Evenly-split House compromises to pass major legislation, finish session on time

The bipartisan burst of enthusiastic applause that reverberated around the House Chamber at midnight felt like a catharsis full of relief and release late Sunday.

For the first time this decade, the Legislature completed its business on time, without one party infuriating the other with parliamentary maneuvers or the size of its bills.

Yes, in the second year of an evenly divided House of Representatives, members seemed to have settled into a relatively comfortable pattern of largely agreeing on the most important issues to address, compromising on details, and eventually accepting that there were some areas in which movement wouldn’t be possible.

“A lot of tension, a lot of emotion” is the way that House DFL Caucus Leader Zack Stephenson (DFL-Coon Rapids) described the mood that pervaded the session. After a nerve-addling interim that included the assassination of Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, the shooting at Annunciation Church and School and Operation Metro Surge, Stephenson said he is proud that legislators held it together despite a few “combustible moments in session.”