Senate Rules Committee suspends rules to advance multiple late bills after members debate timeliness

The Senate Rules Committee met to hear explanations for a series of late bills and to vote on suspending procedural rules so each measure could proceed.

Senator Champion, sponsor of Senate File 45 35, told the committee the bill is late because negotiators needed extra time to finalize language and agreements. "This is for our business recovery initiative, a $100,000,000, in money coming from the Minnesota forward fund, for businesses all across the state that had some impact because of operation Mitchell surge," Champion said. The committee approved a motion to suspend the provisions of Senate Concurrent Resolution 6 for SF 45 35 and adopted the previous committee report by voice vote.

Members of the minority pushed back on the practice of advancing bills after deadlines. "This is gonna be a rubber stamp for these particular bills," Senator Johnson said, arguing repeated missed deadlines undermine the committee process. Senator Rest and…