Overview
- The House Rules and Legislative Administration Committee, which met Wednesday, split 8-8 on a resolution to open an impeachment investigation into Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison.
- The failed resolution would have empowered an inquiry to hold hearings, take testimony, and issue subpoenas, and it would have referred the work to the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee to report by May 1.
- That oversight panel is the only House committee with a Republican majority and a standing GOP chair, which supporters said would let it press for answers on alleged fraud in state programs.
- Republican sponsors said they will keep pursuing the impeachment resolutions introduced in March, arguing the effort is a constitutional tool for accountability after widespread program fraud.
- DFL lawmakers opposed the move as a political distraction and noted that removal is unlikely given the split House and the DFL’s one-seat edge in the Senate, and under Minnesota’s process the House impeaches and the Senate holds a trial with officers suspended upon impeachment.