CONTACT: Sarah Oliver, 651.296.5956, sarah.oliver@senate.

mn

Senator Carla Nelson

District 26 - Serving Olmsted County

Office: 117 State Office Bldg., Saint Paul, Minnesota

55155
May 27, 2015
For Immediate Release

Sen. Nelson Proposes Deadline Reform to

Avoid Last Minute Lawmaking
Deadline for budget targets to conference committees would add more
urgency for getting finished on time
Rochester, Minn. - Senator Carla Nelson (R-Rochester) proposed adding a
new legislative deadline for House and Senate leaders to help the legislature
get their work done on time in budget-setting sessions. Senator Nelson
would add a fourth deadline for leaders to deliver budget targets to the
finance conference committees at the end of the session.
No one benefits when the leaders put together huge spending bills in the
final days of the session behind closed doors, said Senator Nelson. Adding
this deadline would put pressure on the leadership and governor to set the
budget targets in time for the full legislature, and more importantly, the
public to thoroughly review what is in these bills.
Currently, section 2.03 of the Joint Rules of the Senate and House calls on
leadership to agree to three committee deadlines to move bills through the
process. The new deadline for conference committees would be set with
enough time for members and staff to process the spending and tax bills
before the constitutional deadline in May.
Our adjournment date was predetermined when our constitution was
signed. It did not sneak up on us. Yet every two years, we find ourselves in
the same predicament. Conference committee target deadlines are needed
reform, added Nelson.
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