At the Capitol: With Days Until Session Adjourns, Most Legislative Work Remains Unfinished

Posted on May 12, 2021 by Matt Steele

This week, lawmakers enter the final stretch of the legislative session before adjourning on May 17 at midnight, regardless of the status of the budget. Most at the Capitol view the Monday deadline as irrelevant given several circumstances that almost guarantee that lawmakers will leave their work unfinished at the end of their constitutionally allotted time.

Where things are today
This week, lawmakers continued meeting in conference committees to reconcile the differences between the budget bills that passed off the House and Senate floor. These bi-partisan committees of Senators and Representatives are working to come to a majority agreement on one version of the bill that will be sent back to the Senate and House for a final floor vote before going to the governor to be signed into law.

The conference committee we are most closely watching is the Health and Human Services (HHS) conference committee, as it contains most of the legislation that influences our policy priorities. We are continuing to meet with legislative leaders from each chamber to advocate for these priorities in the HHS conference committee this week.

Where things are going
It's unlikely the legislature will finish their work by the end of the session, which will require the legislature to meet in a special session to pass a balanced budget before July 1 to avoid a state government shutdown. Following adjournment, we anticipate that the governor and the legislature continue their work to pass the budget as soon as possible. When a deal is reached or near completion, the governor will likely call the legislature back into session for a few days to pass the pre-agreed upon budget.

What’s Ahead
Conferees will continue to debate HHS budget proposals in conference committee throughout the week. Additionally, we have seen legislative leadership begin to negotiate nearly $2 billion in federal funding coming to Minnesota under the American Rescue Plan in the final budget deal. We will continue to advocate that those funds go to our key priorities, such as hero pay for long-term care workers and grants to help rebuild the adult day sector.

We encourage you to weigh in to support hero pay legislation by contacting your legislators. Simply text CARING to 52886 and follow the prompts to connect with your lawmakers via email. Consider personalizing the pre-written message to share why it’s important to honor the caregivers who have cared for Minnesota’s seniors throughout the pandemic.

What to Watch
As we near the last few weeks of session, the budget bills are nearing finalization. Here are the two we are watching most closely:

• HF 2127 (Schultz) / SF 383 (Abeler): Human services reform, finance, and policy omnibus budget bills. Both bills have been passed out of committee and are awaiting floor passage.

• HF 2128 (Liebling) / SF 2360 (Benson): Health and human services finance and policy omnibus budget bills. Both bills are in committee, awaiting final passage to the House and Senate floor.