Minnesota’s legislative session ended amid chaos late Sunday as Democratic-Farmer-Labor majorities pushed through a more than 1,000-page package bill less than an hour before midnight adjournment, prompting uproar from Republican lawmakers who wanted to continue debate.
The package was the combination of nine separate bills that included a minimum wage deal for ride-hailing drivers that ended Uber and Lyft’s threats to leave the state, increased penalties for buying guns for people ineligible to own them, and changes to the state paid leave program that will increase payroll taxes by about $300 million a year.
Amid screaming and shouting by lawmakers, the package passed both the Senate and House about 30 minutes after its first introduction as the midnight deadline to finish voting loomed. The final minutes of the Senate’s floor session were marked by a cacophony of screams, simultaneous speeches by GOP senators and chants of “U-S-A.”
Senate now in total mayhem as 1,400 page last minute omnibus is voted on #mnleg pic.twitter.com/VR39zeKumc
— Alex Derosier (@xanderosier) May 20, 2024
House Speaker Melissa Hortman (Courtesty photo)
Omnibus bill
DFLers said they were forced by Republicans to take the drastic action of passing a gargantuan omnibus bill at the last minute because they were running out of time to vote.
Midnight was the deadline for the Legislature to pass any bills, and majority leaders accused minority Republicans of trying to run out the clock with debate.
“We gave them every opportunity to work with us in a reasonable bipartisan way and instead, what they did was obstruct the work of the Legislature,” said House Speaker Melissa Hortman, who later told reporters: “When a minority is especially obstructive the majority has no choice but to use these tactics.”
Republicans said the DFL had time to get its agenda through and said the majority was abusing its power by shutting down debate.
“If they wanted to hear those bills on the House floor they could have brought them much sooner and have the proper debate,” said Deputy Minority Leader Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska. “But instead, they decided to jam all of this controversial stuff into the and then blame us because we want to discuss the bills.”
House Deputy Minority Leader Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska (Photo courtesy Minnesota House)d of session and then blame us because we want to discuss the bills.”GOP lawmakers also said they didn’t have time to read the roughly 1,400-page omnibus bill, but DFLers said most of the bills contained in the package had been debated in both committees and floor sessions.
Both the Senate and House had taken up the ride-hailing bill for debate for a few hours Sunday, and gun control provisions had also been subject to extensive debate earlier this month.
Rules could change
DFLers say they’ll be looking at putting time limits and other restrictions on debate in future sessions if they remain in the majority.
Hortman said she believes there’s been a “coarsening” in interactions between the parties in recent years.
“There’s a much more mean-spirited flavor to the debate,” she said.
Johnson said Republican reaction to the sudden passage of a massive bill was justified as DFLers had shut down discussions and forced a vote at the last minute.
“This has made a mockery of our system,” he told reporters after adjournment.
This bad boy just hit the house floor. DFL is taking it up to loud Republican protests. https://t.co/fa2QR8k8H5 pic.twitter.com/Zj7fymtNkj
— Alex Derosier (@xanderosier) May 20, 2024
End-of-session negotiations
Lengthy floor debates in the Senate and House in the past few days and an 11-hour adjournment of the Senate Saturday as DFLers negotiated a ride-hailing service minimum wage measure meant a number of bills had to get votes on Sunday.
While the DFL majorities succeeded on many of their priorities, they didn’t manage to accomplish one of their top goals: getting a referendum on the 2026 ballot that would allow voters to decide if abortion should be a constitutional right in Minnesota.
Hortman said it’s unlikely that lawmakers will return for a special session to finish that work, so it would have to wait until next year. Gov. Tim Walz, a DFLer, said he has no plans to call a special session.
A roughly $900 million infrastructure bonding bill and a legal sports betting proposal also failed to make it to the finish line. Republicans refused to support a bonding bill unless DFLers conceded to a list of demands that included dropping the abortion rights amendment and a gun control proposal.
DFLers did meet some of the GOP demands, such as providing funding for rural emergency medical services and sending religious liberty protections to the governor’s desk. But they still moved forward with the abortion rights amendment, killing the possibility of a bonding deal, which can only pass with a supermajority.
“We were simply not willing to forego our values and what we ran on and what we got elected on to try to reach some kind of a deal with Republicans on a construction bill,” Hortman said.
Minnesota’s Legislature didn’t technically have to do anything this year. Lawmakers passed a two-year budget in 2023, so there was no risk of a government shutdown.
Still, even with only a few hours remaining, the House and Senate plowed forward with their work, passing bills to tweak the current two-year budget.
One of those bills contains a provision to curb copper wire theft that came in response to thousands of thefts from street lamps that darkened St. Paul parks earlier this year. It’s now headed to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.
Massive catch all omnibus bill has the Uber/Lyft wage preemption inside, so rideshare companies will be sticking around and drivers get a raise. MULDA members lift up Rep. Mohamud Noor in celebration. #mnleg pic.twitter.com/9td63EvCyn
— Alex Derosier (@xanderosier) May 20, 2024
Omnibus bill
What’s in the mega-omnibus passed by both chambers in just half an hour on Sunday?
For the most part, it’s composed of bills that had already been voted on or debated by the House and Senate. Several of them are budget-tweaking bills.
Some of the measures in the omnibus bill are:
•Transportation budget bill with Uber/Lyft wage.
• Straw purchase penalty increase / binary trigger ban.
• Paid family and medical leave changes.
• Tax bill with changes to child tax credit.
• Higher education appropriations.
• Human Services appropriations.
• Health and Human Services appropriations.
