Same-sex marriage bills face key votes

Two public hearings are planned this week on legislation that would legalize same-sex marriage in Minnesota.

The House Civil Law Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee are both scheduled to take up the bill on Tuesday.

Both panels will listen to testimony for and against the measure, then discuss it and vote. No other committee stops are planned.

DFL House Majority Leader Erin Murphy of St. Paul said if the bill gets through committee, a floor vote would be several weeks away.

"If passed, it will go to the general register and it will stay there until we've made significant progress on the budget. And we will not take that up again until we've dealt with our budget bills and got them off the floor and into conference," Murphy said.

All policy bills must clear at least one committee by Friday to remain alive for the session. Still, Republican Senate Minority Leader David Hann of Eden Prairie said Democrats should be focusing all their attention on the budget rather than issues like same-sex marriage.

"We think it's a little odd that they're proceeding on this before they've even introduced their budget bills. We haven't seen the DFL legislative budget bills and they're already proceeding on the same-sex marriage issue, which strikes us as a little odd in terms of a priority. We think it's the wrong priority. We think they ought to focus on the budget. They ought to get the budget done. They ought to get the budget passed," he said.