own little thing,” he said. “It’s not like a flood.”
What the governor can or cannot do on his own in an emergency is threatening to block whatever progress is being mae in one of the longest legislative years in recent memory.
“The real big issue that’s holding up everything, from the bonding bill, to agreement on tax relief, to supplemental spending, to police reforms, is the issue of the governor’s emergency powers,” Garofalo said.
Lawmakers in St. Paul for the year’s second special session are working on updated guidelines and limitations that might separate pandemics from under the governor's standard emergency powers umbrella, allowing more participation from lawmakers when deciding what’s best to keep the state safe.
With the peacetime emergency still in effect, Minnesota’s emergency operation center remains open and staffed, while expanded testing and tracing efforts continue.
“If and when the details of that proposal are public, I think people would see that it’s pretty reasonable,” Garofalo told Dave Lee on the WCCO Morning News.
Twice in the past month, Republican lawmakers have sought to strip away the peacetime emergency declaration that went into effect on March 13, the governor on that day putting into place strategies like social distancing requirements and the closing of businesses where COVID-19 could easily spread.
During both special sessions, the GOP-controlled Senate has voted in favor of the proposal, only to have it die when the DFL-led Minnesota House voted it down.
The guidelines call for lawmakers to return for a special session each time an emergency declaration expires to vote on an extension.
"COVID-19 continues to present an unprecedented and rapidly evolving challenge to our state," Walz said in a statement released on Monday. "The peacetime emergency has provided us tools to save lives and mitigate the devastating impacts of this pandemic. As cases skyrocket in other states, we can't let our guard down now."
Garofalo called this a unique time in the state’s history.
“Governor Walz (has) these emergency powers where he is able to, with the signature of a pen, without passage of a law, being able to impose laws on people in a state of emergency,” he said of the declaration and extensions. “The statute was never intended for this.”