Several bills left unfinished after 2024 MN legislative session ends

ST. PAUL, Minn. (GRAY) – On Sunday night, the 93rd Minnesota Legislature adjourned for the final time. The legislature ended in chaotic fashion, as DFLers brought the gavel down to pass bills before adjourning Sunday.

Several bills did not make it across the desk before the midnight deadline, including a bonding bill, a sports betting bill, and a bill to put an Equal Rights Amendment on the State Constitution.

Bonding discussions fell apart due to partisan tension on the final day of the session. While a fully funded infrastructure package was unlikely to pass, a smaller cash bill had the votes needed to get through both the house and senate. The bill did not pass the senate in time for the midnight deadline, missing it by a matter of seconds. Republicans pinned the lack of a deal on poor time management from the DFL.

“There was a provision in the cash bonding bill that failed by 30 seconds in the Democrat majority senate,” said House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring).

DFLers, however, said the deal fell apart due to Republican filibustering.

“If you follow the rules, that can’t pass midnight, there was one member who was loud and interruptive. And so, we lost a bonding bill for the people of Minnesota as a result,” said Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy (DFL-St. Paul).

Reportedly, a sports betting deal was in the works just hours before midnight, but House author Zach Stephenson said in a post online that they ran out of time.

An Equal Rights Amendment was also just a few hours of debate away from potential passage in the Senate. For months, the House and Senate had been working to come to an agreement on language in the bill, and by the final weekend, there was optimism the two caucuses were on the same page.

“I believe that the Senate did have the votes. That was my condition for taking up on the [House] floor and spending the 15 hours that we did, was I had to have a pretty good sense that the senate would be able to take it up and pass it,” said Speaker Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park).

Hortman believes that the bill simply ran out of time, again blaming the Republican filibuster.

“Part of what happened this week, it deprived the senate of the opportunity, the time to have that conversation,” she said.

Republicans said too much time was lost in the final weekend negotiating a rideshare deal, one which was sent off to the governor’s desk in time for the end of the session.

Governor Walz said on Monday that he’s happy with the work that came out of the 2024 session and does not plan on calling a special session this year.

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