Skip to main content Skip to office menu Skip to footer
Capital IconMinnesota Legislature

2020 - 2021 Temporary Joint Rules of the Senate and House of Representatives

As adopted Thursday, January 21, 2021.

ARTICLE I : JOINT CONVENTIONS

HOW GOVERNED

1.01 The Speaker of the House shall preside at all Conventions of the two houses of the Legislature and shall call the members to order. The Chief Clerk of the House shall be the Secretary and the Sergeant at Arms of the House shall be the Sergeant at Arms of the Convention.

PRESIDENT'S DUTIES

1.02 The President of the Convention shall preserve order and decorum. The President may speak on all points of order in preference to other members and shall decide questions of order, subject to an appeal to the Convention by any member. The President shall rise to put a question but may state it while seated.

PRESIDENT'S RIGHT TO VOTE

1.03 The President shall have the right to vote in all cases except appeals from the President's decisions. The President shall vote last on all questions.

STATING QUESTIONS

1.04 Questions shall be put to the Convention in the following form: "As many as are of the opinion that (the question) shall pass, say 'Aye.'" After an affirmative vote is expressed the nays shall be called as follows: "As many as are of the contrary opinion, say 'No.'" If the President is in doubt or a division is called, those in the affirmative shall rise first and those in the negative afterward.

ORDER OF DEBATE

1.05 When any member wishes to speak to the Convention on any matter, the member shall rise and respectfully address the President, and not speak further until recognized. The member shall speak only to the question under debate and avoid personal remarks. When two or more members rise at the same time, the President shall designate the member to speak first. No member shall speak more than twice on the same question without permission of the Convention.

CALLING MEMBER TO ORDER

1.06 If any member of the Joint Convention is called to order for offensive words in debate, the member calling to order shall report the words to which exception is taken and the Secretary shall record them. No member may be called to order for any language used in debate if exception is not taken before any other member has spoken or any other business has taken place. A member called to order shall immediately sit down unless another member moves to permit the member to explain. In any case, the Joint Convention, if appealed to, shall decide without debate. Only if the decision is in favor of the member called to order shall the member be at liberty to proceed.

CALL OF THE CONVENTION

1.07 Five members may demand a call of the Convention at any time except after voting has commenced. When such a call is demanded, the doors shall be closed, the roll shall be called, the absent members shall be sent for, and no member may be permitted to leave the Chamber, unless excused by the President, until the call is lifted. Proceedings under the roll call may be suspended by a majority vote of all the members of the Convention. A call of the Convention may be lifted by a majority vote of all the members of the Convention.

ELECTIONS

1.08 In all elections by the Joint Convention, members shall vote viva voce and the roll of Senate members shall be called first. Whenever there is an election of any officer in Joint Convention, the result shall be certified by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House and announced by them to their respective houses. The result shall be entered in the Journal of each house and communicated to the Governor by the Secretary of the Convention.

NO SMOKING

1.09 No person is permitted to smoke in the Chamber or in the gallery during a Joint Convention.

PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE

1.10 The rules of the House shall be the Rules of the Joint Convention of both houses in all cases in which the foregoing rules are not applicable.

ARTICLE II : BILLS

FORM
2.01 The title of each bill shall clearly state its subject and briefly state its purpose. When a bill amends or repeals an existing act, the title shall refer to the chapter, section or subdivision. Reference shall be made to Minnesota Statutes for the provisions appearing therein unless reference to previous session laws is required for some special reason.
Bills shall refer to Minnesota Statutes as follows:
"Minnesota Statutes .........., section .........."
Bills shall refer to the session laws as follows:
"Laws .........., chapter .........., section .........."
A bill for the amendment of a statute shall contain the full text of the section or subdivision to be amended as it appears in the latest edition of Minnesota Statutes unless it has been amended, in which event it shall contain the full text as amended.
The words and characters constituting the amending matter shall be inserted in the proper place in the text and underscored. The words and characters to be eliminated by the amendment shall be stricken by drawing a line through them. The text of a new section or subdivision shall also be underscored when a bill amends an existing chapter or section by adding a new section or subdivision. In the omnibus appropriation bills required by Joint Rule 2.02, sections making an appropriation or transfer and not amending a statute or session law need not have new material underscored. Before a committee favorably reports upon a bill, the chair of the committee shall see that the bill conforms to this rule. When a bill is printed in the Journal, the new matter shall be underscored and the matter to be eliminated shall be stricken by drawing a line through it. A bill drafted by the Revisor of Statutes for the purposes of correcting errors in Minnesota Statutes need not comply with the provisions of this paragraph if the bill is labeled "REVISOR'S BILL" immediately below the title, and if there is attached thereto a memorandum of information explaining the reasons for the bill.
If the bill is for an original law and not for an amendment of an existing law, the sections and subdivisions shall be arranged, subdivided, and numbered in like manner as Minnesota Statutes. If such a bill assigns to the sections thereof headnotes or identification by the decimal system of numbering used in Minnesota Statutes, such headnotes and decimal identification may be submitted by standing committee chairs to the Revisor of Statutes for examination. Any such headnotes shall be in bold face, and shall be subject to the provisions of Minnesota Statutes, section 645.49.
All numbers in titles shall be expressed in figures. All numbers of section or chapter of law shall be in figures. In the body of a bill numbers in excess of ten shall be in figures, except for a special reason they may be written, but when written they shall not be followed by numbers or parentheses.
A bill may include or be accompanied by a table of contents.
A bill that repeals a statute may include or be accompanied by an appendix containing the full text of the section or subdivision repealed.
A bill containing a constitutional amendment may only contain the statutory language and changes necessary to conduct the constitutional election and to implement the constitutional amendment, should it pass. Extraneous statutory changes or additional topics may not be included in a bill proposing a constitutional amendment.
APPROPRIATING MONEY
2.02 The same bill shall not appropriate public money or property to more than one local or private purpose.
No clause appropriating money for a local or private purpose shall be contained in a bill appropriating money for the State government or public institutions.
All resolutions authorizing the issuing of abstracts by the Secretary of the Senate or the Chief Clerk of the House for the payment of money shall be upon the call of "yeas" and "nays."  
DEADLINES
2.03 The Legislature shall establish by concurrent resolution deadlines for each regular session. The deadlines do not apply to the House committees on Capital Investment, Ways and Means, Finance, Taxes, or Rules and Legislative Administration, nor to the Senate committees on Capital Investment, Finance, Taxes, or Rules and Administration.
The first deadline is for committees to act favorably on bills in the house of origin.
The second deadline is for committees to act favorably on bills, or companions of bills, that met the first deadline in the other house.
A committee has until the second deadline to act favorably on a bill, or the companion of a bill, that by the first deadline was referred to a finance committee. The deadline for a committee of either house to act on a bill that has been recommended favorably by the Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement is the second committee deadline. The major appropriation bills are exempt from the first two deadlines.
The third deadline is for committees to act favorably on major appropriation and finance bills.
When a committee in either house acts favorably on a bill after a deadline established in the concurrent resolution, the bill must be referred in the Senate to the Committee on Rules and Administration and in the House of Representatives to the Committee on Rules and Legislative Administration for disposition. Either rules committee, when reporting a bill referred to the committee under this rule, may waive application of the rule to subsequent actions on that bill by other committees.
All bills necessary to implement the governor's budget submitted by a state agency or department must be made available for introduction within 15 calendar days after the governor's budget was submitted. A bill introduced after that date must be referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration in the Senate or the Committee on Rules and Legislative Administration in the House of Representatives and may not be heard without the approval of that committee.
AMENDING BILLS ORIGINATING IN OTHER HOUSE
2.04 Either house shall have the power to amend any bill, memorial, or resolution passed by the other house.
RECEDING FROM POSITION
2.05 Prior to a Conference Committee on any matter, either house may recede from its position on any difference existing between the two houses. In order to recede, and if the matter is not in the possession of a house, that house shall request return of the matter from the other house. To recede, a majority of a house shall govern, except in cases otherwise provided in the Constitution. If the question is put and lost, it shall not be put again on the same day. A reconsideration of the question shall in all respects be regulated by the rules of that house.
CONFERENCE COMMITTEES
2.06 In all cases of disagreement between the Senate and House on amendments adopted by either house to a bill, memorial or resolution passed by the other house, a Conference Committee consisting of not less than three members nor more than five members from each house may be requested by either house. The other house shall appoint a similar committee.
The manner of procedure shall be as follows: The house of origin passes a bill and transmits it to the other body. If the other body adopts an amendment to the bill and passes it as amended, it shall return the bill with a record of its actions to the house of origin. If the house of origin refuses to concur in the amendment, it shall ask for a Conference Committee, appoint such a committee on its part, and transmit the bill with a record of its action to the other house. If the other house adheres to its amendment, it shall appoint a like committee and return the bill to the house of origin.
All Conference Committees shall be open to the public.
As much as practical, meetings of Conference Committees shall be announced as far in advance as possible, with the intent to provide a 24-hour notice, and actions taken shall be agreed upon in an open meeting. At an agreed upon hour the Conference Committee shall meet. The members from each house shall state to the members from the other house, orally or in writing, the reason for their respective positions. The members shall confer thereon. A conference committee may not meet between the hours of midnight and 7:00 a.m., except that a committee may extend a meeting for up to one hour past midnight by a vote of two-thirds of the members appointed to the committee by each house. The chair shall rotate between the Senate and the House of Representatives at least every calendar day, Sundays and holidays excepted. The conferees shall report to their respective houses the agreement they have reached, or, if none, the fact of a disagreement.
If an agreement is reported, the house of origin shall act first upon the report. A Conference Committee report must be limited to provisions that are germane to the bill and amendments that were referred to the Conference Committee. A provision is not germane if it relates to a substantially different subject or is intended to accomplish a substantially different purpose from that of the bill and amendment that were referred to the Conference Committee.
A Conference Committee report may not appropriate a larger sum of money than the larger of the bill or the amendments that were referred to the Conference Committee unless the additional appropriation is authorized by the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Majority Leader of the Senate.
A Conference Committee report may not delegate rulemaking to a department or agency of state government or exempt a department or agency of state government from rulemaking unless the delegation or exemption was included in either the bill or the amendment that was referred to the Conference Committee.
A Conference Committee report may not create a new commission, council, task force, board, or other body to which a member of the legislature may be appointed unless the body was created in either the bill or the amendment that was referred to the Conference Committee.
If the report is adopted and repassed as amended by the Conference Committee by the house of origin, the report, the bill and a record of its action shall be transmitted to the other house.
Except after the last Thursday on which the Legislature can meet in regular session in odd-numbered years, and after the last Thursday on which the Legislature intended, when it adopted the concurrent resolution required by Rule 2.03, to meet in regular session in even-numbered years, a written or electronic copy of a report of a Conference Committee shall be placed on the desk of each member of a house, or delivered electronically, twelve hours before action on the report by that house. If the report has been reprinted in the Journal of either house for a preceding day and is available to the members, the Journal copy shall serve as the written report. The member presenting the Conference Committee report to the body shall disclose, either in writing or orally, the substantial changes from the bill or the amendment as they were last before the body.
ENROLLMENT AND SIGNATURE
2.07 After a bill or memorial or joint resolution has been passed by both houses, it shall be carefully and properly enrolled by the Revisor of Statutes under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate for a matter originating in the Senate or the Chief Clerk of the House for a matter originating in the House.
The enrollment shall be prepared on archival quality paper approximately 8 1/2" x 14" in size and may be produced by means of a copying machine. An enrolled bill shall be labeled "An Act" but otherwise shall be identical to the bill passed by the Legislature. Other enrollments shall be identical to the memorial or joint resolution passed by the legislature.
The Revisor of Statutes shall obtain the signatures and certificates of the proper officers to the enrollment. A joint resolution applying to the Congress of the United States to call a convention for proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United States, ratifying an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposing an amendment to the Minnesota Constitution, or prescribing the compensation of judges shall not be presented to the Governor for approval but shall be deposited by the Revisor of Statutes with the Secretary of State. All other enrollments shall be presented to the Governor for approval.

ARTICLE III : GENERAL PROVISIONS

SUSPENSION OF JOINT RULES
3.01 Either house may suspend the Joint Rules of the Senate and House by a vote of two-thirds of its members.
ODD YEAR SESSION ADJOURNMENT
3.02 Adjournment of the regular session in any odd-numbered year to a date certain in the following year shall be equivalent to daily adjournment, except that upon adjournment in any odd-numbered year to a date certain in the following year:
(a) Any bill being considered by a Conference Committee shall be returned to the house of origin, laid on the table, and the Conference Committee shall be discharged;
(b) Any bill referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration in the Senate or the Committee on Rules and Legislative Administration in the House pursuant to Joint Rule 2.03 shall be returned to the standing committee to which it was last previously referred; and
(c) Any bill returned by the Governor to the house of origin with the Governor's objections following the adjournment shall be laid on the table. 
INTERIM COMMITTEE AND COMMISSION REPORTS
3.03 Except as otherwise provided by law, the report of any interim committee or commission to the Legislature shall be submitted on paper 8 1/2" x 11" in size, spiral bound, stapled, or punched on the left edge to fit a standard size three ring binder intended for that size paper. A brief summary of the recommendations of the commission or committee shall appear first and be clearly separated from its findings, discussions, and exhibits. If the report contains legislative recommendations, a copy of any proposed legislation, particularly if extensive in character, shall if possible be attached as an exhibit at the end of the report.

ARTICLE IV : ELECTIONS OF REGENTS

JOINT COMMITTEE
4.01 By February 28 of each odd-numbered year, or at a date agreed to by concurrent resolution, a joint committee shall meet to recommend nominees for regent of the University of Minnesota to be presented to a Joint Convention of the legislature. The members of the joint committee are the members of the senate and house budget and policy divisions on higher education. A majority of the members from each house is a quorum of the joint committee.
The joint committee may recommend to the joint convention candidates recommended by the advisory council and any other candidates nominated by the joint committee. Nominations may be made by committee members only. Nominations must be made for a specified congressional or student seat, or for any at-large seat. In recommending nominees, the joint committee must consider the needs of the University of Minnesota. A candidate other than one recommended by the advisory council may be nominated for consideration by the joint committee only if the nomination receives the support of at least three house of representatives members of the committee and two senate members of the committee. The joint committee must make recommendations for vacancies on the Board of Regents.
The roll shall be called viva voce on the recommendation of regents. A candidate must receive a majority vote of members from the house of representatives and from the senate on the joint committee to be recommended to the joint convention.
The joint committee must meet to interview candidates and recommend candidates to the joint convention.
JOINT CONVENTION
4.02 At the Joint Convention of the Senate and House of Representatives called to elect regents, the joint committee shall report the name of the person or persons recommended for each seat. These persons are considered to be nominated. Any member of the legislature may submit additional nominations. If there is more than one at-large seat to be filled, all candidates nominated for an at-large seat are candidates for any of the at-large seats.
The roll shall be called viva voce on the election of regents. The roll must be called first on congressional district seats until they are filled, then on the student seat, and then on the at-large seats.
Each member may cast one vote for each seat to be filled, but no more than one vote for a candidate.
The candidate for each seat receiving a majority of the votes cast must be declared elected. If there is more than one at-large seat to be filled and more than one candidate who receives a majority of the votes cast, the candidates receiving the highest number of votes must be declared elected; in case of a tie for the highest number of votes, the votes must be cast again. If no candidate receives a majority of the votes cast for a seat, on each succeeding ballot the candidate with the fewest votes must be dropped from consideration and the votes cast again until a majority vote is achieved. Any candidate with fewer than 20 votes on any ballot shall also be dropped on succeeding ballots.