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Capitol crunch time: Minnesota lawmakers racing to pass bills before midight
It's crunch time at the Minnesota State Capitol Sunday night as lawmakers work to pass bills before the end of the 2026 legislative session at midnight.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - The clock is ticking at the Minnesota State Capitol as lawmakers race to pass several high-profile bills before the legislative session ends at midnight.
Lawmakers scramble to pass major bills as deadline approaches
What we know:
The House was actively debating the taxes bill late Sunday night, which includes about $125 million in extended property tax rebates for middle and lower-income residents. Sunday evening, the health bill was passed in the Senate. It provides $205 million for Hennepin County Medical Center’s rescue plan, along with future emergency funds for nonprofit hospitals if next year’s legislature cannot stabilize them.
What they're saying:
"There is the addition of a hospital stabilization reserve, and that is a reserve account that is going to be set up in the general fund, and there will be $500 million that will be placed into that, that fund," explained Sen. Melissa Wiklund of Bloomington. "And that will be something that Hennepin County Medical Center will be able to or be able to draw on over, a period of years."
Other bills debated
Big picture view:
The House has also heard two bonding bills, though they have not yet voted on them. One of them includes more than $250 million in cuts to car registration fees and $1.2 billion in infrastructure projects statewide, with a focus on cleaning lead from water pipes and removing PFAS from waterways.
"Communities across the state that have been impacted by big business polluting our water deserve to have clean water, while big business gets a slap on the wrist and gets to pay for 1% to 3% of those projects through the settlement funds, the rest of Minnesota picks up the tab," said Rep. Mary Franson of Alexandria.
Lawmakers have been moving bills quickly between the House and Senate, sometimes sending them to conference committees and then back for final votes.
Timeline:
Shortly after 10 p.m., senators passed the health bill after more than an hour of debate. The House picked up the taxes bill soon after, and the Senate is expected to reconvene to vote on it. The bonding bills have been heard in the House but not yet voted on, and the Senate is currently in recess.
The session’s midnight deadline means any bills not passed will have to wait until 2027. Lawmakers say they are confident everything will get done in time, but nothing is certain until the clock strikes midnight.
The session also includes the commerce bill, which would legalize the card game Hasenpfeffer and expand meat raffles.