The Minnesota House kick-starts its legislative session this week after spending the first month of the session at a standstill.

This week committees will review a slate of bills, ranging from anti-fraud measures to repeal pushes on laws passed in recent years.

Democrats returned last week after a boycott over a power struggle with Republicans. The DFL attendance allowed the House to reach a quorum on Thursday, which meant they could officially get to work. But Republicans hold the power and can set the agenda for now.

The GOP will chair House committees and possess small majorities on them — at least for the time being. A special election in March for a Roseville district seat could bring the House back into a tie, so Republicans aren’t wasting time.Fraud investigation

At the top of the list of priorities for the GOP is an effort to weed out fraud and improper payments. The new House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee is scheduled to convene this week.

Members will hear testimony from the Office of the Legislative Auditor on work that they’ve done investigating payments to nonprofits that missed the mark and the guidance auditors gave to state agencies that wasn’t always heeded.

“We’ve had different bills and proposals for many years on how we could do this better, and they’ve never gotten a hearing,” said Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, who will lead the hearing. “So now that we have the opportunity, we are going to have these hearings to shine light, but also to provide solutions.”

Unlike other committees that could flip to evenly divided partisan representation if House Democrats win the special election next month, the fraud prevention committee will retain a GOP majority for two years.

In the House State Government Committee on Tuesday, lawmakers will also consider a set of anti-fraud proposals. The top three Republican bills all deal with ending improper payments and efforts to stop them.

They include requirements to encourage state workers to report potential fraud and extra protections for whistleblowers.

“I think that there is an urgency in the people of Minnesota, to say, ‘Enough, this is enough. And we want some responsible leadership to be brought to bear,’ ” said committee chair Jim Nash, R-Waconia.

Senate efforts

DFL-led Senate committees are also primed to review a variety of bills this year aimed at keeping better tabs on tax dollars.

House DFL Caucus Leader Melissa Hortman said preventing fraud is important for Democrats, too.

She noted that new laws passed by the DFL-led Legislature in 2023 contained measures to add oversight to grants and do more to head off abuse in government programs. Some of those are still being implemented.

“We, all of us together, want to make sure that we have effective oversight of all of the spending and policy that we put in place,” said Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park. “We don’t have a lot of time for oversight typically, so we’re eager to work on that.”

The agenda

Republicans hold a temporary advantage in the House and extra freedom to set the agenda through at least the middle of March. If the special election produces a 67-67 tie, Democrats would have joint say over committee work. House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, will retain that title through 2026.

Another measure the GOP will take up include a bill rolling back a new delivery fee on purchases of more than $100, a delay for clean energy requirements for electric utilities, and a bill blocking people in the country without proper authorization from accessing MinnesotaCare or state scholarship benefits.

Nash said the election broke up the DFL hold on the Legislature, and GOP lawmakers are taking that as a cue to reassess changes implemented over the last two years.

“Minnesotans said, ‘We need to change and we need to have an ending of the trifecta,’ ” Nash said.

Even if those measures clear committees, they face a hurdle in the House. Republicans hold 67 seats and Democrats hold 66. A bill needs 68 votes to pass so only proposals with bipartisan backing will move forward.

Debate, votes

But that might not be the entire goal. Bringing bills to the floor would invite debate and votes that could get diced up for future campaigns. Those anti-fraud items in particular could be difficult for Democrats to oppose.

Measures that do pass will have to pick up support in the DFL-led Senate and the backing of DFL Gov. Tim Walz to become law.

Senate committees have been meeting for weeks and taking up a mix of Republican and Democratic bills.

But the Senate ended its power-sharing agreement last week after the DFL gained a one-vote majority. So the tide is turning somewhat there, too.

No matter what, though, this session will depend on compromises to get anything passed into law.

“We’re going to have to find solutions that are broadly acceptable,” said Rep. Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids. “Neither party can do this on their own.”