Governor Tim Walz has called a special session for Monday to extend his COVID-19 emergency powers. Republicans want to cancel the governor’s powers and have ousted his labor and commerce commissioners in previous special sessions. Walz says he’s making it known to Republicans he doesn’t want to see something like that happen again and “the idea that they would–and they’ve said so, that they would release my Commissioner of Health Jan Malcolm, who by all accounts is doing this as well as anybody in the country, I want to make clear that if we’re going to come back and we’re going to do another special session, we’re not going to go down that road again.” Republicans previously voted to remove Labor Commissioner Nancy Leppink and Commerce Commissioner Steve Kelley. Walz says “the COVID-19 virus is unpredictable, and as we have seen over the past few weeks, it continues to devastate our communities.” And he adds, “it’s imperative that we have the tools necessary to respond to this public health emergency and protect the health and wellbeing of each and every Minnesotan. This emergency is not over.” This will be the fifth special session tied to the governor’s emergency powers.