ST. PAUL – House Democrats on Thursday ended their weeks-long shutdown of the state legislature 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. Republican Leader Lisa Demuth, of Cold Spring, will serve as the Speaker of the House for the next 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.
“This shutdown had gone on far too long, so it’s good something finally convinced Democrats to show up for work,” said Rep. Shane Mekeland, R-Clear Lake. “Maybe they were simply starting to feel the heat from constituents who didn’t like the fact they had been collecting a taxpayer-funded paycheck while staying home for nearly a full month.
“It’s big that Republicans will hold the House Speaker’s gavel for the full biennium – through 2026. That means Rep. Demuth will control which bills come to the floor for votes on final approval. In other words, we finally have restored balance after Democrats spent the last two years passing one radical bill after another unchecked.”
Republicans will have full control of committee hearings and committee chairmanships 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.
Regardless of the outcome of the special election, Demuth will remain the Speaker of the House for the next two years, according to the organizational agreement.
-30-