Gov. Walz COVID emergency powers will end under legislative deal

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - The Minnesota House voted overnight Wednesday to end Gov. Tim Walz's emergency powers on July 1 without conditions.

The Senate already voted last week on a July 1 end date. Walz has held the powers since March 2020 and has extended them every 30 days with the backing of the DFL-controlled House. The Republican-led Senate has voted repeatedly to end them, but such a move requires action in both chambers.

The Minnesota House votes to end Gov. Walz's emergency powers

The vote means Walz's emergency powers will end July 1.

Walz's spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The House's vote followed late-night swings that briefly threatened to derail parts of the state budget ahead of a midnight deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown.

Walz started with a surprise late-night announcement that he would end his COVID-19 emergency powers July 1, but with conditions that Republican lawmakers didn't support.

Walz initially asked state lawmakers to let his health commissioner declare a public health emergency, keep some executive orders related to expedited unemployment benefits and reassigning the state workforce during the pandemic, and assert Walz's authority to declare a new peacetime emergency. A spokesman said the governor would continue the emergency until Aug. 1 if lawmakers didn't approve his conditions.

House Democrats passed the conditions on a 70-64 party-line vote, but Republicans who control the Senate said it broke a legislative agreement.

In response, Senate Republicans struck two changes the House made earlier Tuesday night to the public safety bill: restrictions on arrest warrants and making it a crime to post a police officer's home address online. The bill funds state courts and prisons for the next two years beyond Wednesday.

After both chambers took a brief break, legislative leaders put the deals back together. The House rescinded the just-taken vote on the emergency powers conditions, while the Senate restored the two public safety measures.

That left the July 1 end date on the COVID peacetime emergency.