Legislative leaders set a deadline of 5 p.m. Wednesday for so-called “working groups” to complete work on spending bill agreements to pave the way for a special session and a balanced state budget.

However, none of those working groups met in public on Tuesday, and it’s unclear what, if any, progress has been made.

“Hard decisions have to be made, and then we’ll come back when the governor calls us to finish up the work for Minnesotans,” Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth said early Tuesday morning just after the House adjourned the regular session.

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DFL Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy said whenever the governor calls lawmakers back into special session, it will likely still take several days to finish the remaining bills. “We have some big bills in front of us, E-12 (education), health and human services are significant pieces of legislation,” she said late Monday. “So, it may take us more than one day.”

One legislative leader told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that progress is being made behind the scenes. However, with so little transparency in the process, it’s difficult to verify. The only working group meeting in public so far is working on a tax bill.

One major bill that did not pass during the regular session would create an “Office of Inspector General” as a watchdog of waste and fraud in state government spending. It passed with broad bipartisan support in the Senate earlier this month, but failed to get a vote in the House late Monday night.

“Just that we know of almost a billion dollars in fraud,” said Rep. Patti Anderson, R-Dellwood, as she made a motion to bring the bill up for a vote, “and those are dollars that should be going to people who need those dollars.”

But some House Democrats fear the office will become almost like a state-level DOGE, or Department of Government Efficiency, that Elon Musk was running at the federal level.

“They are ripping our government to shreds,” Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester, said on the House floor. “And just because the Republicans in this body say they have a bill that’s wonderful, that’s going to stop fraud, does not make it so.”

On Tuesday, the Senate author of the inspector general bill, Sen. Heather Gustafson, DFL-Vadnais Heights, criticized the House for failing to act. 

“Minnesotans deserve a government that protects their tax dollars, cracks down on fraud, and restores public trust,” Gustafson said in a news release. “The Inspector General bill is a serious, bipartisan effort to deliver exactly that, and I’m proud the Senate moved it forward with strong and broad bipartisan support.”

Gustafson even criticized some of her House DFL colleagues.

“Last night, the majority of the House voted in support of creating an independent Inspector General. But because of House rules, this bill required a supermajority, and not enough House DFL members were willing to get it across the finish line. It’s frustrating to see good policy with broad support stall at the 11th hour. Minnesotans don’t care about process games—they care about results, accountability, and making sure their tax dollars are protected.”  

It’s unclear if the bill will get another chance in a special session.