DFL Preserves Free School Lunches and Paid Family Medical Leave in 2025 Legislative Session

The Minnesota Legislature passed several of the budget bills needed to fund Minnesota government beyond July 1, but there were lots of budget bills that didn’t get through before the Legislature had to adjourn its regular session on May 19, making a special session inevitable to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of June.

The conference committees that had been negotiating compromises between House and Senate bills during the session morphed into work groups that kept on negotiating. After two weeks, agreements were reached on the remaining budget bills along with a tax bill and a bonding bill. As a result, Governor Walz called a special session for June 9. Legislative leaders promised the session would only take one day and they delivered on that promise, so with all budget bills passed, the government will stay open.

The 2025 session was not as good for DFL priorities, compared to last year. The House had a Republican plurality for two months and was tied after that, so no bills could pass without bipartisan support. The Senate was tied for the first two weeks before going back to a one-vote DFL majority for most of the session. Further, the budgetary situation was far worse than two years earlier. While a small surplus was projected for the 2025-27 biennium, a multi-billion dollar deficit was projected for its 2027-29 successor.

Despite these setbacks, many of the gains made in the last few years were preserved. For example, free school lunches will continue and the paid family and medical leave program will start in 2026. Unfortunately, the Republicans’ highest priority was to take away health coverage from undocumented immigrants and they were willing to shut down the government to get that. As a result, DFL leaders agreed to cut coverage under Medicaid or MinnesotaCare for undocumented immigrants who are adults, while preserving coverage for those under 21. Other adjustments were made to reduce the rate of increases in human services expenses, something initiated by the Walz administration. Most parts of the government received minimal or no increases, so their funding will not keep up with inflation.

The Legislature is now adjourned until February 17, 2026, though another special session may be needed if there are substantial Federal cuts to Medicaid or other programs that the state will have to deal with.