Capitol Letter for May 21, 2021
The Capitol Letter™ is a recurring publication that provides reports from LWV Minnesota volunteer Observer Corps and Lobby Corps members on what is happening in the current legislative session.
End of Session: General Budget Negotiations & Conference Committees
By Cassidy Pelkey, Policy Coordinator
This year, the Minnesota legislature is responsible for passing the state’s budget for the next biennium. Along with the budget there are several policy measures that state representatives and senators are attempting to pass. As is always the case near the end of session, these measures have been packaged together in what is called an ‘omnibus bill,’ or a bill containing several policy provisions. Under the state constitution, each omnibus bill must be about a “single subject,” but each subject tends to be very broadly defined, e.g., “health and human services” or “state government.”
The omnibus bill containing the most of the state government budget also contains critical elections provisions, as well as veterans and military affairs provisions. Because the Senate and the House are separate chambers with different leadership and priorities, they have both passed their own versions of the omnibus bill. However, the bills are widely varying on a number of provisions in every section.
After the House and Senate pass their separate versions of the bill, a conference committee is called. This is a temporary committee that is composed of members of both chambers and both parties. The sole purpose of the conference committee is to reconcile the two versions of the bill. In other words, they take pieces from both bills and create one final bill that must be acceptable to the majority of members in both chambers.
Once the conference committee is called, and members selected, there are several steps the committee must take before the final version of the bill is complete.
The first part of the process is going through a side-by-side walkthrough of the bill. More commonly, regular standing committees will do walkthroughs of bills they are looking to pass onto the House or Senate floor. In the conference committee, they do this same process; however, since they are dealing with two different versions of the bill, they walk through the equivalent provisions of the two bills at the same time. During this process, legislative staff will point out to legislators the sections of the bills that are the same, different, or are only in one version of the bill.
After the walkthrough is completed, the co-chairs (one from the Senate and one from the House) decide on rules and processes together, prior to the start of the committee. In this instance, the co-chairs of the current State Government Finance, Vets & Military Affairs Finance, & Elections conference committee decided to have testimony immediately after the side-by-side walkthrough.
The League of Women Voters of Minnesota testified at conference committee. The testimony focused on the support of prohibitions on election official and voter intimidation, as well as automatic voter registration. You can this testimony here (LWVMN testimony begins at about 44 minutes and 30 seconds in).
After representatives and senators have been made aware of how the House and Senate versions of the omnibus bills are similar and different, and which versions certain members of the public and stakeholders support, they must begin the work of reconciliation.
The co-chairs of the committee met prior to the committee meetings, and discussed which sections of the final bill would come from which version of the bills (the House version or the Senate version). Then during the committee meeting they walk through what they had agreed upon with the other members, allowing time for member questions and comments. Although this process is a far cry from fully transparent, the rest of the negotiations take place even more behind closed doors. As the Legislature struggles to pass the mandated budget in the end-of-session scramble, the compromising process becomes more and more closed off to the public. This is evident in the next step in the process: finding compromises in the areas that differ between the two versions of the bill.
If the legislature is unable to pass necessary bills before the regular session ends, the Governor has to call the legislature back into special session. This is a session of the legislature called outside of the normal, mandated dates of legislative session (January-May). Special sessions are typically only called when the legislature has bills they need to pass, such as the state budget, but did not get passed during the regular session.
These special sessions can be problematic. As with the end of regular session, special sessions are often filled to the brim with a lack of transparency. In order to get the necessary bills passed as quickly as possible, party and committee leaders often resort to multiple closed-door meetings and deals. Often, negotiations become private conversations between just the Senate Majority Leader, the Speaker of the House, and the Governor.
Specific Elections Policies in the State Government Omnibus
By Nick Harper, Civic Engagement Director
A major milestone in coming to agreement is budget targets, which is essentially the budget total agreed to for each omnibus bill. This maximum amount for each omnibus bill is what allows negotiators to then create the detailed budgets for each omnibus bill. Unfortunately, no budget targets were agreed to before the regular session ended.
The legislature will return for special session on June 14, where the legislature will also have the option of ending Governor Walz’s emergency powers. The ending of emergency powers will likely play into bill negotiations. Negotiations between leadership will continue behind closed doors until special session.
The state government conference committee did issue a conference report just prior to the end of session. It contained all same and similar policy language from the two versions of the bill, i.e., all areas of agreement. This report was presented to the Governor as a policy-only bill. It appears that the budget aspects of the omnibus bill will come in the special session.
LWVMN does not find any of the policy language significantly objectionable, and in fact, most are useful clean-up and clarification of election administration procedures. However, the bill does also not contain key policies that LWVMN was supporting, such as automatic voter registration or prohibitions on intimidation of voters and election officials. The full conference committee report can be read here.
Other Issues
By Nick Harper, Civic Engagement Director
Voter ID
Once again, a voter ID bill was introduced this session. The Senate version, SF173, was passed on the Senate floor and sent to the House. The House companion bill, HF293, did not even get a hearing in the House. Unlike previous sessions, the voter ID bill did not get put into the state government and elections omnibus bill, which essentially ensured that it would not be passed into law.
Redistricting
No bills have passed in either chamber for redistricting this session.
The Senate has had two hearings on legislation concerning redistricting principles. SF1715, authored by Senator Kiffmeyer, establishes principles traditionally used by the state courts over the last several decades. SF2308, authored by Senator Isaacson, lays out redistricting principles with a focus on minority representation.
The House has not had any hearings on redistricting legislation yet. HF2594, sponsored by Representative Klevorn, lays out not only redistricting principles but also certain transparency requirements. HF2520, sponsored by Representative Greenman, also lays out redistricting principles. There are a few differences between the bills, but they are relatively similar. Klevorn’s bill most resembles the legislation LWVMN has been working on for the past several years, though there are some differences.
Both legislative chambers plan to have informational hearings over the summer. LWVMN be tracking that and notifying Leagues once we know more.
LWVMN will continue to educate legislators and provide feedback on legislation throughout the summer. Any action the committees take over the next several months will inevitably, if only indirectly, affect anything the courts do with redistricting.