Minnesota’s 2024 Legislative Session opened last week and is proving to be busy from the jump. Legislators are expected to be focused on policy proposals and a capital investment bill, with the state’s fiscal forecast far less rosy than last year. Bill drafts are facing the usual Revisor office delays, meaning many of the proposals legislators are touting have yet to be seen in writing. This backlog will put further time pressure on the already-short five weeks before the first and second bill deadlines, leaving little time for study and discussion between a bill’s introduction and committee action.
The first bills expected to move this session are already scheduled for their first hearings this week. Both are fixes for legislation passed last year – one is a tax bill to correct errors made in the 2023 omnibus tax bill; the other addresses the controversy that arose over changes to School Resource Officer policies made last session.
The Senate saw a big change this month when Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic stepped down from her leadership post because of a recurrence of cancer. Sen. Erin Murphy of St. Paul was elected by the DFL caucus as the new Majority Leader. Murphy served as House Majority Leader in 2013-14 and was the DFL-endorsed candidate for governor in 2018 (defeated by Tim Walz in the primary).
Here are key dates for Minnesota’s 2024 Legislative Session:
Week of Feb. 26: February budget forecast released
March 22: First and second bill deadlines* (policy bills must be out of committees in both bodies).
5 p.m. March 27-noon April 2: Easter Recess
5 p.m. April 9-noon April 12: Eid Recess
April 19: Third bill deadline* (finance and spending bills must be out of committees in both bodies).
April 22- noon April 24: Passover Recess
May 20: Constitutionally required session adjournment.
*Bill deadlines do not apply to tax committees, capital investment committees, rules committees, finance committee or ways & means committee.
-Minnesota Newspaper Association
