2025 Legislative Session Goes Out With A Whimper

by Sam Richie, AASPMN Lobbyist

One of the most chaotic and politically fraught legislative sessions in recent memory ended on May 19 with the lion’s share of the budget yet to be enacted.

Lawmakers adjourned the 2025 legislative session after passing only a handful of omnibus budget bills, leaving roughly 90 percent of the state budget to be dealt with during an upcoming special session. Legislative leaders in the House and Senate have tasked budget chairs to continue negotiations on their omnibus budget bills in the hopes that a one-day special session can be called by Governor Walz to assemble the rest of the next two-year budget. Now that lawmakers have blown through the Constitutionally mandated adjournment date, the next hard deadline is June 30 as major functions of state government would begin to shut down on July 1 without a new budget in place. 

Lawmakers have left themselves with a great deal of unfinished business to address in special session. While some of the conference committees appeared somewhat close to agreement at the end of session, others have not met even a single time. The budget areas still needing attention are: 

•  Environment

•  K-12 Education

•  Commerce 

•  Energy

•  Health

•  Human Services

•  Jobs and Workforce

•  Higher Education

•  Transportation

•  Taxes

Within these budget areas, a number of policy issues have bubbled up as sticking points to an overall agreement. These include an effort to end public health insurance coverage for adult immigrants without legal status, a fight over state funds for private K-12 schools, disagreements over who should pick new members of the University of Minnesota’s governing board, potential adjustments to recently enacted programs that let workers accrue earned sick time and paid long-term leave for family care and a discrepancy over the size of a capital investment package. 

The drawn out budget negotiations and lack of overall progress did gobble up the time AASPMN had been hoping to use for an informational hearing on S.F. 2209 in the Senate Commerce Committee. Our priority policy bill for the biennium does not deal with the budget and so is more appropriate to be acted on during the second year of the biennium, but we had been told we’d receive an opportunity for an informational hearing on it this year in order to frame the discussion for next session. While the messy end to the session did not allow for that to take place, we have been told to gear up for a hearing on the legislation in 2026. 

With no legislative election this fall, we know the lawmakers who will be back in St. Paul in 2026 and we intend to reach out to key players on the Commerce Committee for summer and fall shop tours and meetings. Please keep an eye out for outreach from Sam Richie and Linden Wicklund to participate.

As we turn the page on another odd session, I want to extend my sincerest thanks to AASPMN members who have been active in our efforts this year. Between our Day at the Capitol event and direct member engagement with lawmakers, our presence and impact at the Capitol has been steadily growing. Thank you to all who have chipped in to make that possible. 

Want more? Check out the June 2025 issue of AASP-MN News!