Judiciary, public safety conference committee begins work

The first conference committee out of the gate in the 2025 session gathered Wednesday and took the first steps toward reconciling the differences between the House and Senate versions of HF2432, the omnibus judiciary and public safety budget and policy bill.

Conferees heard walk throughs from nonpartisan staff of the House and Senate versions of the bill and their spreadsheets, plus a 15-item “same and similar” document of provisions.

Co-chair Sen. Ron Latz (DFL-St. Louis Park), who co-chairs the conference committee with Rep. Paul Novotny (R-Elk River), plans to propose the adoption of those items when the committee meets Thursday.

The House version calls for $3.66 billion in funding in the 2026-27 biennium; the Senate $3.68 billion.

But, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details, and conferees will need to work out differences in how each bill distributes those billions, plus policy differences in areas of civil and criminal law ranging from decriminalizing the possession of bong water to increasing penalties for felony assault of firefighters.

[MORE: View side-by-side comparisons: bill language; spreadsheets]

Side-by-side comparisons are also available separately for each of the 14 articles in the two versions.

Fiscal details

The walkthroughs sorted out where the House and Senate agree on funding and where they did not.

Notable House-only budget items include $4 million for justice partner access, $4 million for intensive peace officer training, $3.5 million for increased cybersecurity for courts and $2.6 million to hire more courtroom interpreters.

Notable Senate-only budget items include $9.9 million for district court employee salary increases, $5.4 million for forensic examiner salary increases, $4.2 million for district court judge salary increases, $1.8 million of increased funding for Violent Crime Enforcement Teams, and $1.7 million for Supreme Court employee salary increases.

Policy details

The two bodies agree or are very close in a number of areas, including:

• establishing the same privileged confidentiality rules that exist between attorneys and their clients to conversations taking place in restorative justice conferences;
• prohibiting courtroom disclosure of information a domestic abuse victim divulges to a domestic abuse advocate unless a victim consents to it;
• adding people with dementia, a traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, or other cognitive impairments to the scope of the missing and endangered persons program;
• allowing children’s advocacy centers to receive a portion of criminal fines imposed following a conviction for certain assault and criminal sexual conduct offenses; and
• reducing the scope of the video the BCA must post on its website within 30 days of an officer-involved fatal shooting.

House-only policy items include:

• requiring correctional facilities to provide inmates with the same medications prescribed to them prior to their incarceration;
• higher penalties for driving with a license that was suspended and the unlicensed driver either causes a collision resulting in “substantial bodily harm” or death or commits a third offense within 10 years;
• requiring prisons to maintain an ample supply of opiate antagonists (Narcan) to enable staff to rapidly respond to opioid overdoses; and
• raising marriage license fees from $115 to $125, or $40 to $50 for couples receiving at least 12 hours of premarital education, with the extra revenue going into a Minnesota victims of crime account.

Senate-only policy items include:

• prohibiting the non-consensual removal of a sexually protective device;
• increasing penalties for felony assault of firefighters;
• decriminalizing the possession of bong water;
• criminalizing the creation or possession of a child-like sex doll;
• expanding the police use of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) without warrants; and
• expanding the police use of mobile tracking devices that can be attached to fleeing vehicles.