Despite DFL Calls To Stay Until Police Reform Is Done, Senate GOP Plans To Adjourn Friday

From the Minnesota Reformer:

By Ricardo Lopez

SAINT PAUL, MN — Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-East Gull Lake said his caucus intends to adjourn the special session Friday.

How fast can the Legislature pass comprehensive police reform during a special session?

According to Senate Republicans, one week.

“We’re not going to stay in special session for months and months,” Gazelka said. “”Once we get to next Friday, we’re going to be done.”

It’s a markedly different timeline than put forth by House DFL leadership and Gov. Tim Walz, who argue the Legislature should stay in session until it is able to pass significant policing reforms proposed by members of the bicameral People of Color and Indigenous Caucus.

“If they adjourn, it does force an adjournment, sine die, on us as well,” Hortman said. “We can hang around but there’s not a lot of point to it when you pass bills to a Senate that’s not in session. It’s like screaming into the abyss.”

While some police reform measures enjoy bipartisan support, other DFL proposals, including shifting responsibility to the attorney general’s office for investigating all police-involved deaths, face pushback from Republicans. Gazelka said Friday his caucus would oppose giving the attorney general that power.

House DFL lawmakers have scheduled an 8-hour hearing on Saturday to discuss the various proposals they laid out Thursday.

Hortman said it’s possible lawmakers could return once a month through September if Walz continues extending his peacetime emergency, as he did on Friday.

Senate Republicans held a vote Friday to terminate the peacetime emergency, but the measure is unlikely to pass. Hortman said Friday the House DFL would vote down the GOP-led effort.

Lawmakers’ to-do list has grown since adjourning last month. Criminal justice and police reform are suddenly a top priority following two weeks of demonstrations in Minneapolis and throughout the country after the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

“The time is upon us and we need to get it done,” Walz said Thursday. “We need to make sure that they move through and are signed into law.”

The Legislature also has a long list of goals, from helping health care providers and people out of work due to the pandemic to a big public works bill, with negotiations ongoing on the size of a borrowing bill to pay for public infrastructure projects.

The Minnesota Reformer is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to keeping Minnesotans informed and unearthing stories other outlets can’t or won’t tell..