Minnesota House adopts amendments to limit governor emergency powers, then tables House File 21

The Minnesota House debated House File 21 on the floor, a Republican-sponsored measure that would automatically end a governor’s peacetime emergency after 14 days unless extended by a three-fifths vote of both the House and Senate. Lawmakers adopted multiple amendments on the floor but, after a final roll call and a subsequent change in a member’s vote that left the tally against the bill, the House ultimately laid the bill on the table.

House File 21 was introduced by Representative Kris Robbins, who said the bill “would fundamentally change the orientation of the governor's emergency powers.” Robbins told the chamber the proposal preserves the governor’s authority to declare an emergency but would require bipartisan supermajorities to keep an emergency in effect beyond two weeks.

Supporters said the bill is needed to prevent what they described as long-running, unilateral emergency declarations. Representative Nadine Altendorf, sponsor of a floor amendment (A6), invoked the pandemic experience and urged colleagues to back language that would add enumerated protections and shorten the…