House GOP bill would shift emergency authority from governor to Legislature

Minnesota’s top elected official has the authority to declare a peacetime or national security emergency. When an emergency is in effect, the governor can exercise certain powers, including issuing orders and rules that have the full force and effect of law.

A move is afoot to diminish that authority.

Calling it the “Never Again Act,” Rep. Drew Roach (R-Farmington) sponsors HF26 that would bestow the power to call a peacetime emergency with the Legislature, not the governor.

Among the changes proposed is a requirement that a two-thirds majority of both the House and Senate would be needed to declare an emergency that would end after five days unless that same number of members voted to extend it to 30 days.

“(It would also) clarify the governor’s executive orders are not law; it ensures that if another governor goes rogue, they go to jail for violating rights; it protects the people of the state from tyranny by ensuring rights that are in the Bill of Rights,” Roach said.

The House Veterans and Military Affairs Division laid the bill over, as amended, Wednesday. It had been sent to the division by the House State Government Finance and Policy Committee, where it was first heard Feb. 13.

[MORE: Watch Part I and Part II of the state government committee hearing]

Reasoning for the bill, Roach said, dates to COVID-19, when Gov. Tim Walz “stripped away people’s rights” by, for example, ordering businesses and churches to shut down and prohibiting family members to see dying loved ones in a hospital or care facility.

“This provides an opportunity for the Legislature to have a voice in the process, so we have checks and balances. … Lives were uprooted and essentially destroyed because of an overreach of the executive branch.”

Twenty times in a 14-month span during COVID, House Republicans unsuccessfully sought to end the governor’s emergency powers.

Don Kerr, executive director of the Department of Military Affairs, speaks to HF26 during the Feb. 26 meeting of the House Veterans and Military Affairs Division. Rep. Drew Roach, left, is the bill sponsor. (Photo by Michele Jokinen)

Among bill concerns addressed by Rep. Josiah Hill (DFL-Stillwater) is the time needed to call the Legislature back into session to declare an emergency. “That could lead to a delay costing Minnesota lives. Those concerns would only be exacerbated with the passage of minutes and hours.”

As amended, the bill would not limit the governor’s constitutional authority over the military.

[MORE: List of National Guard executive orders activation since 2022]

Jon Kelly, director of government affairs for the Department of Veterans Affairs, said the amendment’s clarifying language is appreciative.

“Given the amendment and given the constitutional authority of the governor we feel confident that the governor would be able to call the (National Guard) into the homes or respond to a disaster at home.”