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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Paul Anderson (R)

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Rep. Anderson calls on Walz to set clear end-date for emergency powers

Tuesday, May 4, 2021

 

ST. PAUL – Rep. Paul Anderson, R-Starbuck, is calling for a transparent and concrete process for ending Minnesota’s peacetime emergency that has been in place for more than one year. 

Gov. Tim Walz is expected to soon announce a loosening of Minnesota’s COVID-19 restrictions. This comes after Florida lifted all remaining COVID restrictions, and governors of Democrat states such as New York and California have established target dates for the lifting of capacity limits and other COVID restrictions. Other deep-blue states such as Connecticut lifted capacity limits starting as early as March. 

“We continue heading in the right direction, with vaccines doing well and infection rates remaining low,” Anderson said. “The governor even has indicated the State Fair will be pretty much back to normal this summer, so I encourage him to work with legislators on setting out a timeline based on data to fully reopen our state and get us back on track. The public deserves clear communication regarding our steps forward and information on how the governor plans to peel back his emergency powers that have been in place for around 14 months, especially since our state no longer faces an actual emergency.” 

House Republicans have voted nearly 20 times to end the peacetime emergency and have put forward numerous proposals to end or modify the governor’s Chapter 12 powers, as well as proposals to establish timelines and metrics that would end the peacetime emergency. Democrats have refused to advance those proposals in the House, and have even stonewalled proposals from their own party to wind down the Governor's emergency powers. 

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