Walz calls Monday special session as lawmakers aim to complete budget work in one day

Gov. Tim Walz issued a proclamation Friday calling for a special legislative session to begin at 10 a.m. Monday after reaching an agreement with House Speaker Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring), Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park), Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy (DFL-St. Paul) and Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson (R-East Grand Forks).

The agreement calls for a one-day special session to pass 14 bills, most of which are needed to fund the state government during the upcoming biennium. The session is to adjourn before 7 a.m. Tuesday, under the terms of the agreement.

[MORE: Read the agreement]

“I look forward to finishing the state budget with the largest cut to state spending in history, important reforms to Earned Sick and Safe Time and Paid Family Leave, and other important wins for Minnesotans across the state,” Demuth said in a statement.

The budget compromise funds state government and services for the next two years and addresses the projected deficit in fiscal years 2028-29, Hortman said in a statement.

“While there is a lot to appreciate in the bills, there are also tough and responsible measures taken to prepare for the future,” Hortman said.

If lawmakers don’t pass a budget by the end of June, a partial state government shutdown would begin July 1.

“We are passing a stable budget before we reach the brink of a damaging government shutdown that would have punished people living in every county of our state,” Murphy said in a statement.

[MORE: Read leaders’ statements]

The agreement confines legislative activity during the session to the remaining budget bills and says legislative leaders will not support amendments to the bills except where agreed upon by the leaders and the governor.

It also requires both chambers to “declare an urgency” which would allow suspension of the rules that call for a bill to be given three readings on three separate days, “and any other rules that would prevent passage” of the bills before the deadline.

According to the agreement, the Legislature will take action on the bills for:

• modifying MinnesotaCare eligibility for undocumented adult immigrants;
• health and human services and children and families policy and budget;
• commerce and consumer protection policy and budget;
• human services budget;
• education policy and budget;
• transportation policy and budget;
• capital investment;
• taxes and local aids;
• data centers;
• environment and natural resources budget;
• jobs, labor and economic development policy and budget;
• higher education policy and budget;
• energy, utilities and climate policy and budget; and
• technical revisor corrections.

The Legislature adjourned the regular session May 19 with many of the budget bills incomplete. Conference committees have been meeting as working groups since then to reach deals on budgets and proposed bill language, with some holding public meetings to walk through the agreements once they are completed. Several issues have continued to be contentious, including ending MinnesotaCare eligibility for undocumented adult immigrants and the contents of a thinned-down tax bill and bonding bill.