Is the Minnesota House’s power-sharing agreement unraveling?

So much for bipartisan harmony On Wednesday the House Rules and Legislative Administration Committee met to advance the biennial development spending bill to the House floor The billion bill had already cleared the Development Finance and Tactics and Means committees by voice votes Getting through Rules is almost unfailingly a procedural formality But committee co-chair Jamie Long DFL-Minneapolis had other ideas We spoke about this proposal the day before and this morning and we don t have an agreement Long disclosed Long and his seven DFL colleagues then voted to not put the bill on the House floor schedule The eight annoyed and angered Republicans on the committee voted to advance the bill But with neither party enjoying a legislative majority the spending package is indefinitely stuck in the Rules committee I m just really confused about where we find ourselves the present day trying to disagree on a bill that was already agreed upon announced Rep Jim Nash R-Waconia Related Lawmakers vexed and divided on funding Minnesota schools As of late Thursday there was talk at the Capitol of Republicans trying to move the bill to the House floor anyway The gambit would not have the votes to succeed But it would be a car for Republicans and DFLers to yell at each other for the next eight to hours according to Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman DFL-Brookyn Park The DFL leader predicted a throwdown on the House floor Power-sharing fears realized This is what was feared when the Minnesota House ended up in a - tie A power-sharing agreement between DFLers and Republicans has largely worked in advancing bills that will then be reconciled with the DFL-controlled Senate But it has not worked at all for the state s Department of Instruction budget which was weeks late in getting hearings on a final bill The stated holdup is entirely around an unemployment insurance fund for school workers paid by the hour who cannot find summer jobs Signed into law by Gov Tim Walz in the transformational and bonkers year the fund is less than of the total spending package It benefits teachers aides food provision workers and bus drivers various of whom are represented by Amenity Employees International Union Local At the Rules committee hearing Republicans got in their jabs about DFLers obstruction I m not sure what happened overnight This is gravely concerning and gravely disappointing commented Rep Peggy Scott R-Andover Does the far left hand not know what the left hand is doing right now noted Rep Eliot Enger R-White Bear Township DFLers mainly steered away from discussing their procedural tactics They focused on the stability that they say summer unemployment benefits provide to workers and school districts As to what happens next there are a inadequate strategies forward or further backward according to the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library The Rules committee could reconvene at a later date to move the bill to the House floor Rules could also refer the bill back to Procedures and Means in the hopes the bill could be amended to DFLers satisfaction though a jobless benefits amendment failed to pass that committee just hours ago Also the bill could languish as higher level discussions take place between Walz and legislative leadership on a biennial budget Hortman commented that in a closed door session with Walz and other legislative leaders nowadays compromises are starting to be reached on overall spending targets for each budget bill A compromise on instruction spending though is not exactly imminent even though the House and Senate bills are only million off from each other in total spending or of the overall package Stay tuned The post Is the Minnesota House s power-sharing agreement unraveling appeared first on MinnPost