Dear friends and neighbors, Monday night officially marked the final day of the 2025 legislative session. Unfortunately, we could not finalize the entire state budget and will now require a special session. It appears those 23 days at the beginning of session would’ve come in handy. Still, the work has to get done, no matter the circumstances. Despite the delays, we did manage to pass several budget bills before Monday’s deadline, including agriculture, housing, legacy, public safety and judiciary, state government (which included a number of fraud prevention measures), veterans, and human services policy. However, a number of major areas still need to be completed during the special session. These include capital investment, commerce, education finance and policy, energy, environment, health and children and families, human services finance, higher education, taxes, transportation, and workforce and labor. As we await the governor’s call for a special session, here’s a quick update on what we expect in the special session, and where my Independent Inspector General bill stands. Special Session Workgroups Starting immediately, all outstanding budget items will be handled through a series of workgroups. These teams will operate similarly to regular conference committees, with members from both the House and Senate, and participation from agency officials. Offers will be exchanged at least twice daily to keep things moving, with final agreements due by this evening at 5:00 pm (although I think that deadline is unlikely to be met). Since these agreements were not passed before the constitutionally mandated adjournment date, all outstanding bills will technically have to be reintroduced, and the process will start from scratch. However, we will vote to suspend the rules and advance the bills to their third reading and pass them. Once they pass the House and the Senate, all they will require is a signature from the governor. Since we are using this time in between to finalize agreements on the outstanding bills, it’s likely that once special session is called, it should be fairly short, hopefully only lasting a couple of days. As of now, special session is scheduled to be called late this week but could come sometime next week or later depending on how negotiations pan out. I’m sure you have read the news headlines and are aware of the “sticking points” that are holding things up. Hopefully all sides will honor the original budget agreement and we can easily get things resolved. Independent Inspector General Bill Update One of my top priorities this session was advancing the Office of the Independent Inspector General bill. This bill would establish a truly independent office tasked with preventing and investigating fraud, waste, and abuse in state programs, especially those where we’ve seen repeated issues with taxpayer dollars being misused. The bill passed the Senate on a strong bipartisan 60-7 vote. It had support from both Republicans and Democrats and went through extensive committee work and stakeholder input. Even the governor publicly stated he would sign it if the bill reached his desk. Unfortunately, despite months of bipartisan work and a clear opportunity to act, House Democrats refused to suspend the rules to take up the bill on the final night of session. They blocked it, even though their Senate counterparts had already passed it, and even though stopping fraud should never be a partisan issue. This was disappointing. We’re talking about nearly a billion dollars in known fraud; money that should be going to families in need, not fraudsters. The OIG bill would allow the state to investigate and freeze funds when fraud is detected and ensure that dollars are spent where they’re supposed to be. We’re not giving up. I’ll be working with colleagues to find a path to include the Inspector General bill in the special session. Minnesotans expect us to act responsibly, and passing this bill is one way to restore trust and protect public funds. Recently, I appeared in a couple news stories talking about this bill. You can find my interview with KSTP here, and with Kare 11 here. You can also watch a portion of my Floor speech here. Thank you for the honor of serving you. As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions or need help navigating state government. Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! |