Here we go, it's going to be a long week on the floor and today we're feeling it. The House floor session is expected to last 12 hours, with 3-4 hour debates on budget bills. Agriculture and Veterans Chair Al Juhnke has taken an interesting approach to ease things along. He has accepted a majority of the minority Republican amendments, Juhnke keeps saying "let's take it to conference" meaning take the language to conference committee where it can be stripped out.
Still Republicans weren't delighted even with their amendments getting on. Minority Leader Seifert said “I did not hear one Democrat on the campaign trail last fall say they would come to the Capitol to raise taxes and slash funding for veterans programs, but that’s exactly what happened." Juhnke says that's just not true because military and veterans get more money while ag gets slashed. After more than 3 hours of debate the Ag & Vets bill passed 83-49 (meaning even some DFLers voted no).
The higher education bill was up next and tomorrow K-12 education should come up, that's after the first midnight session on Wednesday. We'll debate k-12 with the spirited Chair Mindy Greiling and playful Republican lead Pat Garofalo on Almanac: At the Capitol.