Senate Floor Session - Mar 23, 2026

Thank you, Mr. President. I impose a call of the Senate.

It. Sam. It.

Mr. President, I move that further proceedings under the roll call be dispensed with and that the sergeant in arms be instructed to bring in the absent members

Good and gracious God, we enter upon a most sacred time of the year. May we contemplate your word as it speaks to us and follow your holy will in all that we do. As the season of spring witnesses to your resurrected life, may we rise with you to eternal life. God of creation, we lift our eyes to the hills from whence our help does indeed come. You, O Lord, maker of heaven and earth, who direct the stars in the sky and order the changing of the seasons, call us to behold with eyes of faith filled with hope that our winter of discontent is finally over. As flowers appear across our beautiful state, let us sing for joy the mystery of your design. For you make all things new. Make a way in the desert of despair through the wilderness of worry. Bring forth streams of living water in the wastelands of unease. Quench the barrenness of our souls with hope for your salvation. And then enable us to set aside former things that hold us to our past. Open our eyes to perceive the new things you are doing in our lives even as you cause the beginning of life springing forth around us. God bless these elected members, their families, their staffs and all constituents in a special way this day in order that they may continue to reach for the highest, noblest and greatest benefits for our great state of Minnesota. And so say we all.

Amen.

The secretary will take the role.

Members of quorum is present. The following members intend to vote from a reload a remote location under Rule 40.7. Senators Carlson, her and McEwen. Members, if you'd like to follow along, I'm reading from our Senate agenda dated Monday, March 23rd, and we will begin at the second order of business. Executive and official communications. The following communications were received and referred as indicated. Members will now go to the fifth order of business, which is reports of committees. Senator Murphy, for a motion to adopt the committee reports.

Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. President. I would like to divide out the committee report from the Committee on Rules and Administration pertaining to Senate file 4139. I would like to vote on the adoption of Senate File 4139, separate from the rest of the committee reports printed in the agenda.

Thank you, President Champion. I would like us to take up the balance of the committee reports and adopt them, leaving the divide the divided report from the Rules Committee. Last. Last.

All those.

Thank you, Mr. President. And I would request a roll call.

Thank you, Mr. President. I stand opposed to the adoption of this committee report that would take the latest online gambling sports bill and bypass the State and Local Government Committee, which is the committee of jurisdiction for all bills related to gambling. This committee report would instead send the latest sports gambling bill to the Commerce Committee. If you look, Mr. President, members, in the jurisdiction list published by the President's office, you do not find any mention of gambling in the Commerce Committee's jurisdiction. However, for the State and Local Government Committee, it is very clear that all bills relating to gambling should originate in the State and Local Government Committee. And if you look at the title of this bill, Members, it says that it's a bill for an act relating to gambling. In fact, the eight previous bills that have been on sports betting have all been referred to the State and Local Government Committee first. And even for this bill, when it was printed in Bill introductions was originally going to state and local government, but then was attempted to be changed with an oral amendment. Mr. President and members, we also have debated this question before. On April 23rd of last year, the bill author made a motion to take an earlier sports gambling bill from the State and Local Government Committee and move it to the Commerce Committee. And a majority of both caucuses rejected that move, saying that this bill should go to the State and Local Government Committee first. I understand that earlier versions of this bill have been defeated previously in the State and Local Government Committee. But we have our committee structure for good reason. We have committee jurisdiction that allows members to develop expertise and they should have the first opportunity to hear this bill, debate the bill, amend the bill and vote on the bill within their committee jurisdiction. Mr. President, members, I've asked that letters from the Catholic Conference and the Minnesota Family Council be distributed asking you as well to not bypass our normal committee process and to send this bill to the committee of primary jurisdiction. So I'd ask that members vote no on adopting this committee report. For something that is as consequential and controversial as legalizing online sports betting, the Senate should follow our normal committee process that allows members of this body and the public to make sure that their voice is heard. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you. Members. We have a Rules Committee for a reason. The reason is to decide where bills get referred. Glad to report to members of both caucuses that a robust, thorough, and I hope both sides would agree, strategically argued before the rules committee voted 6 to 2 to send this bill to the Commerce Committee members. The reasons included the following. From the Rules Committee membership, we have the President of the Senate who pointed out the simple fact that when the chief author requests a bill referral and has the consent of the two committees in question, it is often, if not always, honored. We had testimony about 2023 when the bill was sent to the Commerce Committee members. I ask you, when we appoint the Rules Committee to make these decisions, do you want to come back to this floor over and over again to have the Rules Committee decision rejected? And if we do, what are the implications for any bill in which a member who seeks to oppose the bill says we must have it heard in the order that we decree? The Rules Committee heard the argument Senator Rasmussen just made and voted 6 to 2 to send the bill to Commerce. Ask yourself, members, who are the people in your caucus who are members of the Rules Committee. And what is it that you think your vote signals to them that they just don't understand about serving on the Rules Committee? I've been a member of the Rules Committee for four years. I have not seen this particular motion take place. The better path, members, is to support the referral made originally by the President's office, now supported by the Rules Committee to the Commerce Committee, and have the bill follow its course from there. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. President. I was the author of the bipartisan sports wagering bill in 2023, and at that time, the chairperson of the State and Local Government Committee specifically requested that that committee hear the bill last so that it was in its most crafted form and could be shaped to the guidance of the State and local Government Committee. I think that was wisdom, and I think that was procedurally correct. But this vote before us is not about sports wagering. I ask members to honor the traditions of this Senate and to honor the austerity of our Rules Committee and authority of our Rules Committee. They deliberated, they thought about this issue. They voted 6 to 2, a convincing majority to send this bill to the committee so referred. We have always honored chief author's request. When they have the permission of both chairs to move bills between committees, it would be a serious disruption of that tradition to vote yes on this motion today.

Thank you. Mr. Chair and Members, I would urge you to support the Rasmussen motion. It is true that chief authors can make referral requests, but that happens before a bill gets introduced and referred to its first committee, the Rules Committee, a wonderful committee. Love the members on the committee, but every committee report comes back to this body for a vote. That has always been true. It will always remain true, regardless of what we do here today. And the last thing I will say is that this bill belongs in state and local government first, because you need to set the scope, scope and the parameters of gambling before you can apply consumer protections to gambling. And so if we send a bill to Commerce to put consumer protections on something, we don't even know what we're protecting, how can we be sure that we have the most consumer protections that we need? This bill belongs in state and local government. It is a committee that, according to our jurisdictions that we set as a body, deals with all bills related to gambling, peri mutual wagering. And once the State and Local Government committee has put it through its process, then it can go on with whatever scope we have set to get consumer protections. So, members, this is making sure that we aren't going around the processes that we've set up, but actually abiding by the processes that we have set up. And members, I would urge you to support the Rasmussen motion,

thank you, Mr. President. And members, I'm one of the members of the Rules Committee, and I do think it's appropriate that this body take a look at every committee report that comes back. And it is, sir. Friends, it's not a common thing to do, but it's not a common thing to have this sort of issue in the Rules Committee. The one argument that I heard from proponents of sending it to Commerce and skipping state and local committee is the primary committee of jurisdiction was that this bill has now 10 pages of I think it's the first 10 pages are stuff on, quote, consumer protection. Well, there are first 10 pages. Most of those pages were elsewhere in the bill before and they now put it in the front. That's not an argument for sending it to a different committee. Matter of fact, one of the provisions that was in the last bill a year ago, one of the consumer protection provisions, which I thought way too weak, was totally stripped out of this one. So if anything, it may be a weaker consumer protection section in here, but we don't need to deal with those consumer protections until after we know the direction of what is being proposed and what is being legalized. And I just refer people to if the my Pitts Rules Committee is if we're voting on the committee jurisdictions that the Rules Committee has adopted, it's very clearly state and local government has jurisdiction over all bills and it lists a number of things including gambling, lotteries, paramutual wagering. All bills relate to that. And as I think either Senator Mae Quaid or Senator Rasmussen point out, there are no references to gambling in the Commerce Committee, and that's why it's gone there in the past. And yes, we can all and probably every member of this body is at some time asked to switch committee jurisdiction with the consent of the chairs. And that's generally for something either because it was a misreferral in the first place or because for convenience, if one committee can't handle the bill now and you got to go through several committees, we'll go there first, but that's done as an exception and that's why the committee, the floor, gets to vote on these motions. So I urge you to support the Rasmussen motion, send it back, because again, you look at the committee jurisdiction that the Rules Committee adopted, and based on that jurisdiction, this bill clearly has primary jurisdiction State and local, I urge your support for the motion.

are,

Thank you, Mr. President. Well, members, this is one of my favorite times of the year because it's March Madness, and I don't know about you, but I spent the weekend watching a lot of basketball. And you know what else happened this weekend? Thousands and thousands of Minnesotans were betting on the March Madness tournament. And you would ask yourself, the people watching today are probably like, well, Senator Miller, how can they bet on March Madness if it's not even legal to bet on sports in Minnesota? Well, members, the reality is people are betting on sports in Minnesota. They're either doing it illegally with offshore accounts or through bookies, they're doing it through prediction markets, or they're going to other states. For example, the state of Iowa. You just have to get close to the border and you can bet on your mobile device.

about right now is not a vote on whether or not we should legalize sports betting or not.

Mr. President, what is the matter before the body right now? May I ask?

Thank you, Mr. President. As I was saying before I was very rudely interrupted by my good friend Senator Dibble. This is not a vote right now on whether or not we should legalize sports betting or not. That's not the question in front of the body right now. Certainly it's something that I support. It's something I support because I'm hearing from thousands and thousands of people from across the state who want us to legalize sports betting. And I'm not going to vote yes or no because organization is going to score the vote on a procedural vote like I have on My a letter on my desk here that this. Apparently this procedural vote is going to be scored. But the question before the body is do we support the traditions and the custom of of this chamber? I've been here for 16 years, members. 16 years. And the tradition of this chamber is on a bill referral on the first reading. We're not talking second reading. We're not talking about bypassing or skipping a committee. Members. This is a motion on a first

to re refer it to a committee that has jurisdiction over this bill that has been agreed to by the chief author of the bill and by both committee chairs that are involved with the decision. The traditions of this chamber are to support that motion. And members, that is why I am supporting this procedural motion to adopt the committee report from the Senate Rules Committee to stay with the traditions and the customs of this chamber.

Thank you, Mr. President. Members, the motion is coming from the Rules Committee across the floor. Mr. President, as you mentioned, from Senator Murphy. And the Rules Committee puts forward a recommendation for our approval or disapproval. And that's what we have before us right now. I am asking you to disapprove of this referral from the Rules Committee and send it back to the Rules Committee for them to get a different approach to. To this bill. And that is it should be sent, Mr. President, to the committee of primary jurisdiction. Commerce is not the committee of primary jurisdiction for gambling. The state and local government Finance Committee, which I serve on, is. And we should send it there so that the foundational fundamental work on the bill can be done and then it can go to a subsidiary committee which would include committees like Commerce for consumer protection stuff, which I find very interesting, Mr. President, because this bill actually develops consumer protection problems and then sends it to Commerce to address those problems. There might be actually more or less consumer protection problems after the primary committee, the state government committee is done with it and then it goes to Commerce or if it's got some data practices stuff, it goes to Judiciary. Mr. President. So a much more efficient process makes much more sense. I urge you to vote no on Senator Murphy's motion. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, under. I apologize for interrupting my good friend. And like my good friend, I'm not going to sneak in any arguments about the merits of this bill. I'm not going to talk about the many thousands of lives that would potentially be ruined by this measure, nor the fact that there may or may not be sufficient funding in this measure to treat gambling addiction. The, the levels of corruption in sports, the threats to athletes, the growing realization by many jurisdictions that they've made a big mistake, and the growing public sentiment against this. Mr. President, what I'm going to confine my comments to is the fact that certainly the courtesy has been extended from time to time to start a bill in a particular committee. But typically in my experience of we heard 16 years. I've been in the Senate for 23 years now. That's when it's a much smaller bill that has equal weighted jurisdiction in one committee or another. So it starts in one or the other at the request of the author. I've never seen a bill of this level of consequence so clearly in the committee of original jurisdiction be referred to a secondary ancillary committee that will deal with pick up some of those issues that may be implicated. In fact, the Senate Committee jurisdictions booklet says when there's more than one committee, it's referred to the first, the first committee of primary concern from which it may be referred to additional committees. That is the tradition of the Senate and also the point that was made earlier. We are being asked then to put our vote up, representing our districts, our conscience and our election certificate to ratify that decision of rules. If it is the case that rules decision should just stand, then the rules decision committee decision should just stand. It should not come to this floor for ratification, but it does. And I'm being asked to agree with that. And clearly the tradition is a bill of this level of consequence, for the reasons I did not cite earlier, be referred to the committee of primary concern from which it may be referred to additional committees. Thank you, Mr. President.

Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. President. Senator Barr votes no.

Thank you, Mr. President. Senator carlson votes no.

Senator mcewen votes no.

And senator her votes aye.

C. Numbers 4361-3907-3958-3338. 3769-3847-3587-4064. 4256-3665-3607-3880, 3710.

1943 and 2691.

House file numbers 3425 and 1410.

Senators Pappas, Mann and Murphy introduced senate file number 4759, a bill for an act relating to state government eliminating Cesar Chavez Day.

Senator Latz introduced senate file number 4760, a bill for an act relating to state government changing provisions for employment or occupation due to conviction of a crime.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Senate file 2689 be withdrawn from the Committee on State and Local Government and re refer to the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety.

Thank you, Mr. President. I rise in opposition to this motion. This is a file that we've already heard in the Judiciary Committee. This bill should stay in state government, which has jurisdiction over the budget for the Attorney General's office. And before it comes back to Judiciary Committee, the state and local government should determine whether or not the funding that's requested by the Attorney General's office is appropriate. And then if there are any additional amendments at that point that Judiciary needs to handle, then and only then should it be sent back to the Judiciary Committee. So I would urge members to vote no.

Thank you.

Roll call requested. Roll call granted. Any other discussion sitting down? The Secretary will take the roll on the Johnson Ste.

Thank you, Mr. President. Senator Carlson votes aye.

Senator her votes aye.

Senator McEwen votes Aye.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Senate file 4194 be withdrawn from the Committee on Taxes and re referred to the Committee on Health and Human Services.

It is my bill. Both chairs have been informed.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that SF4592 be withdrawn from the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety and re refer to the Committee on Jobs and Economic Development.

I'm sorry.

Senator hoffman.

And re. Refer to the committee on transportation. Mr. President.

I Absolutely, Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. President. I would like to move that Senate

Claim Legacy and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Veterans, Broadband and Rural Development.

Senator Kupak moves at 4332 be withdrawn from the Committee on Environment, Climate and Legacy. And refer to the Committee on Agriculture, Veterans, Broadband and Rural Development. All in favor, say aye. Aye.

Motion is adopted. Senator Paul?

Senator Powell, this is your bill. And you have the support of both chairs.

Senator Pal moves that Senate File 4592 be withdrawn from the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety. Refer to the Committee on Jobs and Economic Development. Development. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion is adopted. Senator Draskowski.

Senator Zaskowski moves that The Senate File 4455. Be withdrawn from the Committee on Jobs and Economic Development. Given a second reading and placed on general orders. All in favor say aye.

Motion is adopted. The Secretary will give Senate file 4455 its second reading.

Senate file 4455 has been given its second reading. Remaining under motions and resolutions. Senator Murphy for special orders.

Center port.

Members, discussion or questions on House file 3615. Secretary will give House file 3615 its third reading.

Third reading, final discussion on House File 3615. There is none. The secretary will take the roll on House file 3615. Senator Bolden for remote voters.

Senator Carlson votes aye.

Senator Hur votes aye.

Senator McEwen votes aye.

Senator Umu Verbatin votes aye. Senator Umu Verbatin already voted in person. Do you have remote voters? Secretary will close the roll. There being 41 aye votes and 26 nay votes. The motion, the bill is passed and its title agreed to.

Thank you, Mr. President. And members, before I call a recession and we will call a recess in anticipation of a House file coming over. So when we come back for at the call of the president, we'll only need a skeleton crew. So I want to be clear about that, about what we're going to do. I also want to announce for Senator Fateh, who is right in front of us, that he is generously providing lunch for members of the Senate today and staff, a reflection of the Ramadan celebration that is now behind us. It will be in the Senate building beginning at noon, which is soon, and I wanted to make sure you all were aware of that before we went into recess. With that, Mr. President, I move recess until the call of the president.