Rules committee deadlocks on calendar after dispute over unemployment benefits for hourly school workers

The House Committee on Rules and Legislative Administration on Thursday failed to adopt a calendar to consider two bills on Friday, May 2, 2025, after an 8-8 roll-call tie that tracked a partisan dispute over whether to remove unemployment insurance eligibility for hourly school workers such as paraprofessionals and school bus drivers.

The committee voted on a motion to calendar House File 2433 and Senate File 1740 for Friday under House rules 1.21 and 3.33, with a prefiling requirement for amendments. Representative Long said, "So at this time, we're not prepared to, accept this calendar for the day and we'd, ask for a roll call vote." The motion failed on a roll call after extended debate.

Why it matters: Calendaring the bills would have scheduled an education-finance bill for floor consideration and accelerated negotiations with the Senate on the two-year budget. Committee members said the disagreement centers on a policy change in the proposed education package that would affect unemployment insurance (UI) eligibility for seasonal hourly school workers.

Committee debate focused on two competing priorities. Supporters of calendaring — primarily Republicans — said the move was necessary to advance a negotiated finance package and to address a projected state budget shortfall. Representative Schultz argued, "we're, on the precipice of a $6,000,000,000 budget deficit," and warned that expanding UI for summer months without offsetting funds could force local school districts to raise property taxes.

Opponents of the calendar — primarily DFL members — said the UI provision is needed to retain workers and support students. Representative Jordan said, "Having U. I. has made a tremendous amount of retention in paraprofessionals and bus drivers and our hourly school workers," and added, "We're talking about 60,000 impacted workers in Minnesota that over 20,000 Minnesota workers in every corner of the state have used." Representative Howard said the chamber's "first priority has to be passing a budget and that's gonna require that we work together," and characterized the debate as a choice between advancing a budget or pursuing policy changes that affect workers.

Several members described the disagreement as continuing negotiations rather than a settled agreement from prior committee action. Representative Nash and others said the bill had moved out of Ways and Means and had been presented as a negotiated compromise; Rep. Long and others said further caucus-level objections made them unable to support calendaring without additional negotiation.

Roll call: The clerk recorded the following votes on the motion to adopt the calendar (yes/no): Chair — aye; Co-chair Long — no; Vice Chair Engen — aye; Co-vice Chair Hollins — no; Representative Coulter — no; Representative Frederick — no; Representative Howard — no; Representative Jacob — aye; Representative Jordan — no; Representative Cagle — no; Representative Nash — aye; Representative Purcell — no; Representative Schultz — aye; Representative Scott — aye; Representative Steer — aye; Representative Eliza Carr — aye. There were eight ayes and eight noes; the motion did not prevail.

Outcome and next steps: With the tie vote, the committee did not adopt the calendar and the item was not placed on the House floor calendar. The committee adjourned at the conclusion of the roll call. Members on both sides said negotiations would continue; no further scheduling was announced during the meeting.

Context details: The committee took up minutes from the April 29, 2025 meeting before debating the calendar. The calendar motion specifically named House File 2433 and Senate File 1740 and cited rule 1.21 and rule 3.33 as the basis for scheduling and amendment prefiling requirements. Several speakers referred to prior committee work — Ways and Means and Education — and to broader budget targets and mandates that have affected school district finances.

Votes at a glance: Motion to calendar House File 2433 and Senate File 1740 for May 2, 2025 — failed; roll-call vote 8-8.