In window before special election, House Republicans push for votes on their agenda
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After a rough session beginning, bills are reaching votes in the Minnesota Legislature though still encountering some turbulence.
Another vote is on tap in the state House on Monday on a bill that deals with funding for light rail projects. But it could reach the same fate as the first bill voted on last week; it failed to muster enough support to pass.
The close political divide is still defining how business is moving forward — and isn’t. There is lingering frustration over an early-session power struggle between Democrats and Republicans and clear resentment over the run-the-tables approach DFLers took in the two years before.
On Thursday, a bill to govern what is public and what is private data in the Minnesota Attorney General’s office came up short of the 68 votes necessary to pass.
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Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester, questioned the priority focus.
“This is the very first bill, what does it have to do with the price of eggs?” Liebling said, focusing on the grocery item for which costs seem to be climbing the fastest and nodding to the inflation that factored heavily in the last election.
Republicans countered they are raising matters that were stifled when DFLers had full Capitol control. And they pushed back at the characterization that they’re out of touch, suggesting Democrats seemed to want to pin all current problems on President Donald Trump.
“We’re very concerned about the price of eggs suddenly in this body,” said Rep. Mary Franson, R-Alexandria. “After having an $18 billion surplus two years ago, we are now facing over a $5 billion deficit. But yet Democrats want to focus everything on Washington, D.C., and not take ownership for the distraught and the pain families are feeling in their own wallets today.”
House Republicans currently have a 67-to-66 edge, pending the outcome of a special election in March. That advantage gives the GOP a lot of power in small rooms; they control what comes before House committees and what bills move on for full floor votes.
It is a short window in which Republicans have to flex their muscles until the March 11 election that could even up House membership between parties. Democrats have traditionally won in the suburban Ramsey County district.
House Majority Leader Harry Niska, R-Ramsey, said his party wants to use the votes on the bills to show Minnesotans where the sides stand.
“There are a number of bills that are going to come to the floor,” Niska said. “So for the purpose of the people of Minnesota seeing transparency, where the Democratic Party stands on a lot of issues that we think are pretty obvious.”
Over and over during committee hearings, Democrats point out that the measures being considered don’t have bipartisan backing.
Rep. Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis, said calling votes where failure is certain is a waste of time, and doesn’t do anything for the state.
“Rather than working on some of the real issues that we’re seeing in our state, like the affordability of groceries or housing or child care, we could be working together on those issues rather than trying to score cheap political points,” Long said.
Monday afternoon, the House took up a bill to pause funding for future light rail project spending until the current Southwest light rail project is completed. The measure failed to pass with Republicans voting for it and Democrats against.
Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, said the bill would limit costs for taxpayers and give time to evaluate whether more light rail lines are needed.
“Now is the time to put a halt to this until Southwest light rail is open and we have learned the lessons of that boondoggle before we go down this road again,” she said.
Democrats said it is a way of slowing down the growth of public transportation and that the moratorium would hit residents of Hennepin County, where the projects are based, the hardest.
“House File 14 would not return any substantial amount of funding to state coffers, but it would artificially inflate costs borne by the taxpayers of Hennepin County by approximately $200 million,” Rep. Mike Freiberg, DFL-Golden Valley. “All this bill does is burn millions of dollars in an attempt to make a political point about fiscal responsibility.”
In the Senate, things are moving at a more measured pace and with less strife. Committee actions on many bills have been bipartisan.
“I am nothing but delighted to see the interactions among my colleagues, both here in the chamber and in the committees,” said Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul. “It is, I think, the outgrowth of where we started this session.”
The Senate began with a 33-33 tie but the DFL and Republican leaders notched a power-sharing deal until a special election to fill a vacancy. That race went to the DFL.
No Senate bill votes were scheduled for Monday, but Murphy said several bills are working their way through committees and could be up on the floor by later in the week.