Special Session Updates

2021 Bill Tracker

July 1: Session Update

The House and Senate pressed forward to pass a budget before midnight July 1, averting a government shutdown and keeping agencies running. Many last-minute compromises were made to pass the bills through the respective chambers, including some police accountability measures and an end to the governor’s peacetime emergency powers on July 1. After passing all agency budgets and getting them signed by the Governor before midnight, the tax bill was passed overnight and is likely to be signed by the Governor shortly. While the end to the peacetime emergency meant that the legislature was no longer required to meet in special session every 30 days, they are anticipated to convene again in September to determine how to allocate the $250 million in essential worker premium pay from the federal COVID relief funds.

Additionally, an amendment was added to the tax bill to authorize the commissioners of health or human services to declare public health disasters, as well as extend the executive order permitting MMB to redeploy the state workforce until August 1st, 2021 in order to allow state employees who were redeployed for COVID 19 response to transition back to their original positions.

June 18: Session Update

• Session convened on Monday and the House and Senate have been making some slow progress.
• Thursday, June 17, the House took up some of the budget bills that are ready to go- namely Higher Ed, Commerce, Agriculture, Jobs and Legacy budgets.
• After the House passes these budgets they will be sent to the Senate. 
• We understand that there are other budget bills that have been agreed upon or close to completed, but have yet to be posted to the House or Senate schedule. 
• The Governor, Senate Majority Leader and Speaker of the House continue to work to find agreement on the other remaining half dozen or so bills.
• With less than 2 weeks to go until the budget must be finished to avoid a government shutdown, we are glad to see this progress, but we know there is still a tremendous amount of work to do. 

June 14: Session Update

• The 2021 legislative session ended on May 17 without a single budget bill getting passed by the legislature. They have until June 30 at 11:59 p.m. to finish the budget before the government shuts down. 
• Special session will begin on June 14, as statutorily required for the Governor to extend his emergency powers. Once the special session is convened, the legislature plans to use the opportunity to continue working on the budget bills and can pass them as they are completed. Between the regular legislative session and scheduled special session, legislative working groups have been engaged in negotiations to reconcile budgets and policy language within the parameters set by the Governor, Speaker of the House and Majority Leader of the Senate. Though some information is known about the workgroups and progress that has been made, these workgroups mostly work privately. If you find this frustrating, you’re not alone. Read the Minnesota Reformer’s take on that here. 
• Though the session will begin on June 14, we expect it to last for a few days or potentially weeks. We will be monitoring progress and pushing legislators to arrive at a good deal that does not balance the budget on the backs of workers and avoids a shutdown. 
• If you want to take action, check out our action page.