By: Charlie St. Dennis

The Minnesota Timberwolves won their playoff game against the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, May 19th, successfully moving on to the Western Conference Finals against the Dallas Mavericks. While many Minnesotans celebrated at home, bars, or watch parties, a small group of Minnesotans were stuck at the State Capitol working tirelessly to pass as much legislation as they could before the end of the session, which occurred at 12am on Monday, May 20th.

For those who are unaware, Minnesotans are put into state legislative districts, which typically consist of roughly 85,000 people per senate district, and about 42,500 per house district. We elect these leaders, and the current state makeup is 70-64 with a DFL majority in the House, and 34-33 with a DFL majority in the Senate as well. Having such narrow majorities in both legislative bodies makes it incredibly difficult for legislation to pass, because it means you need *every* DFLer on board, or your legislation might die.

Unfortunately, that happens often. I’ll start reviewing this past legislative session with what I consider the *wins* for Minnesotans. Powerful bills challenging oppressive institutions, like the Minnesota African-American Family Preservation Act, introduced in the house by Rep. Esther Agbaje (DFL) gained bipartisan support from DFLers and Republicans alike, including Sen. Bobby Joe Champion (DFL) and Sen. Clare Oumou Verbeten (DFL), and Rep. Walter Hudson (R) and Sen. Jim Abeler (R), who ended up sponsoring this important piece of legislation. The goal of this legislation is to promote family reunification and appropriate social services for disproportionately affected African-American families.

They were also able to work with intergovernmental relations from the Minneapolis City Council and passed worker protections legislation for Uber/Lyft drivers. They also passed HR1989, a billed lovingly nicknamed the “Taylor Swift Ticketing Bill,” which was a bill basically saying that companies like Ticketmaster and AXS must disclose ticket prices with fees included, instead of just revealing right as people pay.

While this may not sound like a lot, you’re right, it’s not. I skipped over some of the really boring stuff, but mostly this year had a pretty blank slate, at least until the last day. The DFL realized they had a lot of work left to do due to some long, unnecessary debates from the Republicans. This leftover work notably included FairVote Minnesota’s Local Options Bill, which guarantees ranked choice voting as an option in local elections across the state. In addition to this, many activists and DFLers across the state were pushing for the Equal Rights Amendment to pass, which had been pushed to the last week of session for a second year now.

The DFL wanted to accomplish all of their legislative goals before that upcoming midnight deadline, so their solution was to make multiple omnibus bills, which means to combine pieces of legislation together and speed up the process. Once combing these omnibuses, they put it into one big omnibus: not so lovingly nicknamed “Omnibus Prime” or the “Megabus.”

This was appalling to Republicans. Despite admitting last year that they don’t read the bills (they accidentally legalized cannabis), now they suddenly care about having time to read this legislation. When Speaker Melissa Hortman (DFL) recognized a motion from Rep. Jamie Long (DFL) for a roll call vote, Minority Leader Lisa Demuth (R) began yelling “Madam Speaker!,” questioning her integrity as she thought she was not following the rules, along with several other Republican colleagues. This yelling went on for upwards of 30 minutes, which successfully left the legislature out of time to pass any legislation on to the Senate.

While I agree that the “Omnibus Prime” package was a lot to deliver on the final night of session, I also believe that Speaker Hortman, who has served in the House for 20 years now, is a reverent leader who knows what she’s doing. She recognized a motion, as she should, and they were going to begin a roll call vote, as they should. Because the *Republicans* didn’t understand the rules, we weren’t able to get nearly as much done this session as we could’ve. Although, despite not having the greatest record this past session, this has been the most productive biennium in 50 years.

My message for Republicans: you do not get to spin the rules just because they aren’t in your favor. You do not get to throw a hissy fit because you don’t want to progress our state. And lastly, the voters in November will look at the TV ads, campaign mailers, and lawn signs for your candidates and legislators and think of the way they acted like toddlers once given a position of power. And best believe they will vote accordingly.