ST. PAUL – State Rep. Matt Bliss, R-Pennington, 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 soon expected to 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.
“Minnesotans deserve a clear plan for how and when the governor plans to fully lift the remaining restrictions he has placed on businesses and people in our state,” Bliss said. “COVID-19 numbers are down, vaccination numbers are up and any need for emergency action is long over. It’s time to start talking openly about the process of getting back to normal and that includes restoring balance at the Capitol and returning Minnesota’s representative system of government to its people.”
House Republicans have voted more than a dozen 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.
-30-