CapWatch

While the Minnesota legislature may have adjourned the 2025 legislative session at midnight on May 19, 2025, most legislators remained around the State Capitol last week in anticipation of a possible special legislative session.

Last Thursday, Gov. Tim Walz, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Erin Murphy (DFL-St. Paul), Speaker of the House Rep. Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring), and Speaker Emeritus Rep. Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park) held a joint press conference to announce that they had reached a “global budget deal.”

With just a week remaining in the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers remain focused on the state budget, and many have been meeting in conference committee to discuss the differences between each chamber’s budget proposals while they wait for legislative leadership and Gov. Tim Walz to agree on global budget targets.

Will the legislature finish on time? With only two weeks left in the 2025 legislative session, much work needs to be done to complete the biennial budget and pass any other pieces of priority legislation.

With only three weeks remaining in the legislative session, Gov. Tim Walz gave his State of the State speech last week.

The legislature returns from Easter/Passover break today with a significant amount of work to do in just four short weeks.

With five weeks to go in the legislative session, the legislature has wrapped up committee deadlines as of last Friday and is currently on a ten-day Easter/Passover break.

With roughly six weeks left in the legislative session, legislators have until this Friday, April 11th, to pass all major omnibus budget bills out of their respective finance committees.

The legislature returns from a short break for the Eid holiday on Tuesday, with only three days until the first round of committee deadlines.

Last week, newly elected state Rep. David Gottfried (DFL-Shoreview), was sworn in as the 134th member of the Minnesota House of Representatives after comfortably winning a special election in House District 40B.

For the second time this year, the balance of power in the Minnesota legislature was in the hands of a single district as voters went to the polls for a special election. On March 11th, the voters in House District 40B overwhelmingly supported Democrat David Gottfried over Republican Paul Wikstrom, electing him as the 134th member of the Minnesota House of Representatives

With legislative deadlines announced and the February forecast in hand, the Minnesota Legislature will look to pick up the pace as it has a somewhat condensed calendar to complete its work on the biennial budget.