Capitol Watch: Walz leaves town, Senate debates ethics, House officially tied

The dust finally settled on the November 2024 election as the House DFL candidate won the special election in Roseville and Shoreview last week. That means the House is now officially tied 67-67, with Republican Lisa Demuth as Speaker. Committee leadership will be shared by the parties, alternating between Democratic and Republican control each hearing. This format will provide lots of politics, but very few bills will make it through committee and to the floor, which is a good thing.

The one exception to the bipartisan committee structure is the Fraud Prevention Oversight Committee, which is permanently chaired by Republican Rep. Kristin Robbins. This one committee also enjoys a Republican majority for the next two years. 

Ultimately, legislative leaders and Gov. Walz will have to agree on budget targets for each division before the real work can begin. The next pressure point will be committee deadlines agreed upon by House and Senate leaders. Because of the late start, the first and second deadlines are both April 4, 2025. That means all bills need a favorable vote in the “house of origin” and the other body by the deadline. The third committee deadline applies to major appropriation and finance bills and occurs on April 11, 2025.  

DFL Representative-Elect David Gottfried will be sworn in Monday, March 17, bringing to end the phase of the session with Republican majorities in committee and on the floor. During that time, the full House debated 15 bills.

Eight of them failed to receive the 68 votes necessary for passage. These bills allowed House Republicans to showcase some of their legislative priorities and force Democrats to vote against popular ideas like prohibiting boys from competing on girls’ sports teams.

• HF0003 – Legislative auditor required to submit a report to the legislature related to an agency’s implementation of legislative auditor recommendations, and money appropriated.
• HF0012 – Female sports team participation restricted to the female sex.
• HF0013 – Duty to retreat before using reasonable force in defense of self or others eliminated.
• HF0014 – Temporary moratorium on certain light rail transit expenditures established.
• HF0020 – Data classification of certain data maintained by the attorney general clarified.
• HF0021 – Supermajority approval by each house of the legislature required to extend a peacetime emergency beyond 14 days.
• HF0024 – Born-alive infant provisions modified.
• HF0025 – Women’s pregnancy centers and maternity homes grant program established, appropriations reduced, and money appropriated.

Seven bills did pass the House during this period, including one dealing with fraud prevention, another top priority for House Republicans.

• HF0023 – Whistleblower definitions provided, and whistleblower protections for public employees modified.
• HF0072 – Entities or organizations that receive state funding prohibited from making campaign expenditures or otherwise expending money for any political purpose.
• HF0124 – Acceptance of certain gifts related to a line-of-duty death of a public safety officer allowed, and local government expenditure authorized for public safety officer killed in line of duty.
• HF0129 – Director of child sex trafficking prevention required to submit a program evaluation each odd-numbered year to the legislature.
• HF0286 – Local units of government authorized to conduct criminal background checks under certain circumstances.
• HF0289 – SAVI program established for state agencies to encourage innovation and cost savings.
• SF1552 – Financial reporting requirements for grain buyers modification.

Senate Watch

The Senate has been relatively quiet compared to all the drama in the House. But last week, Senate Republicans forced Sen. Nicole Mitchell to return to the Ethics Committee to explain how it wasn’t a conflict of interest for her to vote on a motion related to her own expulsion. The Ethics Committee also heard about new evidence in Mitchell’s criminal trial, with Republicans raising new concerns about the role the victim’s worsening cognitive impairment will play in a trial delayed for over one year.

Governor Watch

Governor Tim Walz was so uninterested in his own state he decided to travel south to hold a town meeting in Des Moines, IA. Walz thinks it’s his job to help the national Democratic Party figure out the best messages for opposing President Trump’s momentum. One idea: go after Elon Musk by disparaging his country of origin:

“There’s nothing conservative about an unelected South African nepo baby firing people at the VA.”

The “nepo baby” remark reveals Walz’s deep-seated resentment of successful people. He never misses a chance to pit “workin’ families” against the rich, at least rhetorically. In reality, his tax policies always end up punishing middle and lower-income people the most.

Congress Watch

Education reformers made a push in Washington, D.C. last week to include the Educational Choice for Children Act in the final reconciliation bill working its way through Congress. The bill empowers parents with greater educational choice by offering a non-refundable 100 percent tax credit to incentivize individual and corporate donations to nonprofit scholarships.

As American Experiment’s Catrin Wigfall explains here, a proposed federal scholarship tax credit bill would expand parental choice to all 50 states, providing families a funding option that could be used for a wide variety of educational needs.

Use our handy system to send an email to your member of Congress supporting school choice.