ST. PAUL – Minnesota House Republicans on Tuesday once again sought to end the executive powers Gov. Tim Walz first enacted in mid-March. For a fifth time, House Democrats blocked such an effort.
State Rep. Dean Urdahl, R-Acton Township, said that, while urgent action may have been warranted four months ago in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the time has long passed to restore balance at the Capitol by involving the Legislature in decisions related to the situation.
“Our representative system of government is being circumvented via executive orders, with the governor cutting legislators out of the decision-making process and abandoning the representative government citizens deserve and our Constitution provides,” Urdahl said. “There may have been a time, last March, when urgent action from the governor was needed, but those days are long past. We should be restoring balance at the Capitol, taking regional needs into account to manage our situation instead of handing down one-size-fits-all mandates. It is unfortunate the House majority continues to show an unwillingness to check the governor’s powers and is content living under an open-ended authoritarian rule that apparently will last indefinitely.”
While the Senate approved a similar measure on Monday, the first day of the current special session, Tuesday’s House move fell on party lines.
-30-