Frequently Asked Questions About the Minnesota Legislature

The state constitution requires that each bill be reported on three separate days in each body before votes for final passage can occur. These reports of the bill are called readings. Therefore, every bill will have a first, second, and third reading before a vote is taken.

A bill is given its first reading at the time it is introduced. A bill typically receives its second reading after it has been heard in committee and has been recommended to pass. It is then ready to be placed on one of the calendars or agendas in each house.

Once all proposed amendments have been discussed and voted on, a bill receives its third reading and can no longer be amended. Then members discuss the bill and it proceeds to final vote.

Under extraordinary conditions, a bill may receive all three readings in one day in either the House or the Senate if a motion to bypass the rules of the body receives a two-thirds majority vote.

See the Legislature's Civic Engagement Resources page for more about how a bill becomes a law.

According to pages 11-12 of Making Laws: Committee Proceedings from the Minnesota House Research Department:

"A committee is not required to consider, still less to report, every bill referred to it. Many bills proceed no further than introduction and referral to a committee; they are never heard of again. Others emerge from one committee only to founder in another.

A committee hearing on a referred bill is not automatic. The author must ask for one. Some bills do not get a hearing because the author decides not to request one or push strongly for one.

An author is not entitled to a hearing on request. The committee chair decides and may refuse. Some chairs find this easier than others, but almost every chair, however amiable, denies some bills a hearing. A chair may refuse for simple lack of time; the limited session period does not permit a hearing on every introduced bill, and a chair may consider one bill more important than another. A chair may decide that a bill is not ripe for legislative decision for some reason — a pending federal action, a court case, a forthcoming government report on the subject. A chair simply may oppose a bill on its merits or conclude that a majority of the members of the committee are opposed, making a hearing pointless."

More details are available in Making Laws, House Research Department.

The Committee of the Whole is the entire membership of the Senate acting as one large committee to consider bills listed on General Orders. There is no longer a Committee of the Whole in the House. In the Senate, the president may appoint another member to preside and act as chair of the Committee of the Whole. Each bill on General Orders must be printed or electronically available at least one calendar day before consideration in the Committee of the Whole. The members debate the bill, offer and adopt amendments, and vote to recommend that the bill pass, pass as amended, be re-referred to another committee, or be returned to its author.

The Committee of the Whole is the entire membership of the Senate acting as one large committee to consider bills listed on General Orders. There is no longer a Committee of the Whole in the House.

In the Senate, when a bill is defeated in the Committee of the Whole it remains on General Orders and may be taken up again at a later date.

The House Rules and Senate Rules govern the procedures of each body and the acceptable conduct of each member. According to the state constitution, the Legislature must establish its own rules and procedure. As a result, both the House and the Senate establish their own rules, as well as joint rules. New rules are adopted each biennium.

The rule-drafting process actually begins very early in the legislative session. Both the House and the Senate have rules subcommittees to put together proposed rules. Then the proposed rules are presented to the entire body for approval. Until the new permanent rules are adopted, the House and Senate adopt the rules from the previous session as temporary rules.

The Senate is authorized to give its advice and consent on executive appointments under Minnesota Statutes 15.066. Appointments made by the Governor to state agencies that require confirmation by the Senate are referred to the appropriate committees. The Engrossing Secretary processes governor's appointments for Senate approval and fields any questions. Lists of appointees are available for current and past bienniums.

In both houses, the process a bill follows may be accelerated in the interest of time. In the Senate, this happens through Rule 26 and Special Orders. Rule 26 provides for immediate consideration and third reading of bills that have been given their second reading, rather than having to go through the Committee of the Whole and waiting an entire day before it can be taken up. Under Rule 26, the chair of the Committee on Rules and Administration or the chair's designee can designate a bill that has been given a second reading as a Special Order. At that point, the bill can be amended and discussed before being given its third reading and placed on final passage.

Under the Minnesota Constitution, Article 4, Sec. 17, only single subject laws may be passed by the Legislature. Theoretically, this requires that only amendments directly related, or "germane" to the measure, be attached to a bill. (The term "garbage bill" is sometimes used when a bill contains what some people feel are unrelated subjects.)

When a bill is being amended in committee, the committee chair rules whether an amendment is germane; on the House floor, the Speaker of the House makes those decisions. In the Senate, the committee chair makes the same rulings, and such decisions are left up to the President of the Senate on the floor. At times the courts have been asked to rule on this matter.

The General Register is a list of bills that have had a second reading and await action by the full House of Representatives. The House Rules Committee usually meets the day prior to session to determine which bills on the General Register will be placed on the Calendar for the Day. Bills placed on the Calendar are debated and may be given a third reading and placed on final passage that day.

General Orders is a list of bills that have had a second reading and await action by the full Senate. Acting as one large committee known as the Committee of the Whole, the Senate debates the bills and may recommend them for preliminary passage. Bills recommended to pass, or pass as amended, are added to the Senate Calendar for third reading and final passage by the full Senate on another day.

In the Senate, Special Orders is a category of bills that bypass the Committee of the Whole. A bill on Special Orders may be debated, amended, and placed on final passage immediately. Special Orders are designated by the Chair of the Committee on Rules and Administration (the Senate Majority Leader).

See the Legislature's Civic Engagement Resources page for more about how a bill becomes a law.

There is no yearly deadline for the introduction of bills. However, each year the Legislature establishes deadlines for committee action on bills by concurrent resolution. The deadlines do not apply to the House committees on Capital Investment, Ways and Means, Taxes, or Rules and Legislative Administration, nor to the Senate committees on Capital Investment, Finance, Taxes, or Rules and Administration.

Committee deadlines are announced during the first half of a session in order to winnow the list of topics to be dealt with that year.

The Minnesota Constitution sets a deadline for the end of each year's session: the first Monday after the third Saturday in May.