(St. Paul, Minn.) — The Minnesota State Legislature will likely take all of its alotted days to finish this year’s session.
“Speaker (Melissa) Hortman, on the House side, was always alluding to an early sine die,” Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson (R-East Grand Forks) told WDAY Radio News on Wednesday night in an exclusive interview. “However that has long passed. So we are just going to go right up to the end here on Sunday night.”
Johnson said this year’s session “has just been one of those sessions that is going to go down in history.”
Johnson said another vote took place Wednesday morning to remove Senator Nicole Mitchell, but the vote fell short of being passed.
“Her vote is number 34,” he said. “That is the one vote that puts them over the top of all of these. They want to retain that power so they can get their extreme agenda done.”
Johnson calls out the Democratic Party in the Minnesota State Senate, saying that they “are continuing to protect Senator Mitchell over the integrity of our institution.”
In business following the vote, the Minnesota State Senate took up the Public Safety and Judiciary bill. The bill contained several amendments, which many passed.
One of them dealt with public safety on the roads.
Johnson said discussion on public safety on the roads dates back to the George Floyd protests.
“People were marching out onto the roads and highways, shutting down the roads and creating a public safety issue,” he said.
At the time, the cases were considered misdemeanors.
Johnson said the same situations are now being seen with some of the Palestinian protests in the Twin Cities and around the country.
“We want to make sure that Minnesotans are prepared for that,” he said. “(We are) trying to keep our roads safe for individuals traveling up and down.”
Johnson said there is bipartisan support for the bill.
He stresses that the needs of Minnesotans are being kept in mind in St. Paul.
“We’re working in a bipartisan manner,” Johnson said. “We understand the needs across Minnesota, and so we understand the need for investing in our infrastructure and making sure that businesses and families can thrive here.”
