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Capitol View®
Tim Pugmire

State House getting a jump on 2014 session

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The start of the 2014 Legislative session is still a month away, but several Minnesota House committees are holding hearings this week.

More than a dozen interim hearings are scheduled on bills related to bonding, election law, health care policy, housing and environmental issues. Lawmakers will hear public testimony, but they can’t take votes until after February 25, which is when the session gets underway. Lawmakers have already pre-filed 280 new bills for consideration this session.

House Speaker Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, said the idea for this week is to let some committees get an early start on what will be an unusually short session.

“If we can consolidate it into a single week, it allows people to travel down to St. Paul one time and deal with all of their committees, and saves us a little money in our House budget,” Thissen said.

House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, said he also sees the benefit of scheduling several hearings in the same week.

“I appreciate that because we have a lot of rural members that are coming in for these committee meetings,” Daudt said. “I think our members are very happy to participate and bring our ideas to the table.”

The Minnesota Senate is not taking the same approach. Although a few Senate committees are scheduled to meet in early February.