Capitol Wrap: Omnibus bills kick into high gear and Gov. Walz addresses the State of the State

Josh Skluzacek KSTP

It was another busy week at the Minnesota Capitol.

For a quick roundup of the latest developments at the legislature, here is this week’s Capitol Wrap.

Lawmakers approved a bill that bans conversion therapy on Friday afternoon. As of publishing, the Senate was also scheduled to vote on bills that could make the state a safe haven for those seeking reproductive health care and make Minnesota a trans refuge state. Both are expected to pass.

All three bills have drawn strong support from DFL lawmakers and advocates while generating fierce opposition from others.

The House has already passed all three, so their next would be Gov. Tim Walz’s desk, where they’re expected to be signed into law.

  • Omnibus season really kicked into high gear this week.

Lawmakers approved several omnibus bills — which themselves contain several bills each — this week, covering a lot of topics. Let’s try to break them down a bit.

The Minnesota House approved:

  • The housing finance and policy omnibus (includes the largest housing budget proposal in state history with $1 billion for state-based housing vouchers, home construction, and pathways to homeownership),
  • The transportation finance and policy omnibus (includes funding for public transit, electric vehicles, nonmotorized transportation options and greenhouse gas emissions assessments, investments to address Driver and Vehicle Services inefficiencies, and money for assessing and predesigning a new State Patrol headquarters),
  • The children and families finance omnibus (Includes the Pathway Home Act and funding for children and families), and
  • The education finance omnibus (includes millions in funding for things like hiring new school support staff, adding menstrual products to school bathrooms, and grants for more gender-neutral bathrooms and locker rooms, increases per-pupil funding in the general education formula by 4% next year and 2% in 2025, and requires a personal finance course for graduation).

The Senate has not yet approved any of those.

Meanwhile, the Senate approved:

The House has yet to approve either of those.

Both chambers approved the following:

  • The state government finance omnibus (includes resources for the Campaign Finance Board, DFL priorities like the ability to permanently vote absentee, expands employees’ right to take off work from just Election Day to include the 46-day in-person voting period, and adds the state to the list of others who pledge their electoral votes to the national popular vote winner for presidential elections),
  • The veterans and military affairs finance omnibus (includes support for veterans struggling with homelessness or PTSD, funding for a Minnesota Military & Veterans Museum at Camp Ripley, military enlistment and retention bonuses, and grants for veterans to attend Camp Bliss),
  • The environment, natural resources, climate, and energy finance and policy omnibus (includes funding to expand solar gardens and solar panels on public buildings, offer rebates and grants for electric vehicles and create more clean energy jobs),
  • The higher education finance and policy omnibus (approved by the House last week and Senate this week) (includes $266 million for Minnesota State system needs, and funding for scholarships for students in need and minorities),
  • The legacy omnibus (approved by the House last week and Senate this week) (includes millions for preserving and supporting natural resources, trails and wildlife across the state), and
  • The agriculture, broadband and rural development appropriations omnibus (approved by the House last week and Senate this week) (includes money for a fund aimed at protecting farmers from grain elevator failures, grants for Second Harvest Heartland, more funding for farm-to-school programs, and aims to increase the capacity for the Rural Finance Authority to process low-interest farm loans quicker).

Now that both chambers have approved those, small conference groups will have to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions before they can go to Walz for his signature. Lawmakers’ work on many different omnibus bills will continue over the final four weeks of the session.

Walz highlighted a number of achievements through the first 100 days of his second term and also touched on some of the things he expects the DFL-controlled legislature to pass before this session ends.

Republicans, in their response, said Walz is ignoring the needs of many Minnesotans, with Minnesota GOP Party Chair David Hahn calling the speech a “hyper-partisan wishlist.”

  • Finally, the governor signed two bills into law this week.

In addition to signing the clean energy competitiveness bill, Walz also signed the disaster assistance response bill, which allocates $40 million into the emergency account created in 2014 to expedite help to communities dealing with damage from disasters.

Several other bills had committee hearings this week and continue to progress through the legislature. The recreational marijuana bill also tentatively has a House floor vote scheduled for Monday.

Follow those and several other hot-button bills throughout the session on KSTP’s Legislative Tracker.

Click here to read last week’s Capitol Wrap.