Could Minnesota wildfires bring back lawmakers for a special session?
There is potential for Gov. Tim Walz to call legislators back to the Capitol to extend the peacetime emergency for the fires affecting northern Minnesota.
ST. PAUL — Minnesota could see a special session called in response to the wildfires that continue to ravage the northeast corner of the state — and it could land right around the same time as the Aug. 11 primary.
It’s not clear how likely a special session is — staff members familiar with the workings of the Capitol have said it’s very likely, not likely at all, and too soon to tell.
But officials recently warned residents in Ely that, due to the incredibly hot and dry conditions so far this summer, this year's fire season is just getting started.
“It’s going to be here for a while, folks,” said Incident Commander Kyle Smith. “Unfortunately, I hate to say that, but we’re just getting into it.”
Earlier this month, Gov. Tim Walz declared a peacetime emergency in response to the fires — that declaration mobilizes state resources for an emergency that local resources can't handle on their own. Should the need for those resources continue past 30 days, state law requires the governor to call lawmakers back to the Capitol to approve an extension of the peacetime emergency.
If that happens, it would fall right around the Aug. 11 primary. While lawmakers and Walz can call a special session and set parameters on how long it would be — and what topics lawmakers can take up during that time — it’s not clear yet if they would.
With a special session falling around the primary, there could be more potential for partisan gimmicks, like bringing up unfinished business from the regular session. For the DFL, gun control was one measure that came up short.
Maggiy Emery with Protect Minnesota said at a gun violence prevention press conference on Monday that she doesn’t see bringing gun control back up in a hypothetical special session as a great use of time.
“We're looking at the same legislative makeup that kind of failed to take action on this issue during the regular legislative session,” Emery said. “So I don't feel that, off the top of my head, it's like a great use of our time to kind of run at these same folks and ask them to take action that they weren't willing to do previously.”
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, lawmakers had to return several times in 2020 to approve the extension of that peacetime emergency.
From June to December that year, there were a total of five special sessions.
