The Minnesota Legislature adjourned around 3 a.m. on Tuesday, March 17 after passing a bill to provide funding for health care providers in the fight against COVID-19. The House and the Senate may not return until April 14.

The hiatus is one attempt at adhering to the Minnesota Department of Health’s guidance for social distancing. Legislators will still be available for their constituents needs through emails, phone calls and other forms of communication.

Legislative activity will be dramatically scaled back. Committees and full floor sessions will happen on an on-call basis. The goal is to provide alerts to Senators and Representatives, as well as the public with 48-hours’ notice of meetings. Moving forward, the type of bills that will be considered are put into three categories:

1. Bills to fight and in response to COVID-19.
2. “Critical bills” such as a bonding bill to support state assets like MDVA facilities.
3. Bills with bipartisan agreement among the caucuses and between both chambers of the legislature.

This is a rapidly shifting situation. The Legislative Office for the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs will continue to monitor and provide updates as they occur. Related updates will be posted to the /mdva/news/legislative-updates/index.jspLegislative Affairs main page as they are available, or you can sign up here for email updates.