On Monday, April 19, the House passed its higher education omnibus bill by a vote of 74-59. The bill provides $39.75 million in new operations and maintenance funding for the University in FY22-23, as well as a one-time increase of $2 million for the Natural Resources Research Institute. Now that the House and the Senate have passed their omnibus bills, a conference committee made up of five members from the House and five members from the Senate has been appointed.
The legislature continued to have long floor sessions this week, debating and voting on budget bills. With the 2021 Legislative Session scheduled to conclude on Monday, May 17, the legislature and the governor have just three weeks to come to an agreement on a two-year state budget. If the House, Senate and governor cannot agree on a budget by this date, then a special session will be necessary to pass budget bills into law.
It has become increasingly common for budget-year legislative sessions to result in subsequent special legislative sessions to finalize budget agreements and pass compromise budget bills into law. The last time the legislature was able to pass budget bills by adjournment without a special session was the 2013 Legislative Session when the governor’s office, House and Senate were all controlled by the DFL. Minnesota is the only state to have a divided legislature this year.
Budget bills must be passed and signed into law by Wednesday, June 30, the last day of the current budget cycle to avoid a government shutdown. The next state budget cycle begins on July 1, 2021 and runs through June 30, 2023.
Higher Education
On Monday, April 19, the House passed its higher education omnibus bill by a vote of 74-59. The bill provides $39.75 million in new operations and maintenance funding for the University in FY22-23, as well as a one-time increase of $2 million for the Natural Resources Research Institute.
Now that the House and the Senate have passed their omnibus bills, a conference committee made up of five members from the House and five members from the Senate has been appointed. The conference committee is tasked with reconciling the differences in the House and Senate budget bills.