ST. PAUL – House Democrats on Thursday ended their weeks-long shutdown of state government and the Minnesota House officially came to order.
House Democrats did not appear at the Capitol for the first day of the 2025 session on Jan. 14 and remained absent in the weeks since. Their arrival Thursday came after Republicans and Democrats announced they reached an organizational agreement Wednesday.
“It is good the House is finally in order, ready to do the work of the people,” said Rep. Walter Hudson, R-Albertville. “It’s going to be a busy stretch in the House as we work to make up time House Democrats frittered during their nearly month-long shutdown. I wonder if we’ll ever find out what they really were doing while they stayed home for nearly a month collecting taxpayer-funded paychecks.”
Republican Leader Lisa Demuth, of Cold Spring, will serve as the Speaker of the House for the next two years, elevating her to the second-most powerful elected position in state government. Demuth is the first Republican Speaker of the House in six years.
“I can’t emphasize enough how crucial it was for us to secure Rep. Demuth as our speaker for the duration of this biennium,” Hudson said. “That means we finally have a backstop to extreme Democrat legislation that ran wild with one-party control at the Capitol the last two years.”
In addition, Republicans will hold an operating majority in a brand-new Fraud and Agency Oversight Committee they created to investigate waste, fraud, and abuse in state government.
“Democrats allowed fraud, waste and abuse to run rampant in Minnesota the last two years and proved they are unfit to lead any serious endeavors into this subject,” Hudson said. “House Republicans are committed to clamping down on fraud and will provide the leadership taxpayers deserve.”
In general, Republicans will have full control of committee hearings and committee chairs for the next five weeks, until a March 11 special election takes place to resolve a vacancy in House District 40B.
If the special election in 40B returns the House to a 67-67 tie, committee structures will revert to the co-chair model that had been tentatively agreed upon in the weeks following the November election. That includes equal Democrat and Republican members on all committees, except for the committee on fraud remaining in Republican control, per the organizational agreement.
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