SC5 would have ended the COVID-19 peacetime public emergency declared by Governor Tim Walz on March 13, 2021, under Executive Order 20-1 and extended under subsequent executive orders.
The Senate adopted SC5 on March 18, 2021, by a vote of 38 to 29. We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the exercise of executive emergency powers ought to be strictly time-limited, not indefinite, and the abuse thereof checked against by periodic legislative oversight. Article IV, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution guarantees each state a republican form of government, which requires a limitation and separation of powers.