Minnesota legislature begins 2023 session with DFL trifecta
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota Legislature gaveled in on Tuesday for 2023 session with a historically diverse group of lawmakers, beginning the next two years of total DFL control in state government.
Democrats with their new majorities will look to advance an agenda that had been previously thwarted by a Republican-led Senate the past few years, including passing paid family and medical leave, tackling climate change, legalizing recreational marijuana and putting abortion rights into law -- a bill to do the latter has a hearing as early as Thursday.
House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said she expects many bills to pass as early as January, a departure from previous sessions when the Capitol was at a standstill until the final weeks and before adjournment in May when the Republican-led Senate and DFL-controlled House scrambled to strike a deal.
"I leapt to my feet joyfully when the governor said at his inaugural ceremony yesterday that gridlock is over," Hortman told reporters. "Judging by the history of the Minnesota House, getting any bills to the governor in January is very successful, but we're going to get as many as we can as fast as we can."
But Tuesday was less about policy and more about formality. The first day at the Capitol is like returning to school after summer break, as members took their oaths of office and lawmakers greeted their colleagues, several of them new.
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After the public was largely absent during the pandemic, Minnesotans also flooded the Capitol with signs expressing their support for various issues, like passing gun safety, ranked choice voting and the Equal Rights Amendment. Gov. Tim Walz and his wife, Gwen, also brought pumpkin blondie bars to lawmakers and their staff.
Hortman and other DFL leaders in the House and Senate plan to roll out their priorities on Wednesday.
"We want to help build an economy that works for all. We heard on the doors that people are concerned about their freedoms and their rights and they don't want them chipped away," said Sen. Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic, DFL-Minneapolis. "And we want strong school and safe communities and a healthy climate. So we're going to get to work."
The big task before the legislature this year will be approving a two-year state budget to fund government, education, child care support and more. On the table is a record-breaking $17.6 billion surplus, which will shape conversations about state spending.
But just because Democrats have control doesn't mean there will be total agreement within their own caucuses. And in the Senate, there is just a one-vote majority.
They will also need to compromise with Republicans on legislation, especially any bonding proposals for construction projects, which require a supermajority vote to pass.
"In every circumstance where there is bipartisanship we are capable of accommodating, we will accommodate that," Hortman said.
While Republicans are in the minority, they will still push for their own priorities they campaigned on, including tax cuts, public safety and ending fraud in state agencies, said House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring.
"I believe we can work together and Minnesotans are actually looking for that right now. They are looking to have their values represented," Demuth said. "It takes a lot of hard work and having hard conversations and when we disagree, doing it in a respectful way."
There are now 35 of the 201 members in both the House and Senate who identify as people of color, according to a list from the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library. Demuth is the first woman to lead a GOP caucus and the first Black person to be leader. Sen. Bobby Joe Champion, DFL-Minneapolis, took the gavel to preside over the Senate as its president.
In the House, there is also the first openly transgender member of the legislature.
