Minnesota legislators play blame game as session sputters to an end. Special session awaits.

The Minnesota Legislature’s 2025 session sputtered to an uneventful end Monday night as lawmakers spent little time passing budget bills and blamed each other for not finishing their work.

There was scant activity in the tied House and DFL-controlled Senate on the Legislature’s final day, and both chambers adjourned ahead of their 11:59 p.m. deadline with many budget bills still unpassed. After lauding each other days earlier for striking a budget deal, GOP and DFL legislative leaders held separate news conferences Monday accusing each other of slowing things down.

A frustrated Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, told members in her chamber that logjams in the House meant they had no work left to do. Speaking to reporters afterward, Murphy said her “mouth is full of cuss words” and blamed House Republicans for slowing work by trying to add new language to already negotiated budget bills.

“When you reach a conclusion and a negotiation and new conditions are being added that slows down the budget, that’s frustrating,” she said.

House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, disputed Murphy’s accusation, saying Republicans “are absolutely not holding a single thing up.”

Demuth said the weekslong boycott staged by House Democrats at the start of this year’s session “wasn’t helpful,” especially with lawmakers having to pass a budget through what is likely the most narrowly divided Legislature in state history.

Out of 201 legislators in the House and Senate, there are 101 Democrats and 100 Republicans.

Gov. Tim Walz urged lawmakers to keep working out their differences and abide by the approximately $66 billion two-year budget agreement that was reached last week. He said he will call legislators back to the State Capitol for a short special session as soon as they resolve their differences.

“We’ve got plenty of time to finish this,” Walz told reporters Monday afternoon.

The Legislature must pass a new two-year state budget before July 1 to avoid a government shutdown.

Most major budget bills, from education and taxes to health and human services, remain in limbo as lawmakers negotiate final language and work to make sure they have the votes for passage.

The Legislature has yet to vote on the most contentious parts of the greater budget deal, including an agreement to roll back MinnesotaCare health coverage for undocumented immigrant adults.

“Democratic legislators were pounding on the governor’s door,” said Rep. Harry Niska, R-Ramsey. “Obviously, we are concerned whether Democrats will hold up on their end.”

House Democrats held their own news conference Monday afternoon blaming Republicans for holding up budget bills with issues they said were already settled. They said Republicans were seeking last-minute changes to the state’s paid family and medical leave law.

Rep. Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis, said House Democrats, like their Republican peers, are advocating for changes to pieces of the greater budget deal. They want to preserve access to MinnesotaCare for undocumented immigrant adults.

The difference, Long said, is that Democrats are not stalling budget bills over it.

“Undocumented health care is not holding up any budget bill that needs to come to the floor today,” he said.

The Legislature passed a handful of budget bills over the weekend and into Monday, sending them to the governor. Several senators objected to a last-minute addition to the public safety budget that will close the Stillwater prison, but the bill still passed.

“This is a seismic decision in public safety that we’re making in this state,” Sen. Michael Kreun, R-Blaine, said during a floor debate Sunday. He criticized the Walz administration and legislators for reaching the deal “in the dead of night, in a backroom deal, out of the public eye.”

Sen. Ron Latz, a St. Louis Park Democrat who chairs the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, said he had regrets over the process around the decision to close the prison, which has also been slammed by unions representing prison workers, but not with the decision itself.

“In the end, the bottom line is that it’s inhumane, it’s outdated, it needs to be closed,” Latz said of the prison.

Lawmakers also passed a bill that shifts $77 million away from planned passenger rail projects, including the Northern Lights Express line between Duluth and the Twin Cities, and toward a program that extends unemployment insurance to hourly school workers.

“We’ve got a budget deal here. There’s some people who are being frustrating, but we’ll get through it,” she said.

Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said legislative leaders will likely meet with the governor Tuesday to finalize a special session work plan. She said she wants to pass the budget before June 1 so the state won’t have to send layoff notices to government workers.

Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks, said he hopes legislators will do their work transparently as they roll into a special session.

“We can’t be doing this behind closed doors,” Johnson said. “I’m hoping we can open up the doors, shine some light on the process and see what people are saying.”