Good morning.  We're at the point of the session where we raise a lot of random questions with each other to kill time. So we want to hear from you — which lawmaker has the best Minnesota accent?

The deal outline is in. It contains: vehicle tab fee and property tax relief, HCMC help, a construction projects borrowing bill that has vital support, some level of safety aid, county technology upgrades and more. Legislative leadrs and Gov. Tim Walz say they didn't break the bank to get all those priorities addressed and will leave some of the projected surplus behind for the next session or to cover a budget problem that might still arise. To stress, this is the framework. Will the details be satisfactory and timely enough to get it all done? We'll see that late-session dance begin to play out today. Sometimes lawmakers can surprise you with the way they can craft and pass plans when things don't look possible. The deadline to pass bills is midnight Sunday.

Some DFLers plan to have a sit-in on the House floor tonight if a package that includes some gun control measures is not taken up in the House for a vote by the end of the day today. As the House adjourned yesterday, Rep. Samantha Sencer-Mura, DFL-Minneapolis, said if House Speaker Lisa Demuth does not bring a Senate-passed bill to the floor by 5 p.m.“ I, along with other members of this body, will engage in an overnight sit-in here in the chamber, “ she said. “We will be doing this for the community of Annunciation, the parents and families of Harper Moyski and Fletcher Merkel, and for everyone across Minnesota who has lost someone to gun violence.” The move comes as groups of hospital workers and groups promoting gun control measures to prevent school shootings, have also been amping up their public pressure on Demuth to bring the bill to the floor. A House GOP spokesperson said in a statement, “House Democrats could have brought an urgency to bring up their new gun ban bill that’s identical to the Senate File. Instead they chose to spend two hours haranguing Republicans about an unrelated bill,” the statement said. “[Wednesday’s] announcement seems to be more of a publicity stunt than an actual attempt at legislating.”

A conference committee is working to hammer out a compromise dealing with Capitol and lawmaker security after bills passed both chambers. The issue is a top priority for lawmakers who returned this legislative session after the assassination of former House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and the nonfatal shooting of state Sen. John Hoffman, DFL-Champlin, and his wife, Yvette. Lawmakers have to pass legislation before the legislative session comes to a close Monday. The Walz administration implemented new weapons screening technology at the Capitol ahead of the legislative session but that’s set to run out next week. The Legislature is considering an extension and additional funding as part of a Capitol security and lawmaker safety measure. Proposals that emerged from the House and Senate vary in terms of how to provide police security to lawmakers, constitutional officers and judges who face credible threats either at public buildings or when they’re in their home communities. Conversations about a final proposal are expected to continue this week. Also of note, a proposal to heighten penalties for impersonating a police officer is on its way to the governor’s desk after the Senate unanimously approved it yesterday.

A bipartisan, $165 million housing deal is headed to the governor’s desk. The budget-neutral bill appropriates $9 million for grants to organizations working to address homelessness in the state. It also contains money for bonds to build thousands of new housing units and a statewide tenant legal hotline. Republicans in both chambers signed on, including Rep. Nolan West, R-Blaine. “I have no notes,” West told his colleagues on the House floor. The final deal also includes $4 million for the manufactured home park infrastructure grant and loan program to update aging manufactured home communities. However, legislation that manufactured home residents have been pushing for for years to limit lot rent increases and curb the influence of corporate mobile home park owners was not brought over from the Senate version of the bill. Sen. Lindsey Port, DFL-Burnsville, championed the legislation in the Senate. On the Senate floor, Port highlighted the money dedicated to preventing homelessness. "Not only is this the right thing to do, it is more cost effective to prevent homelessness from happening than to fund interventions to get folks back into stable housing after they've lost it." Governor Tim Walz is expected to sign the bill into law.

The price of gas is pinching budgets and becoming a political flashpoint. Gas shot up as the war in Iran began and the Strait of Hormuz was essentially closed to tankers moving oil out of the region. Minnesota remains below the national average for a per-gallon price but that’s still gone up to $4.37 (one of your writers spotted a 50-cent overnight increase at a suburban gas station this week). Republican governor candidate Kendall Qualls is calling for a suspension of the state’s roughly 33 cent sales tax. But that tax feeds road construction and also sends dedicated money to the State Patrol (Qualls is also running on a fight-crime platform) so there are political perils to letting it blink off even temporarily. There’s no telling whether the public will even notice if gas can climb by a dime, a quarter or more in a single day. But Qualls said a suspension “provides relief families can feel immediately.” It would take an act of the Legislature, which is in its final throes for the year. But the Qualls’ call could also squeeze his chief rival for the GOP nod, House Speaker Lisa Demuth, as she sits at the negotiating table.

Reduction in vehicle registration fees, also called tab fees, are part of that end-of-session deal. The Star Tribune put its finger on another vehicle registration cost that’s annoying some voters: The electric vehicle surcharge put into place this year, which has added hundreds of dollars to the annual costs for those car owners. The intent is to recognize that full-electric vehicle owners use roads but don’t pay into the main upkeep fund because they don’t buy gas that is subject to the gas tax. Lawmakers adopted the surcharge as part of last year’s budget so some owners are feeling it for the first time. One lawmaker, DFL Rep. Steve Elkins, is perplexed by the policy. “People are pissed off, and they should be,” he told the Star Tribune. 

State lawmakers could require companies to include human analysis when denying healthcare coverage. The measure is part of a larger commerce and consumer protection deal that was partially hammered out in a conference committee yesterday. Rep. Steve Elkins, DFL-Bloomington, said companies shouldn't be allowed to use technology like artificial intelligence to automatically deny claims, but he said it's important to phrase that language in the bill in a way that will stand up to technological advancements. Elkins said a lawyer once told him, “when you're legislating around technology, you should never actually name the technology. You should describe what it does.” The committee approved language that requires human input in denial of healthcare claims. The entire commerce deal still needs to be adopted by the committee and would need approval of the full House and Senate.

You can’t make... um... legislation without breaking a few egg jokes apparently. In one of the more pun-filled debates of session, the Minnesota Senate unanimously passed a bill that allows donations of chicken eggs after their sell-by date. "Let's not scramble it up. This is no yolk,” said Sen. Torrey Westrom, R-Elbow Lake. The bill would allow chicken eggs to be donated up to 30 days past their quality assurance date, when they are still safe to eat. Several other states allow the same thing. Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, added, “This bill is eggs-actly the type of legislation we should be doing. We should scramble to our desks to vote green." Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, also jumped in, “Although this bill is not all it's cracked up to be, if you vote green, you will experience a moment of egg-stasy." The egg bill still needs approval in the House.

The head of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce says he’ll retire at the end of this year. Doug Loon, who has led the chamber since 2015, says he’ll step down as President and CEO of the organization at the end of 2026. The chamber represents more than 6,300 businesses across the state and is a powerful player in lobbying for and against legislation at the Capitol. The chamber said in an announcement about Loon’s plan, “Under his leadership, the organization delivered strong advocacy results, helped businesses navigate increasingly complex regulatory and compliance challenges, and expanded the Minnesota Chamber Foundation into a trusted source of economic data and analysis to support business decision-making.” He led the organization through the COVID-19 pandemic among other notable moments of difficulty in the last decade. The chamber says its board will oversee an executive search process for its next CEO.

Finally, once the legislative session is over, we’ll be turning our full attention to the campaign and the upcoming state party conventions. Our politics team will be in Duluth for the Republican state convention and Rochester for the DFL state convention. They’re both the same weekend and we’ll have a special two-hour Politics Friday on May 29. But wait… there’s more! In Duluth, politics editor Brian Bakst will be at a happy hour at Bent Paddle Brewing at 5 p.m. Tickets are free but registration is requested . Same goes for a companion happy hour that All Things Considered host Clay Masters will be at at Old Abe Coffee Shop. Sign up for your spot at that event here.