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Minnesota lawmakers hope to put a new state budget — and fears of a potential government shutdown — to rest Monday in a special session where bills negotiated largely in private are put up for high-stakes public votes.

Both chambers started just after 10 a.m., with the lawmakers diving right into the most controversial bill: A plan to remove adult immigrants lacking legal status from the MinnesotaCare insurance program. The debate began as shouts from protesters outside the chamber rang in whenever the main doors came open.

Rep. Jeff Backer, R-Browns Valley, said Minnesota taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for all costs related to undocumented immigrants on the program. 

“When we find undocumented illegal immigrants. That is 100 percent from the cost of Minnesota taxpayers,” Backer said, adding, “If we do not focus on the Minnesota healthcare system, our hospitals, are EMS and our dental then what's going to happen is then the whole system will go into cardiac arrest, and that doesn't help anybody.”

Democrats dug in for a long debate even if the bill seemed on track for passage. Rep. Samantha Sencer-Mura, of Minneapolis, said the move lacks compassion in “a time of fear and scarcity.”

“We know that in the past our country has been wrong in the way we have scapegoated immigrants. Let's not repeat those same mistakes today,” she said. “Because this is how it starts first it's your health care, then it's your documentation, then it's saying you can't move around at night.”

Gov. Tim Walz summoned the Legislature into the special session as part of an agreement with top legislators that it be confined to 14 bills and be wrapped up by 7 a.m. Tuesday.

That’s also when layoff notices would be sent to thousands of state workers if a completed budget isn’t adopted, just one of many preparations for service interruptions that would happen without a new two-year spending plan.

Walz said he and leaders from both parties contributed “hundreds of hours” in recent weeks working toward a final agreement.

Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth and DFL House Caucus Leader Melissa Hortman — a leadership tandem in an evenly split chamber — stood together Friday to vouch for the deal and defend what has been a messy and opaque process.

“You’ll hear that not everybody is happy about every part of it, and that’s to be expected,” Demuth said. “But by getting this work done, even though late, we’re looking forward to Monday, getting things closed up, and then moving forward.”

Hortman said lawmakers did the best they could given the political circumstances — a Legislature divided between 101 DFLers and 100 Republicans.

“It is a frustrating process,” she said. “There's the analogy of making sausage and that, that is how it kind of always is. It’s a little bit frustrating in terms of it’s not a very clean or pretty process.”

Peter Cox

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Ellie Roth

The session that is required to conclude by early Tuesday will put leadership-negotiated budget agreements to the test in a closely divided Legislature.

Clay Masters |MPR News

Brian Bakst | MPR News 

People lie on the floor of the capitol with signs.

Ellie Roth | MPR News

A sign reads "Special Session Democulars"

Special session convenes to vote on rest of Minnesota budget, avoid shutdown

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