Frequently Asked Questions About the Minnesota Legislature

It is a committee made up of members from each house appointed to reconcile the differences between two versions of a bill that has been passed by both bodies. Each conference committee usually has either three or five members from both the House and the Senate.

You can view bills that are in conference committee on the Conference Committee Actions page.

Each biennium the leaders in the House and the Senate set the number and scope of the standing committees and establish committee chairs according to which party is in the majority. Whichever party holds the most seats in either the House or the Senate is considered the Majority Caucus.

Senate

The majority caucus in the Senate elects a majority leader, who is also chair of the Rules and Administration Committee. Two other chairs are elected by the entire caucus, the chair of the Tax Committee and the Chair of the Finance Committee. Other chairs are selected by an organizational committee of the majority caucus. Membership on the committees is according to the proportion of each caucus. The minority caucus may offer suggestions of individual members for the minority representation on each committee. The minority caucus also names a "minority lead" on each committee. The Rules and Administration Subcommittee on Conference Committees selects members for conference committees. In addition, no Senator may serve as the chair of a specific committee or one under its jurisdiction for more than three Senate terms.

House

In the House, the Speaker chooses the committee chairs and appoints members of each committee. Each member is allowed to state his or her preference. In deciding on a committee chair, the speaker usually chooses a senior member with some expertise in the committee's work, but not always. A member cannot serve as the chair of the same standing committee or division during more than three consecutive regular biennial sessions. This Rule does not apply to service as chair of the Committee on Rules and Legislative Administration. Ideally, committee memberships reflect the balance of DFL and Republican members in the House. Each committee, therefore, would be a representative sample of the whole body. Conference committee members are also appointed by the Speaker.

Membership on Senate committees ranges from 11 to 20. Each member generally serves on five or six committees.

Membership on House committees range in size from 10 to 25 members. Each member usually serves on three to five committees so she or he is able to focus on a few areas of policy development.

It is the job of each committee to hold public hearings on bills, to put each bill into its best form, and to recommend to the full body only those bills that the committee feels merit further consideration. The committee takes testimony from the public, bill sponsors, and experts in the areas the bill affects.

Committees have a number of choices for action, including the following: amending the bill, combining two or more bills under one file number, sending more detailed or complex bills to a subcommittee for further examination, recommending a bill to pass as introduced, recommending it be passed as amended, sending it to another committee with recommendation to pass, sending it to another committee without recommendation to pass, or killing the bill by voting it down, tabling it, delaying action, ignoring it, or returning it to its author.

Yes. Members of the general public are encouraged to testify before committees, though testimony will need to be arranged with committee staff prior to a scheduled hearing.

Contact the committee staff or your representative before the hearing. See the Combined Calendar for hearing dates and times.

Committees primarily focus hearings on particular bills, though occasionally they discuss issues of broad interest within the committee's jurisdiction. You can find a Senate standing committee schedule or House standing committee schedule online or call House Public Information Services at 651-296-2146 or Senate Information 651-296-0504 to find the phone numbers for committee staff or to receive a printed standing committee schedule.

From 2020-2024, House and Senate rules allowed for virtual and/or hybrid committee hearings (see Temporary Senate Rule 12.1(b) and House Rule 10.05 ). As a result, there were deviations from some of the processes outlined below. Future legislatures may or may not continue the practice of virtual and/or hybrid hearings.

Here are 10 suggestions to make it easier to get involved:

1. Arrive early. Getting to the meeting early will give you a chance to survey the meeting space, identify legislators, and make last-minute changes to your presentation.
2. Contact the committee's administrator or legislative assistant. If you want to testify, make sure you are on the committee meeting agenda. It's best to contact the committee a day or two before the hearing to do this. But, time permitting, it's possible to sign up and testify on same day of the hearing.
3. Introduce yourself. When speaking to the committee, clearly identify yourself and the organization you represent, if any. Then clearly state your position on the bill before the committee.
4. Speak through the committee chair. All questions and answers during committee hearings are routed through the committee chair. Address the chair as "Madame Chair" or "Mr. Chair." This makes it easier to follow the testimony when listening to tapes of recorded committee meetings.
5. Don't be intimidated. This is a citizen Legislature. Representatives are your friends and neighbors and they want to hear what you have to say. Just state your case clearly and in simple terms as you would to anyone.
6. Be brief. Make your key points as concisely as possible. Provide specific information about why your position is in the state's best interest. Legislators may want to know what, if anything, has been done in other states, what the costs might be, and what groups support or oppose your proposal. If you know the answers, include them in your statement.
7. Be prepared to answer questions. The best way to make your case is to provide straightforward answers to legislators' questions. If you don't know the answer, say so. If possible, find the answer and pass it on to committee members.
8. Bring written summaries. You may want to have copies of a concise summary of your key points to hand out to legislators, staff and the news media. Some legislators say a clearly written letter, or issue sheet, is the most effective way of gaining support.
9. Offer to help. Citizens play a key role in shaping state policy. Ask if there is anything you can do to help get the proposal in question approved or defeated.
10. Display mutual respect. Your views are important and you have a right to be treated courteously by all members and staff. Likewise, legislators are more apt to respond to polite treatment than to browbeating. There are many sides to every issue and each one has merit. Understand the difficult position legislators have in reaching their decisions.

Accommodations for people with a disability, such as sign language interpreters or large print materials, can be arranged with advance notice. See Disability Access for details.

House Public Information Services has created a series of short videos about testifying before a committee. Senate Media Services has created a video on "Tips on Testifying Before a Legislative Committee" as well.

From 2020-2024, House and Senate rules allowed for virtual and/or hybrid committee hearings (see Temporary Senate Rule 12.1(b) and House Rule 10.05 ). Future legislatures may or may not continue the practice of virtual and/or hybrid hearings.

Capacity to offer hybrid or virtual meetings is limited by the technology available in hearing rooms. Not every hearing room is able to host a hybrid meeting. Additionally, it is the chair of the committee’s decision to offer a hybrid option or not.

Please contact the committee or commission administrator if you would like to testify. The committee administrator will be able to tell you if there is a hybrid option and will put you on the list of testifiers.

If you are signed up to provide virtual testimony in a committee or a commission and need a device to join the meeting, there is a workstation in the Legislative Reference Library on the 6^th floor of the State Office Building. The workstation is a laptop with a camera, headset, and zoom installed. Use of the workstation is first come, first served.

For more tips about testifying, see the FAQ: May I testify at a committee hearing?

The Minnesota House of Representatives and the Minnesota Senate produce and distribute unedited television coverage of all House and Senate floor sessions, select committee hearings, press conferences, and other issue-oriented programming. Programming is broadcast weekdays during the legislative session from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m., with extended evening and weekend coverage available for debates on high-profile issues. All broadcast programming is closed-captioned. See the House and Senate Broadcast Television Schedule page for a list of upcoming broadcast events and a channel guide.

All House and Senate television programming is webcast live over the internet. The live webcast service allows viewers to watch additional coverage not provided on the television channels or to watch extended evening coverage. In addition, all television programming is archived and made available on the Legislative Media Archive page as well as the House and Senate websites. Webcast programming is captioned. See the House audio and video pages for House live and House archived coverage and see the Senate Media Services pages for Senate live and archived video and Senate live and archived audio.

The Combined Legislative Meeting Calendar will show you upcoming hearings, floor sessions, and commission meetings. You can find schedule, calendar, and legislative business information on the Legislative website on the Schedules page.

Paper copies of daily and weekly schedules are available at House Public Information Services in Room 175 of the State Office Building. House Public Information can be reached at 651-296-2146. Paper copies of daily and weekly schedules are available through Senate Information, which is located in Room 231 of the Capitol and G204 of the Minnesota Senate Building. Senate Information can be reached at (651) 296-0504.

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.

Yes, all committee hearings are open to the public, including conference committee hearings. Use the Combined Legislative Meeting Calendar to find hearing times and locations.

Many hearings are live-streamed online (some audio and some video) or broadcast live on television. Recordings are also available online. Access live and recorded meetings on the Legislature's Multimedia page. For access to older recordings, consult the Legislative Reference Library's Legislative Media Archive.

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.