The two-year biennium has ended in a way that I have not seen in all my years serving in the House and Senate. In the minutes before midnight, as a culmination of the two years of one-party control, the Senate Democrats did the unthinkable and showed an unprecedented abuse of power.  An hour before the constitutionally mandated end of the legislative session, a brand new 1,432-page bill was brought forward for a vote on the Senate floor. There were not enough paper copies for legislators and the electronic version crashed so there was no way for legislators to attempt to read the bill language in order to cast an informed vote. To make matters worse, they ignored every Republican on the floor and would not allow any debate on the bill. This undermines the role of the legislature and does a disservice to those that elected us to be their voice at the Capitol.

After months of trying to work in a bipartisan manner to bring about compromise and the best legislation for the people of Minnesota, Democrats announced just after 10 pm that they had a mega-omnibus bill that they were moving out of the Taxes Conference Committee, and it would go to both bodies for a final vote. This was not a tax bill, it was a mega-omnibus bill that rolled eight omnibus bills into one, and included a number of additional unrelated provisions such as gun control measures and sweeping paid leave changes. Despite the state constitution being incredibly clear that every senate file or house file should be a “one subject” bill, this was their last stand to lump all of their unvetted bills into one massive bill, so they could pass everything at once.

The bill then went to the House for a vote, and then made it to the Senate with less than 45 minutes left in the legislative session. This was already a total abuse of power, but they also cut off debate on the bill and neglected every question or concern. For 30 minutes, we were trying to get answers on what was in the bill. To make matters worse, we didn’t even have access to the final language when a vote was taken. Democrats bulldozed it through.

I’d like to point out a critical detail that it seems Senate Democrats have forgotten: they have a one-seat majority, which means Senate Republicans represent 49% of the state. By cutting off debate and pushing through this bill, Democrats are sending the message that they do not care about the opinions of those who may disagree with them. They have a simple majority and used it to silence any opposition to their bills. They were able to do this by leveraging the deciding vote of Sen. Mitchell, who has been embroiled in controversy since her felony charge. This is not how democracy is meant to work.

The fact of the matter is that we will likely not even know what is in this bill until a few weeks down the line. Yet this bill is going to be signed into law and will affect every single family, community, and small business in the state. Minnesotans elected us to be their voices on legislative issues. They expect us to vet these bills before passing them – that’s just commonsense legislating. But by cutting off debate entirely, Democrats are choosing to ignore the concerns of half of the state, and it’s truly shameful.

I don’t want to be overly-partisan in assessing this situation, but the actions taken on the Floor were reprehensible and folks need to know what happened. Sunday night there was a total breakdown in the democratic process, and Minnesotans expect better from us. They expect us to thoroughly examine and debate any legislation that will affect them in their daily lives. This is an attack on the democratic process, and it was a shameful way to end session. I hope that Democrats will be held accountable for their actions. Minnesota deserves better.