There are two weeks left before the legislature takes about a week-long break from April 9-17 in honor of the Easter and Passover holidays.

This week the remaining omnibus bills will be released and acted on by the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees – a timeline they must keep in order to meet the third legislative deadline this Friday, March 31.

Next week both bodies are expected to take up their omnibus bills for a full vote on the floor. In addition to taking up the omnibus budget bills, both chambers will begin spending increased amounts of time on the floor voting on dozens of other bills that have successfully made their way through the deadline and committee process.

Since the start of the legislative session on Tuesday, January 3, nine bills have been signed into law by Governor Dayton.

Legislators have spent the first months of session on committee work, but now that deadlines are coming to pass, the focus will shift to passing bills, ironing out differences in conference committee, and potentially gaining approval from the governor with his signature.

Committee deadlines that serve as benchmarks throughout the session are exceptionally early this session – a schedule that many have speculated would allow for Governor Dayton to veto a round of budget bills and then find compromise in a second round before the constitutionally-mandated adjournment date of Monday, May 22.

One of the sticking points for final passage will be the inclusion of policy changes in budget bills. Because Governor Dayton cannot use his line-item veto authority to veto policy provisions, any policy provisions within budget bills that he opposes – like the proposed weakening of buffer laws – could create cause for a veto of an entire bill.