Legislative Update - May 23, 2025
Dear Neighbors,
Congratulations to the Northfield FFA graduating seniors and new officers for the 2025-2026 school year! It was great to join you all at this year's banquet and recognize all your amazing work and accomplishments.
Today, I joined Rich and Ryan in the Morning on KYMN Radio to talk about the end of the regular session, what we still have ahead of us, and the Minnesota Frost! You can listen to the full interview here.
Session Update
Shortly before our midnight deadline on Monday evening, the House adjourned the 2025 regular legislative session. The House and Senate passed many of our budget bills before that deadline, sending them to the Governor for his signature. However, other parts of the budget were still locked in negotiations, meaning we will have to return for a short special session to complete our outstanding work.
Before adjournment, we passed budget bills on Veterans and Military Affairs, Agriculture, Housing, Judiciary and Public Safety, and State Government and Elections. We also passed our Legacy bill funding projects that preserve our environment and arts and cultural heritage, a pensions bill helping our teachers, firefighters, and police, and a human services policy bill.
Special sessions aren’t uncommon in the Minnesota Legislature, especially during times of divided government control. In fact, the only recent budget year where we haven’t needed a special session was in 2023, when DFLers in the House, Senate, and Governor’s office worked efficiently together to pass one of the most transformative budgets in state history!
This year with Republicans House members also at the negotiating table, we’ve seen the GOP stall Floor action (even on bipartisan budget bills!) attempting to repeal past progress and force us into a special session even after committees made hard choices and hit our deadlines largely on time.
On many of the bill negotiations, Republicans have brought in last-minute demands unrelated to our budget because they’re more interested in taking away programs and support for Minnesota families. We’ve seen them bring special interests groups to the table to vet bills favoring the wealthy and corporations over passing a balanced budget that forces the wealthiest among us to pay their fair share.
I joined DFL legislators for a press conference calling out these last-minute demands, which you can watch here.
While we wait for final budget agreements and the Governor to officially call a Special Session, I’m focused on using this “extra” time talking to my colleagues and advocating for provisions that will help strengthen our district and state.
Stay Connected!
Unfortunately, due to technological constraints, replies to this newsletter won’t reach my email account. To share your input or ideas, or if I can ever be of assistance, please feel free to reach out at rep.kristi.pursell@house.mn.gov or call my office 651-296-0171, and I will be happy to help.
You can also follow my Official Facebook Page here. If you were forwarded this email and you’d like to subscribe, click here. If you have a friend or neighbor who would be interested in receiving these, please forward this and encourage them to subscribe!