Minnesota Minute: Less Than Two Weeks to Go

Less Than Two Weeks to Go

In just under two weeks, the 2026 legislative session will come to a close. Pursuant to the state constitution, regular session cannot extend past midnight on Sunday, May 17. Many bills are moving (and many are not), but there does not seem to be the sense of urgency we see in a typical legislative session. Many factors have come together to create this unusual environment. First of all, due to the state’s two-year budget cycle, the legislature does not have a constitutional duty to act on any legislation this year. Governor Walz is also in the last year of his term and announced before session started that he was not seeking re-election. Combine that with a tied House, a one-seat Democrat majority in the Senate, and a looming budget deficit, finding a sense of shared purpose and compromise on tough issues has been scarce. There is a strain of exhaustion running through the Capitol given the events of the past year, namely the assassination and attempted assassination of Representative Hortman and Senator Hoffman, respectively, the Annunciation school shooting, and Operation Metro Surge leading into the session. Despite all of that, there was discussion at the beginning of the session on several items that many thought could pass, such as a bonding bill, school safety funding, fraud prevention, and Capitol and legislator security. These items are still in play and may be the only items that pass this session if they can reach a deal in time.

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Senate

The Senate Democrats have a functional majority and therefore have been passing omnibus finance and policy bills off the Senate floor the past few weeks including a Safey and Security omnibus bill focusing on Capitol and legislator safety, a Gun Violence Prevention omnibus bill that includes school safety funding, the Health and Human Services and Veterans finance omnibus bills, many policy omnibus bills, and a few financial relief bills related to Operation Metro Surge. The Senate Finance Committee has also taken the rest of the finance omnibus bills and amended them into one large omnibus finance bill (including higher education, environment, energy, jobs, education, state government, judiciary, and agriculture). This large omnibus bill is scheduled to pass off the Senate floor today. Lastly, the Senate is also working on a Program Integrity omnibus bill. The bill will focus on fraud prevention in healthcare and human services programs and will be a part of a larger package of other singular fraud prevention bills that are moving including the creation of an Office of Inspector General.

House

The House, on the other hand, has taken up finance and policy provisions based largely on whether the Co-chairs of the committees and its members reached bipartisan agreement by the end of the committee deadline on April 17. Some committees were more successful than others, which led to a patchwork of omnibus bills in the House that will largely not line up with the Senate’s omnibus finance bill. The general sense is that the Senate will pass its bills over to the House, at which point the House will have something to react to even if they didn’t pass a corresponding bill. That reaction could very well be a muted one that results in very little happening.

There is still momentum, however, on a bipartisan basis around a bonding bill, school and legislator safety, fraud prevention, and funding for the Hennepin County Medical Center, which is in dire financial straits. We will have to see if the urgency around these issues pulls some additional bills across the finish line.

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