House lays several bills on table, moves Highway 10 bond bill to transportation committee

The Minnesota House on March 11, 2025, performed several floor actions on bills listed on the calendar, largely through nondebatable tabling motions and a parliamentary recall and re-referral.

House File 28 (data center backup generation): The chief clerk reported House File 28 as “an act relating to energy, providing for data center energy generation redundancy.” Representative Meckland, the bill’s author, said the measure sought to address stakeholder concerns about behind-the-meter backup generation to make Minnesota more attractive for data-center investment. Representative Nisco moved that House File 28 be laid on the table; the motion prevailed by voice vote. No roll-call tally was recorded in the transcript.

House File 500 (nursing home workforce standards board): The chief clerk reported House File 500 as “an act relating to labor modifying a nursing home workforce standards board.” Representative Zalesnikar, the bill’s author, described the measure as ensuring spending authority and oversight remain with the 201 elected legislators rather than a nine-person board appointed by the governor. Representative Niska moved to lay House File 500 on the table; the motion prevailed by voice vote.

House File 1233 (women’s athletics/Title IX alignment): Representative Zalesnikar also introduced House File 1233, described on the calendar as providing an exemption for women’s athletics to align with Title IX. Representative Niska moved to lay House File 1233 on the table; the motion prevailed by voice vote.

House File 1362 (environmental review reporting): The chief clerk reported House File 1362 as a bill requested by the Environmental Quality Board (EQB) that would repeal a mandatory report to the Legislature on evaluation and recommendations for mandatory categories of environmental review. Representative Heintzeman said the EQB testified the report is unnecessary and better handled through the EQB’s continuous improvement process. Representative Niska moved to lay House File 1362 on the table; the motion prevailed by voice vote.

House File 1642 (Highway 10 improvements — jurisdictional referral): Representative Wolgamott moved that House File 1642 be recalled from the Capital Investment Committee and re-referred to the Transportation Finance and Policy Committee. Wolgamott said House File 1642 appropriates money for Highway 10 improvements and is authorizing trunk highway bonds, which fall under the transportation committee’s jurisdiction rather than general obligation bonds handled by capital investment. The motion to recall and re-refer prevailed by voice vote.

Procedural note: Most of the tabling motions described above were raised as nondebatable motions and carried via voice vote; the transcript contains no roll-call vote tallies for these motions. The action items recorded in the transcript are procedural and do not show passage of the underlying bills on final passage.

Ending: The House adjourned and set its next convening for 3:30 p.m. Thursday, March 13, 2025; the tabling and re-referral actions determine the next procedural steps for the listed bills.