With hours left to go in the 2024 Minnesota legislative session, several key bills remain in limbo with no clear path forward.

Sunday’s midnight deadline poses a potential roadblock for passage of everything from an Equal Rights Amendment to a bonding bill to legalizing sports betting.

The Senate floor was quiet for nearly 12 hours on Saturday while negotiators worked on a rideshare bill they finally agreed to; however, that put the Senate way behind on many other bills.

An ERA constitutional amendment bill with controversial abortion language didn’t pass the House until very early Sunday morning.

When asked if there’s time or the votes to pass that controversial bill in the Senate, DFL Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy said, “I think time is the factor for us… We are committed to the freedom of people and people’s equal rights. We have spent a lot of time on that question understanding what the House was going to send to us. We got the message very, very early this morning. We’ve laid it on the table so it is available for us to take up. The question really for us is time.”

Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson also added, “Look, they have pushed everything. If this was a priority for them the ERA would have been done weeks ago. But now they’ve waited until the very last day, the very last hours to have debate on a bill we haven’t seen the language yet in the Senate. The version that came over from the House is quite a bit different than what we’ve had in the Senate before. So we’ll take time to go through it in difference scenarios. I don’t know how you can do that in the amount of time we have left.”

There is also the framework of a deal for legalized sports betting, but it appears to be on legislative life support as Senate leaders say it’s becoming a long shot to pass this session.

“It’s getting real tough right now. We’ve only got ten hours left. I know there’s a deal in the works or we’re close to it. But again, we’ve got so many bills I don’t know how we get to that one,” said Johnson.

“Given where we are right now and the fact the most likely opportunity, historic horse racing, is already moved through our chamber it feels like the opportunity for sports betting is fading,” added Murphy.

A rideshare bill is also making its way through the House and Senate, as the House passed the latest version of legislation that would give rideshare drivers a pay raise statewide and preempt cities from setting their own minimum wage.

Check back with KSTP for updates on the legislative session as it goes into the final hours.