It’s been an unspoken but ever-present threat for the Walz administration from the beginning of the 2022 legislative session: Would a state Senate controlled by Republicans continue to remove the DFL governor’s commissioners?
It has been a problem for Walz since his Department of Labor and Industries Commissioner Nancy Leppink and Commerce Commissioner Steve Kelley were removed under the Senate’s advise-and-consent authority in 2020. It came up again in 2021 when Pollution Control Agency Commissioner Laura Bishop resigned under the threat of removal.
Walz refused to convene special sessions last fall to respond to economic and health needs related to COVID-19 without a pledge that the Senate wouldn’t go after his top administration officials. Even when Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller said his caucus wouldn’t try to remove Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm but might try to restrict Walz’s other health orders, Walz said he didn’t want to bring legislators to town.
But on Thursday, during a session of the MinnPost Festival, Miller took confirmations off the table for the rest of the regular session — more specifically: votes to not confirm appointees — which must end by May 23.
“It’s a very serious thing to confirm or not confirm commissioners,” the Winona Republican said. “But there are three and a half weeks of session. I think it is highly unlikely that any confirmation votes would come up between now and the end of session, unless something pops up that I’m not aware of.”
That is likely good news for Walz and at least three commissioners who have drawn criticism from key Republicans: Malcolm, Housing Finance Commissioner Jennifer Leimalle Ho, and Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell.
Minnesota has a confirmation system that has both advantages and disadvantages for governors. Appointees can serve without being confirmed so they can start work immediately. But there is also no deadline for action, which means the Senate — especially when it is controlled by parties different from the governor — can hold do-not-confirm threats over commissioners for years.
Malcolm has been the administration’s lead on the health responses to COVID-19 and Walz has relied on her heavily since the pandemic was declared. He has said Malcolm’s confirmation was a proxy by senators unhappy with his use of his executive powers during COVID.
But some GOP senators have said Malcolm hasn’t communicated with them about decisions before they were announced, and Sen. Jim Abeler gave a speech last August about concerns that the state hasn’t done enough to provide information about potential side-effects of vaccines. “It seems the only language the governor understands is the removal of another commissioner,” Abeler said that day.
Thursday, however, Abeler said that after that he also suggested a truce — that he wouldn’t act if Walz or Malcolm talked to him about his concerns and perhaps change the messaging about the risks of side effects. Instead, the Walz campaign used his speech to raise money for the campaign, Abeler said.
Abeler, an Anoka Republican who chairs the Human Services Reform Finance and Policy Committee, never took up Malcolm’s confirmation and said he agreed with Miller’s statement about not taking any action this session.
Schnell, who also serves on the state Sentencing Guidelines Commission, drew criticism from some GOP senators for his role in rules that cap post-release probation for some people convicted of crimes to five years. That should have been a legislative decision, they argued.
“The role that Commissioner Schnell had on the Sentencing Guidelines Commission in recommending the five-year probation cap is concerning,” said Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, and the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Ho had drawn criticism for how she managed the RentHelpMN rental assistance program, which was funded with federal COVID response dollars. Sen. Rich Draheim, the Madison Lake Republican who chairs the Senate Housing Committee, expressed concerns that the program was slow to start, was hard on applicants, was slow to get money to landlords on behalf of tenants and wasn’t transparent.
Last week, however, Draheim said while the decision to confirm or not confirm was a GOP caucus decision (“That’s above my pay grade,” he said), he wouldn’t recommend bringing up Ho’s confirmation this session.
“I have a pretty good relationship with Commissioner Ho,” Draheim said. “It’s a tough job. I get it. I don’t know what good it would do at this point in time to remove Commissioner Ho. But that would be up to the caucus.”
Historically, very few commissioners have been formally voted down. Records compiled by the Legislative Reference Library show that just seven commissioners have been rejected by the Senate in the past two decades. Three others resigned in the face of a likely vote to not confirm.
A simple change in the law can fix this situation: require an appointee be nominated within 30 days of the start of a session and confirmed or rejected within thirty days after the nomination.
Tooo sensible
Never happen
And, if there is no vote to confirm or reject, it shall be considered a confirmation.
If I’m understanding this correctly, it apparently is worthy “news” that the GOP controlled Senate at least most likely won’t be voting to reject any current commissioners.
Wow, kudos to you guys, GOP’ers. But simultaneously, you aren’t planning to confirm, either. Really takes a lot of guts to do nothing.
I like the commenter’s proposal to legislate the 30 days to nominate and 30 days to confirm or reject into the commissioner appointing process. Although it could backfire in this totally partisan era, with the party in power pretty much automatically rejecting all appointments if the governor belongs to the other party.
Just because repubs can’t get their way, they will remove heads of agencies from their position?
While this isn’t as bad as supporting trumps big lie that led to a violent coup attempt, which they refuse to investigate…but it’s close.
I no longer believe this repub party desires a viable democracy. No wonder so many repubs admire Putin who wants to destroy us and our country.
Someone help me here. These nuanced political relationships and the requirements thereof are beyond my field of knowledge.
On what grounds is Mr. Abeler justified in complaining about the Walz nominees are not consulting him? Is it professional courtesy he expects, or was the Walz team legally required to inform him?
If an apology is demanded it should be given, assuming those darn Democrats are withholding information. But if the brave Republicans are merely being childish, opting to play games with the whole process, they are the ones who should be apologizing, first to all the adults who show up to actually work in St. Paul, and secondly to the citizens of Minnesota for wasting our money.
It’s professional courtesy. Department/agency commissioners serve at the pleasure of the governor, so he is their boss that they report to. There’s no legal requirement for them to report to legislators, but because the Legislature sets the state budget, commissioners do tend to pay attention when legislators have questions. In Abeler’s case, it’s not that he’s been ignored so much as he doesn’t like the answers that have been provided to him.
I know Republicans are for Tax Cuts for the wealthy, I know they are against anyone not white, straight and “Christian.” Other than that what are their legislative goals? We have roads that need fixing, we have a climate that’s changing, whatever the cause, we have people in need of housing and medical care, we have an aging population that is going to need care, what are their plans to address these things? Tax cuts won’t fix our roads, banning Transgender people from bathrooms won’t provide anyone with health care and removing commissioners from their posts sure as hell won’t do anything about climate change, so how do they plan on fixing these things?
Well, the State spends at least 4% more each year (total spending) for transportation, education, health and human services, public safety, etc. and all of that money is approved by members of the GOP. So that’s something I guess.