DFL House Majority Leader Jamie Long says he will not schedule a new hearing of the House Rules and Administration Committee he chairs to reconsider a decision to pay more than $10,000 in legal fees for a DFL lawmaker in a private workplace dispute.

Rep. Biana Virnig, DFL-Eagan, reached a settlement with her employer in October after she said her hours and pay were reduced dramatically after she won a special election to serve in the Minnesota House.

The House Rules Committee voted to approve paying more than $10,000 to cover her legal fees related to the dispute. Nine DFL committee members voted in favor and all Republican members voted against.

RELATED: Documents show state lawmaker received six-figure settlement, but taxpayers will foot the legal bill

Republicans at the time said they were concerned that details of her settlement were not available for the committee to review. Later, it was revealed the settlement was for $108,224.54 and included the stipulation that each side was responsible for their own legal fees.

“I understand the desire to try and use this for partisan advantage, but look, Rep. Bianca Virnig was taken advantage of by her employer,” Rep. Long said in a segment recorded for “At Issue with Tom Hauser.”  

“They violated the law. The law in Minnesota protects legislators from when they’re returning to work having their hours cut and that’s so we can have legislators from all walks of life and not just rich folks coming and serving in the Legislature. Rep. Virnig had those rights violated by her employer. She sought legal counsel and because that was in her service of her work in the Legislature, it was responsible for us to pay for that.”

Deputy Republican House Leader Harry Niska strongly disagrees that taxpayers should pay a lawmaker’s legal fees in a private employment dispute. “I agree with Rep. (Lisa) Demuth that was the wrong approach. And unfortunately, that’s been the theme with the Walz administration and the Democrat trifecta. Which is taxpayers lose and DFL insiders win and that’s not the right approach in my opinion and that’s gonna change when Republicans have a seat at the table finally.”

House Speaker-Designate Lisa Demuth asked for a new hearing after learning about the terms of the agreement. House Republicans also filed a data request (below) to get more information from “Brightworks,” an education consulting nonprofit created by the Legislature and funded with taxpayer dollars.

From that request, they learned that the payment for the $108,000 settlement came from the organization’s general fund, which they say also largely comes from taxpayer dollars. Brightworks also paid its own attorney fees of $12,186.19 from the same fund.

“Brightworks is considered a public employer; that’s why the law applied in this particular instance,” Long says. “The GOP in the committee said they wanted us to go to court. That would have been even more on either side. They were able to resolve this with a settlement. But I’m hoping we can put partisanship past us. Everybody agrees that Rep. Virnig was wronged in this particular instance and if we want to hold employers more accountable in the future, make them responsible for paying attorneys’ fees, I’m open to that.”

Niska agrees Brightworks likely violated the law but says that doesn’t mean Virnig’s legal fees should be paid by taxpayers. “Ultimately, the attorneys should be paid out of that (settlement). Whether there’s some way to hold the leaders of Brightworks accountable I think that’s a question we’re going to be looking into.”

Virnig has declined comment after repeated requests by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS.

You can see the entire interview with the House leaders on “At Issue” Sunday at 10 a.m.

View the resignation agreement below: