House leaders say lawmakers nearing agreements on unfinished bills

Lawmakers are nearing the completion of bills left over from the regular legislative session that ended Monday.

In an update Thursday, House Speaker Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring) and Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park) said they’ve been meeting with working groups to receive updates on agreements on bills. House and Senate members are working to get everything wrapped up as soon as possible, Demuth said.

“Even though it’s slower than we’d like, things are going well. It doesn’t appear that anyone has quit or given up and that is a very good sign in the right direction,” Demuth said.

Earlier Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy (DFL-St. Paul) said she hopes the working groups can wrap up their work before the weekend.

“We are making slow and steady progress, ironing out our differences in a way that I hope means that we’ll be able to get to work in a special session soon,” Murphy said.

Murphy said the tied House is coming into bill negotiations like “a two-headed monster,” where House Republicans and DFLers are offering separate proposals and senators are having to mediate between those differences while offering the Senate’s proposal.

[MORE: Walz, lawmakers strike budget deal in session's final days]

In response, Demuth looked back to the beginning of the regular session when the House got off to a rocky start due to its deadlock. House members have had to come together while maintaining their separate political parties, she said, and the organizational agreement has served them well in the conference committees.

“It is very unique,” Demuth said. “It is something that has never been done at all, even looking back to the last time there was a tie.”

Special session next week?

Working groups blew legislative leaders’ 5 p.m. Wednesday deadline to complete their agreements. Hortman said they haven’t given the working groups a new deadline. Demuth said they could tell a lot of work had been done by Wednesday’s deadline and working groups only needed a little more time to finish.

It’s up to Gov. Tim Walz to call a special session. Demuth said she doesn’t have any doubt that a special session will occur as soon as possible given the progress the working groups have been making this week. Hortman said she believes legislators will likely want to finish on May 30, before June 1 when staff would need to begin preparing for a July 1 government shutdown.

Ideally the working groups would be done by the end of the day Friday, Hortman said, but if the taxes working group continues at its current pace the tax bill won’t be wrapped up by Friday. If working groups aren’t finished, Demuth said they expect them to work this weekend until the agreements are completed.

Agreements and spreadsheets are expected to be posted as soon as they’re completed, Hortman said.

According to Hortman:

• The education working group met Thursday and the agreement is progressing, although there’s some tension between the House and Senate members;
• Work on the children and families budget is close to completion;
• The human services working group is done except for some details and plans to meet Friday to sign an agreement;
• The environment working group is working on agreement language;
• The commerce agreement is done except for proofreading;
• The jobs and labor working group is done on everything except the issue of non-compete agreements and is meeting Thursday evening; and,
• The transportation working group is currently focused on nailing down details.

Legislative leaders took the agreement away from the energy working group, Hortman said, but then gave it back and legislative leaders have a fallback budget for it. They also sent in legislators to mediate the transportation working group.

A joint convention of the Legislature to choose four new members of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents remains a sticking point for the higher education working group, Demuth said.

Ending eligibility for undocumented immigrants for MinnesotaCare, the state’s health care program for low-income Minnesotans, has been a sticking point in the budget. Walz and legislative leaders announced that the budget agreement calls for eligibility to end for adult undocumented immigrants, but it’ll continue for children.

Murphy said Thursday that MinnesotaCare eligibility needs to be a standalone bill rather than included in an omnibus bill. Demuth said the option of a standalone bill wasn’t part of the budget negotiations and Republicans want it included in an omnibus bill. Hortman said it hasn’t been decided yet, but that it would be a leadership decision. Hortman said Walz affirmed to legislative leaders Wednesday that he would uphold the budget deal.

Although Demuth said a one-day special session is realistic, Hortman said DFL members will want to be fully heard on the issue of undocumented immigrants’ access to MinnesotaCare.