House and Senate Announce Committee Chairs

The committee chairs for the 92nd legislature have been announced and will begin their work starting on January 5, 2021. In the House, committees will be down slightly from previous years with 30 committees.

Speaker of the House, Melissa Hortman said, "Democrats are focused on what Minnesotans value: recovering and rebuilding from COVID, affordable health care, excellent educational opportunities from preschool through job training, and economic security for our families. We are ready to get to work building a Minnesota that works better for everyone."

“What we really want to focus on out of the blocks are the things we all agree are important,” said Sen. Paul Gazelka, when he announced the committee structure and chairs for the Republican lead Senate.

Schedules and committee member will be forthcoming.

Agriculture Finance & Policy - Sundin

Capital Investment - Lee

Commerce Finance & Policy - Stephenson

Environment and Natural Resources Finance & Policy - Hansen

Climate and Energy Finance & Policy - Long

State Government Finance & Policy - Nelson

Local Government Division - Masin

Health Finance & Policy - Liebling

Preventative Health Policy Division - Freiberg

Human Services Finance & Policy - Schultz

Behavioral Health Policy Division - Fischer

Higher Education Finance & Policy - Bernardy

Housing Finance & Policy - Hausman

Preventing Homelessness Division - Gomez

Labor, Industry, Veterans and Military Affairs Finance & Policy - Ecklund

Workforce and Business Development Finance & Policy - Noor

Industrial Education and Economic Development Finance & Policy - Pelowski

Judiciary Finance & Civil Law - Becker-Finn

Legacy Finance - Lillie

Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Finance & Policy- Mariani

Rules and Legislative Administration - Winkler

Subcommittee on Legislative Process Reform - Pelowski

Taxes - Marquart

Property Tax Division - Youakim

Transportation Finance & Policy - Hornstein

Ways and Means - Moran

Redistricting - Murphy

Finance - Rosen

State Government Fin/Pol & Elections - Kiffmeyer

Vets/Military Affairs Finance & Policy - Lang

Human Services Reform Finance & Policy - Abeler

Health & Human Services Finance & Policy - Benson

Energy Finance & Policy - Senjem

Agriculture Finance & Policy - Westrom

Housing Finance & Policy - Draheim

Commerce Finance & Policy - Dahms

Higher Education Finance & Policy - Tomassoni

Judiciary/Pub. Safety Fin. & Criminal Law - Limmer

Jobs Finance & Policy - Pratt

Environment & Natural Resources Finance - Ingebrigtsen

Enviro & NatRes Policy & Legacy Finance - Ruud

Transportation Finance & Policy - Newman

Policy Committees

Local Government - Jasinski

->Subcommittee: Metropolitan Governance - Osmek

Technology & Reform - Koran

Human Services Licensing - Utke

Aging & Long Term Care - Housley

Civil Law & Data Practices - Mathews

Labor & Industry Policy - Rarick

Mining & Forestry Policy - Eichorn

According to Minnesota Management and Budget's website and release, Minnesota’s economic and budget outlook have improved since May, when they released a budget projection just as the COVID-19 pandemic was taking hold. With this forecast, higher general fund revenues and lower expected spending result in a projected surplus of $641 million for the FY 2020-21 biennium. The improved budget outlook continues into FY 2022-23, but a $1.273 billion budgetary shortfall remains for that biennium. As the pandemic continues, economic challenges also persist. Minnesota has 184,000 fewer jobs than in February and, while the economic downturn has affected all Minnesotans, unemployment has disproportionately impacted lower wage workers.

Mentioned in the presentation is the decline in pupil counts throughout Minnesota, which extrapolates into a "savings" of $118 million. Economists shared the 12,676 reduction of student counts was more than projected previously. An additional 8,334 students added to the forecasted 4,000 students. These numbers highlight the tough decisions parents have made to not start Kindergarten, choose private school options or homeschool. Students are anticipated to return to public school classrooms, but not sure if it will be next school year or the coming years.