SAINT PAUL, Minn. – Senator Majority Leader Erin Murphy (DFL- St. Paul) released the following statement:
“We came into this year facing unprecedented impacts from the effects of a hostile federal government. That started with budget and economic crises handed down by the administration in Washington and Congress, from tariffs and an illegal war, to cost shifts, to cuts to programs that hit all states, none more so than Minnesota. Most recently and most egregious came a two-month invasion by federal forces that harmed us economically, constitutionally and emotionally, saw thousands of Minnesotans taken from their families and neighborhoods, and killed our neighbors Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
We have fought hard for Minnesotans’ priorities. Chief among them was affordability and their local economies, which we addressed in the increased property tax relief we passed tonight, direct funding and support to counties, strong packages for rental assistance and to create affordable housing, and a robust infrastructure capital investment bill that will put money into communities. We also did more this session to protect taxpayer dollars and the programs Minnesotans rely on from the risk of fraud, passing an Office of Inspector General into law, funding new investigators for Medicaid, and electronic visit verification that will take the number of high-risk programs in this state from 14 down to zero. And we took action to keep our hospitals open despite greedy, short-sighted cuts in Washington DC that put many of them in jeopardy immediately, and the foreseeable future, by making health insurance unaffordable and inaccessible to cut taxes for corporations and billionaires.
I am deeply disappointed — and Minnesotans will be too — at what is getting left behind tonight, what was blocked by people who put the interests of special interests or their president ahead of Minnesotans.
That list is long, and includes a comprehensive gun violence prevention package to make Minnesota streets and schools safer, a package to restore and uphold the civil and constitutional rights of Minnesotans, and to hold masked federal agents accountable; economic support for small businesses harmed by this federal government, especially during the Operation Metro Surge invasion, legislation that put more money into stabilizing rural and critical hospitals, which are struggling financially, partly by taking it from pharmaceutical companies, which are not; and bills to protect Minnesotans in nursing homes, in manufactured home parks and trying to buy single family homes from predatory actors on Wall Street. Those of us who return to this chamber will be back at work on your behalf on day one next year.”
Majority Leader Murphy will address the media and take questions prior to Monday’s final day of the 2026 session.
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