April 21, 2026
Last Friday was the deadline for all fiscal bills except for tax bills and bonding bills. That means that all of the committees that have fiscal oversight moved or attempted to move their omnibus appropriations bills out of committees. The House, however, continued to struggle to pass bills out of their committees with a number unable to pass an omnibus bill. It remains undetermined how the legislature will proceed without comparable House bills, so we will be watching the Ways and Means Committee as they wrestle with this question next week. The good news is that the Jobs/Workforce and Housing Committees were able to pass bills out of both their Senate and House Committees and while those bills are quite different, they are a place to start. You’ll find a summary of those bills below.
Jobs and Workforce Committee Omnibus Bills
Senate
Senate Jobs Economic Recovery
SF4535 (Champion) Minnesota business recovery loan program establishment and appropriation. As amended by the A-2 amendment.
Senate Omnibus Appropriations and Policy Bill
SF3664 (Champion) Department of Employment and Economic Development unfunded programs repealer and conforming changes provision as amended by the A-2 amendment. This is the Senate's Omnibus Appropriations and Policy Bill.
House
HF3732 (Pinto) Workforce, Labor, and Economic Development Finance and Policy Bill as amended by the DE2. The bill includes some notable provisions:
- Would create a new subcommittee of the Governor's Workforce Development Board to recommend grants from the Workforce Development Fund up to $10 million dollars worth. Lines 3.5 - 4.13.
- Creates a new Healthcare Workforce Grant Program (but does not fund it)
- Creates an Office of Community Investment at DEED that provides oversight, strategic direction, program design and tracks grant outcomes.
- The House funds two things in their bill (both included in the policy language noted above):
- Office of Community Investment at $400,000 ongoing annually
- Subcommittee for the Governor's Workforce Development Board at $401,000 ongoing annually
Housing Omnibus Bills
Senate Housing and Homelessness Prevention Committee – SF0203 (Port) Housing infrastructure bonds issuance authorization and appropriation. This is the Housing Finance and Policy Omnibus bill. The A-1 DE amendment is the bill the Committee is moving forward. The bill funds $50 million in HIB bonds and includes some policy language from the Agency.
House Housing Omnibus Bill
House Housing Finance and Policy Committee – Heard HF1141 (Howard) Issuance of housing infrastructure bonds authorized, and money appropriated. This is the Housing Finance Bill as amended by the DE2. This bill appropriates $20 million for the Greater Minnesota Workforce Housing grant program, $40 million for FHPAP and $150,000 for homebuyer education training. The bill also authorized $100 million in HIB bonds. The policy language in the bill also requires multiple changes to agency reporting on fiscal balances.
Key Hearings Last Week
Monday 4/13/26
House Ways and Means Committee
Presentations on the Economic Impact of Operation Metro Surge. The Committee heard testimony from multiple testifiers about the impacts of the recent federal immigration surge and testifiers urged the state to pass financial supports to help with community recovery.
Committee Documents:
Rep. Baker shared his opinion that small businesses do need help and shared that he has had some personal impacts as well as asked the Minneapolis Mayor about what the city has done to provide that support. Mayor Frey shared an overview of the multiple supports the city has provided. Rep. Baker also shared his opinion that the state should impose less mandates on businesses.
Tuesday 4/14/26
House Workforce, Labor and Economic Development Committee - Heard HF4884 (Pinto) DEED and DLI Supplemental Budget Bill which includes the Governor’s supplemental budget recommendations. The Committee also heard HF3732 (Pinto) Different unfunded programs of the Department of Employment and Economic Development repealed, and conforming changes made - As Amended by the Author’s amendment and further amended. This bill will become the vehicle for the Omnibus Workforce Committee bill.
Senate Housing and Homelessness Prevention Committee – The Committee heard SF5060 (Port) Minnesota Housing Finance Agency supplemental budget adjustments. These are the Governor’s supplemental budget recommendations which the Agency presented. Senator Port noted that the Committee was only approved to move out appropriations bills to fund emergency rental assistance ($40 million in a prior bill) and to fund HIB bonds ($50 million) but has not been given a spending target beyond those items. The A-1 DE amendment is the bill the Committee is moving forward.
- A-13 – limits private equity ownership of single family homeownership – adopted
The bill was passed out to Finance unanimously.
Senate Jobs Committee
SF4535 (Champion) Minnesota business recovery loan program establishment and appropriation. As amended by the A-2 amendment. The Committee also adopted two other amendments A-6 amendment and the A-7. Those amendments keep the funding level at $100 million and fund the program from the Minnesota Forward Fund. Senator Pratt shared his opposition to the bill. Senator Drahiem also shared his opinion that the Committee has not done enough to stop fraud and his wish that the bill had more teeth to penalize fraud. Senator Pha pushed back against folks who expressed concerns remining members why this work is important and needed to support impacted businesses.
The bill was passed out of Committee to the Finance Committee.
House Energy Finance and Policy Committee - Heard HF3179 as amended by the A-1. This bill establishes a program in the department of commerce that requires owners of buildings of 50,000 square feet or more in the 7-county metropolitan area and in cities outside it with 50,000 or more inhabitants to reduce energy use on a schedule designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions from these buildings by 90 percent by 2045. Rep. Murphy raised a number of questions about the bill including asking about the overall cost estimates of compliance and who would pay for the costs of retrofitting these buildings. The bill author did not have that data, but expressed her opinion and goal that this was intended to drive down energy usage of existing buildings.
The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in an Omnibus bill.
Senate Omnibus Appropriations and Policy Bill
SF3664 (Champion) Department of Employment and Economic Development unfunded programs repealer and conforming changes provision as amended by the A-2 amendment. This is the Senate's Omnibus Appropriations and Policy Bill.
The bill fails to include the Agency’s policy changes including codifying the Pathways to Prosperity program and the Drive for Five program as well as the language that would modify the Innovative Business Development Public Infrastructure Program to allow the development restrictions to sunset after ten years consistent with similar programs.
The bill was passed out of Committee to the Finance Committee.
House Housing Finance and Policy Committee – Heard HF1141 (Howard) Issuance of housing infrastructure bonds authorized, and money appropriated. This is the Housing Finance Bill as amended by the DE2. This bill appropriates $20 million for the Greater Minnesota Workforce Housing grant program, $40 million for FHPAP and $150,000 for homebuyer education training. The bill also authorized $100 million in HIB bonds. The policy language in the bill also requires multiple changes to agency reporting on fiscal balances.
Members of both parties had positive comments about the bill. The bill passed out of Committee and to the Ways and Means Committee.
Thursday 4/16/26
House Workforce, Labor and Economic Development Committee - Heard HF3732 DE2 Workforce and Labor Finance and Policy Bill which includes:
HF3732 (Pinto) Workforce, Labor, and Economic Development Finance and Policy Bill as amended by the DE2. The bill includes some notable provisions:
- Would create a new subcommittee of the Governor's Workforce Development Board to recommend grants from the Workforce Development Fund up to $10 million dollars worth. Lines 3.5 - 4.13.
- Creates a new Healthcare Workforce Grant Program (but does not fund it)
- Extends UI benefits to laid off iron ore mining workers. See lines 12.19 - 14.4
- Creates an Office of Community Investment at DEED that provides oversight, strategic direction, program design and tracks grant outcomes.
- The House funds two things in their bill (both included in the policy language noted above):
- Office of Community Investment at $400,000 ongoing annually
- Subcommittee for the Governor's Workforce Development Board at $401,000 ongoing annually
The Committee considered an amendment by Rep. Frazier A-2 which would have added back in the proposal for small business economic relief. The amendment failed to be adopted on a party-line vote. The Committee did adopt the A-4 amendment by Rep. Greenman which adds language around requiring public and stakeholder engagement as well as lawmaker involvement with the Office of Community Investment. The Committee also had a discussion about the new Office of Community Investment (notes above) with Rep. Baker expressing his interest in better understanding the outcomes of appropriations and his opinion that establishing this Office of Community Engagement would further that understanding.
The bill passed out of Committee as amended and was sent to Ways and Means Committee.
Significant Upcoming Hearings
Tuesday 4/21/26
Senate Finance Committee – Will hear SF0203 (Port) which is the Housing Omnibus bill.
Additional hearings are likely to be posted throughout the week.
Key Bills We’re Watching
-
SF3695 (Port) Federal immigration enforcement operation economic impact study requirement provision and appropriation.
- SF3608 (Rest) Requirements modification for return of excess tax increments
- HF3663/SF4212
(Jones/McEwen) State Building Code; funding provided for competitive grants to
assist municipalities with streamlining State Energy Code compliance
report required, and money appropriated.
- SF3664/HF3732 (Champion/Pinto) – Agency policy bill
- HF3843/SF4427 (Baker/Housley) Requires a sub-committee of the Workforce Development Board to make recommendations for appropriations from the Workforce Development Fund.
- SF3839/HF3806 (Port/Howard) Housing infrastructure bond issue and appropriation
- HF3600 (Perryman) – Competitive selection processes modified for certain housing development programs.
- SF4123/HF3895 (Port/Igo) Zoning authority of local governments over certain housing types limited.
- SF4158/HF4602 (Jasinski/Skraba) BDPI bond issue and appropriation
- HF4077/SF4379 (Greenman/Maye Quade) Municipalities prohibition from entering into nondisclosure agreements. This bill was sent to the General Register in the House and Judiciary Committee in the Senate.
- HF4097/SF4272 (Frazier/Pha) Adds $2 million in additional funding for the Emerging Entrepreneur Loan Program.
- HF4342/SF4527 (Frazier/Pha) Relief program for small businesses negatively impacted by federal enforcement activity established, report required, and money appropriated.
- SF4535/HF4477 (Champion/Xiong) Minnesota business recovery loan program establishment and appropriation
- SF4690 (Rest) Various individual income and corporate franchise taxes and property taxes policy and technical changes provisions modifications, obsolete JOBZ provisions removal provision, and other miscellaneous tax provisions modifications
- HF3179/SF3429 (Jones/McEwen) Building energy performance standards establishment and appropriation
- SF4548/HF4814 (Hauschild/Huot) Ban local elected officials from entering certain nondisclosure agreements – data centers ONLY.