ST. PAUL — Minnesota Rep. Chris Swedzinski, R-Ghent, expressed his frustration Wednesday over the House blocking an effort to end the executive powers Gov. Tim Walz enacted in mid-March.

Walz announced on Monday he was extending the state’s peacetime state of emergency due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as the number of positive cases in the state has been on the rise. The Senate passed a resolution to block that order also on Monday.

In a statement he released on Wednesday, Swedzinski, R-Ghent, said that while urgent action may have been warranted four months ago in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the time has long passed to restore balance at the Capitol by involving the Legislature in decisions related to the situation.

“House Democrats apparently are content sitting on their hands and letting the governor make all the decisions on issues that not only impact us now and tomorrow, but for years and potentially generations to follow,” Swedzinski said. “We are now looking at five straight months of one person shutting down our state and deciding our state’s COVID-19 response, with literally no end in sight. The serious question we need to ask House Democrats is whether they want 201 lawmakers in our Legislature making decisions, or would they rather just let one executive call the shots. It is long past the time to restore balance in our representative system of government, but that will not happen as long as the House majority is unwilling to participate in the decision-making process.”

While the Senate approved a similar measure on Monday, the first day of the current special session, Tuesday’s House move fell on party lines.