As the DFL’s one-seat Senate majority hangs in the balance, Democratic legislators say they’re concerned about the “sweeping” impacts a federal budget bill President Donald Trump signed into law this summer will have on a number of state programs and the economy.
In response, they’ve formed a new legislative committee they claim will help give lawmakers a head start in adjusting the state’s entitlement programs to account for what they described as “random and chaotic decision-making” coming from the Trump administration and its “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
But Republican senators are expressing skepticism over the intent behind the new “Senate Select Subcommittee on Federal Impacts on Minnesotans and Economic Stability.” They worry its work will serve as little more than a Democrat “propaganda tour” heading into the midterm elections next year.
DFL-led committee kicks off work with tour of a food shelf
On Thursday, the nine-member committee visited a food shelf in Rochester.
Committee Chair Sen. Lindsey Port, DFL-Burnsville, told media members earlier this month that “food insecurity” would be one the first areas the committee will study.
The senators, five DFLers and four Republicans, toured the Channel One Food Bank on Thursday.
The nonprofit food shelf sits in Sen. Carla Nelson’s home district. Nelson, a fifth-term Republican from Rochester, said she’s hopeful the work the committee will do in the coming months, prior to the start of the 2026 legislative session on Feb. 17, will be “serious business.”
“There can be an advantage to holding committees like this if it’s very focused on the facts and not political theater,” Nelson told Alpha News.
“One thing we should not lose sight of is these provisions in the Working Families Tax Cut are related to federal income taxes,” Nelson said. “The state of Minnesota, I am hoping will conform to the new working-class tax relief that Minnesotans are seeing in this legislation.”
Whether that topic will make its way into the DFL-controlled committee remains to be seen.
Senate DFL concerned about Republican ‘trifecta’ in Washington, D.C.
Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy contends that the committee is “the Senate’s recognition that the actions coming out of Washington are increasingly hostile to states, including and especially Minnesota.”
“In order to understand what has been put into law by the Republican trifecta, along with Donald Trump, is to make sure that we are spending time reviewing and understanding what’s there, but more importantly, talking with the people of Minnesota about the impacts that we see and what they’re going to experience, so that we’re able not just to prepare for the next session, but for the budget years ahead,” Murphy said.
That language has Sen. Mark Koran, R-North Branch, skeptical of the purpose for the committee.
Koran criticized a lack of communication that his DFL colleagues had with their Republican counterparts in the early stages of the committee, and said Republicans first learned of its formation through a Senate DFL Caucus press release.
“All we know so far is that we have a basic committee schedule that just came and that our first meeting will be visiting a food distribution center,” Koran said.
“We’ve all toured these facilities many times, and no disrespect to food shelves, but we know the challenges they face and the communities they serve. So I’m a little skeptical that these types of visits will serve as anything more than a propaganda tour.”
Hank Long
Hank Long is a journalism and communications professional whose writing career includes coverage of the Minnesota legislature, city and county governments and the commercial real estate industry. Hank received his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, where he studied journalism, and his law degree at the University of St. Thomas. The Minnesota native lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and four children. His dream is to be around when the Vikings win the Super Bowl.
