The Senate adjourned from special session early Saturday morning, after House Democrats and Gov. Walz refused to compromise on bills to distribute federal COVD assistance, fund infrastructure improvements, and add new police accountability changes.

“This special session was a huge missed opportunity,” said Senate Finance Chair Julie Rosen (R-Vernon Center). “The Senate did its job, but the House just wasn’t interested in compromise. We had a chance to provide important help to local governments recovering from COVID. We had a chance to improve the way we hold police accountable. We a chance to improve reading scores with an innovative literacy training program. We had a chance to deliver a bonding bill full of important infrastructure projects. We had a chance to expand critical high-speed internet access into rural Minnesota. But none of it got done because House Democrats insisted on playing political games. Minnesotans should be outraged.”

On Friday the Senate took up a number of bipartisan bills, including a comprehensive education policy bill, a bill to expand broadband access in unserved areas, and a bill to clear out the state’s backlog of driver’s license tests – all of which passed unanimously, though only the education policy bill was approved by the House.

Negotiations also stalled on other larger pieces of legislation:

• Earlier in special session, House and Senate leaders from both parties reached an agreement on a bill chief authored by Sen. Rosen that would fairly distribute federal COVID assistance to local governments. One day after that bill passed the Senate by a vote of 62-4, the House broke the agreement and added millions of dollars in new spending to the bill, effectively ending the bill’s chances of passing during the special session.

• The Senate’s police accountability bills included many agreed-upon ideas like banning chokeholds and requiring officers to intervene if they see excessive force. Talks broke down on those bills when House Democrats were unwilling to remove controversial policies that lack support, like felon voting and dismantling police departments.

• The state’s constitution stipulates a bonding bill must originate in the House, but a bonding bill was not brought up for a vote in the House before the Senate adjourned. In the regular session, the Senate brought up a comprehensive infrastructure bonding bill, but there weren’t enough votes from Senate Democrats to pass it. That bill included several projects for southern Minnesota, including water infrastructure improvements in Waldorf and Vernon Center, the Minnesota Riverbank stabilization project in Mankato, the Martin County Veterans Memorial, and local road and bridge improvements.