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With finish line in mind, ways and means committee melds eight supplemental spending bills into three

By Rob Hubbard
Rep. Liz Olson, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, presides over a packed hearing room April 25. (Photo by Andrew VonBank)
Rep. Liz Olson, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, presides over a packed hearing room April 25. (Photo by Andrew VonBank)

There was a lot of merging traffic at Thursday’s House Ways and Means Committee hearing.

With less than four weeks remaining in the 2024 session, the agenda was designed to create a smooth road to the finish line by reducing the number of bills that will be heard on the House Floor.

Merging eight supplemental budget bills into three was among the actions the committee took during the three-hour meeting.

“Since I’ve been on the ways and means committee, we’ve done it this way, just because, every year, there’s different ways the budget lines up with the Senate,” Rep. Liz Olson (DFL-Duluth), the committee chair, said Wednesday. “We want to make sure different elements of different budget bills match up when they go to conference.”
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