The special session in the Minnesota legislature began on the morning of Monday, June 9. Lawmakers were faced with passing 14 budget bills in 21 hours, forcing them to work across the aisle to make compromises.

“Not everyone gets everything they want, but we’ve come to an agreement that gets the job done for Minnesotans,” said Senator Grant Hauschild.

Normal rules for bill passage were suspended in order to streamline the process, including simple majorities and the requirement for bills to be given three separate reading on three separate days. Amendments were also not permitted in the special session.

Much of the language in these bills was negotiated between the end of the regular session on May 19 and the beginning of the special session. Even at the end of the regular session, each side was making sacrifices.

“I mean, at the end of session, we had the Omnibus bills. Some people would say it’s kind of a crap sandwich, like you’re going to get some good things in there, you’re going to get some things you don’t like, and that’s going to be the same in the special session. So, we’re just going to have to take what we can get and message on the rest because we can always do better, but it’s probably going to have to wait till next session,” said Rep. Cal Warwas.

Likely the most controversial of the bills was House File 1, which would make adult undocumented immigrants ineligible for MinnesotaCare. That bill passed in the house with House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman as the only DFLer to vote for it. This is something the Minnesota GOP has been hoping to accomplish since the beginning of the regular session.

“There’s way more enrollment in the MinnesotaCare Program by illegal immigrants than originally forecasted. I think they were talking about like $600 million and we’re only up to May, June. So basically, there should be a huge cost savings there for Minnesotans to make sure Minnesota taxpayer dollars go to Minnesotans,” said Rep. Warwas.

Sen. Hauschild highlighted agreements that he sees as wins for all of Northern Minnesota.

“One of them is EMS funding for rural ambulance services. We have $16 million in the Health and Human Services Bill for that. We also got $10 million for the airport in Duluth. We also worked on unemployment extensions for our laid off steelworkers at Minorca and Hibtac, and permitting reform to make sure that Minnesota stays competitive with bringing industries to our state,” said Sen. Hauschild

Rep. Warwas also pointed out rural EMS funding and unemployment insurance extensions for steelworkers as big accomplishments.

Lawmakers have until 7 A.M. on Tuesday morning to get all the bills signed for the next two years.