Republicans in the Minnesota House of Representatives are raising concerns about their members being left off key conference committees that are beginning to meet this month.
With just three weeks remaining in the legislative session, the House and Senate are forming conference committees to reconcile differences between major spending and policy bills passed in the House and Senate.
As the DFL legislators control both chambers (DFL holds a 70 to 64 advantage in the House, and 34 to 33 in the Senate) those caucuses also control appointments to conference committees that will ultimately shape final versions of legislation that is sent to the desk of Gov. Tim Walz.
Legislators have until May 22 to complete their work before the governor would need to call a special session.
House Republicans left off three conference committees, Senate GOP left off four
Last week two major conference committees — one on the public safety and judiciary omnibus bill (SF2909) and another on the environment, climate and energy bill (HF2310) — were formed without appointment of Republican legislators in the House.
House Republicans expressed frustration in both of those instances, which they say breaks with past precedent of the majority party appointing at least one member from the minority party to a conference committee.
Specifically, House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth said Democrats are “shutting out” Republican voices in the environment, climate and energy bill by only appointing House DFLers to that conference committee who live within 20 miles of the State Capitol.
“Democrats know this bill has virtually zero support outside the metro because it will increase the cost of energy for Minnesota families, and raises millions of dollars in fees when we have a $17.5 billion surplus,” said Demuth, R-Cold Spring.
Gun restriction provisions included in House public safety bill, but not in Senate version
The conference committee on the public safety and judiciary omnibus also includes no Republicans from either the House or the Senate. For context, all of the conference committees on major omnibus bills during the 2021 budget year featured bipartisan membership.
While the House version of the public safety and judiciary omnibus bill includes two controversial gun restriction provisions, the Senate version does not.
Conference committee co-chair Rep. Kelly Moeller, DFL-Shoreview, told media last week she “will be advocating very hard for those proposals” in a final bill that comes out of conference committee.
While Senate DFLers have said they are working hard to ensure they have enough votes to pass universal background check and red flag bills, it’s not yet known if they will get support from two freshmen DFL senators in Greater Minnesota on the Senate floor, or from senators in suburban swing districts. One of the public safety bill conferees is first-term Sen. Judy Seeberger, DFL-Afton, who made news over the weekend when she published a tweet describing herself as one of several “moderate lawmakers who wish we were passing bills that were a little more, you know, moderate.”
Conference committees at a glance
As of Monday, 14 conference committees have been formed to reconcile differences in major omnibus spending or policy bills. While 12 of those committees have at least one Republican member of either the House or the Senate, House Republicans were left off a total of three conference committees and Senate Republicans were left off four.
Senate Republicans were left off the following conference committees:
- Public Safety and Judiciary
- Jobs and Labor
- State Government Finance
- Higher Education
House Republicans were left of the following conference committees:
- Public Safety and Judiciary
- Jobs and Labor
- Environment, Natural Resource, Climate and Energy
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.
