It was announced yesterday that Senate Republican leadership and House Democrat leadership would come together with an agreement that resolves the differences between paying and refilling the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund and providing bonuses to workers who worked the frontline during the COVID pandemic. Today with broad bipartisan support, the landmark legislation passed in the Senate.

The legislation uses $2.7 billion to pay off the loan from the federal government and refill the UI fund to its necessary balance using mostly federal funds. As part of the agreement, $500 million from the surplus will go to frontline workers who were most at risk during the COVID pandemic. As the Senate proposed two weeks ago, the House Democrats will decide which workers get bonuses.

“I’m happy the Senate finally passed meaningful legislation that repays the UI trust fund and provides bonuses to the brave men and women that were on the front lines of COVID,” said Senator Eric Pratt (R-Prior Lake), author of the Senate’s original UI bill. “Paying down the UI debt ensures that current employees do not lose access to this critical benefit in the future, and it upholds our promise to Minnesota businesses that they will not be held accountable for utilizing the UI funds. It’s only right that we also include bonus payments to frontline workers that deserve recognition for all they did during the darkest days of the pandemic. I’m proud to say that today’s bill lifts a financial burden off our businesses, and thanks the brave workers who selflessly showed up to work throughout a pandemic.”

The bill spends the remaining federal ARPA funds available to Minnesota for COVID, which otherwise would have been available to Gov. Walz on June 1 if left unspent.