Lawmakers huddled in hushed corners.
Lobbyists trolled the halls, looking for lawmakers to buttonhole.
And above it all, demonstrators raised raucous chants and held signs for multiple causes in the Rotunda.
And Democrats and Republicans still haven’t reached agreement.
Ahhh, back to normal at the Minnesota Capitol.
On Monday, lawmakers returned to St. Paul to convene yet another session of the Legislature — the ninth since the coronavirus pandemic began — but the first where the entire cast was here in person, from the lawmakers to the protesters.
“We’re back,” House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said to a roomful of maskless media as she stepped to the microphone inside the Capitol Press Room — the first in-person event there since March 2020.
“It’s a little different — I’m not used to it,” chuckled Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-East Gull Lake, as he waited for a gaggle of reporters to jockey into position for a briefing on the floor of the Senate as senators frolicked in the aisles.
He added later: “Does it make any difference to have everyone back? It works much, much better. There are so many things that we do, pieces of information we get between meetings, that we bring together to solve the problem — and it’s actually a lot more fun.”
So, symbolically, in the history that will be written of the Minnesota Legislature during the COVID-19 pandemic, Monday was a pivotal day.
But nothing else really changed from several weeks ago, when lawmakers adjourned their regular session without passing a two-year state budget.
Here’s the short version: Key members of the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic-Farmer-Labor-controlled House continue to negotiate over several key sticking points. Both Hortman and Gazelka expressed optimism that an agreement on a roughly $52 billion two-year budget can be reached — with signoff from Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat — within about 10 days — plenty of time to avoid a state government shutdown July 1.
And once again, Republicans tried and failed to strip Walz of his COVID emergency powers, which he extended for another month on Monday.
PUBLIC SAFETY STICKING POINT
There has been progress. Gazelka, Hortman and Walz previously agreed to a set of spending priorities. Money isn’t really a problem this year, as the state is flush with cash, and budget surpluses are forecast for the next two years.
Lawmakers from both parties appeared by Monday to have reached accords on several areas of policy and spending, including higher education, agriculture, commerce, and how to spend proceeds from the Legacy Amendment to benefit the outdoors and arts and cultural heritage. A number of other areas, including K-12 education and housing, were said by leaders to be close to agreement.
However, the largest sticking point is no small one: public safety, including how police should be governed.
“It’s Number 1,” Hortman responded when asked how big a priority it is to have a slate of changes proposed by Democrats become law.
Gazelka and Republicans have been resistant to all but a few of what Hortman had described as “102 different policy innovations” that would change such things as how police officers are overseen, how they’re disciplined and what types of calls they respond to.
Hortman, Gazelka and others refused to discuss many specifics of negotiations, which appear to have yielded some limited progress. Gazelka, for example, said that key Republicans had agreed to a DFL proposal to require Department of Natural Resources conservation officers to wear body cameras.
EMERGENCY POWERS
On Monday morning before the Legislature convened, Gov. Walz extended the emergency powers he has used for 15 months to respond to the COVID-19 epidemic for another 30 days.
As they have each time the Democratic governor has announced such an extension, House Republicans called for stripping Walz of his power to make unilateral policy decisions.
Citing a sharp drop in coronavirus infections and deaths in the state, House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, said, “The emergency in Minnesota is over.”
But as they have on 20 previous occasions, the House DFL majority voted down the GOP motion to bring up a measure to end the emergency powers. The vote was 68-64 largely along party lines.
Walz has said he still needs special powers to continue COVID-19 testing and vaccinations, deploying state workers to respond to the pandemic and ensure that the state continues to receive federal nutrition benefits.
While Republicans failed to prevail on ending Walz’s emergency powers, the legislative battle isn’t over. Rep. Cal Bahr, R-East Bethel, introduced a “Never Again Bill” that would require a governor to get legislative approval to extend a declared emergency beyond five days. While the bill is unlikely to fly in the DFL-controlled House, it keeps the issue alive for more debate.
But with the pandemic subsiding, Walz has indicated that his need for special powers could end within two months.
