The 2026 Minnesota Legislative Session kicks off Tuesday February 17 at noon when the Minnesota House of Representatives and Minnesota Senate will convene for the second year of the biennium. It will be a short session as the State Constitution requires adjournment by May 18th.
The Session will begin on the first day with a memorial to commemorate the assassination of former Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband last summer.
The political make up in the House is still comprised of 67 Democrats and 67 Republicans, which like last year will require bipartisan votes for any legislation to move out of a committee and off the House floor. The split control and power-sharing arrangement also results in equal numbers of each party on all House committees, and co-chairs from each party who will alternate setting the agenda each time the committee meets. Representative Lisa Demuth (R – Paynesville) will remain as Speaker of the House for the Session, and is also a leading candidate the Governor’s race.
The Senate will be comprised of 34 Democrats and 33 Republicans, and all leadership and most committee chairs will remain the same as last session.
The Agriculture Committees will meet on Mondays and Wednesdays, with the House Agriculture Committee meetings starting at 1PM in the Capitol and the Senate Agriculture Committee meetings starting at 3PM in the Minnesota Senate Building. Because the State Office Building where House offices are normally located is still under construction, House members will office in the Centennial Building like last year, and House Committees will meet in various hearing rooms in the Capitol Building.
Minnesota Milk has already been working on legislation to make new dairy farms eligible for the Dairy Assistance, Investment, and Relief Initiative (“DAIRI”) funding authorized by the Legislature previously.
DAIRI was designed to provide financial assistance to small and medium-sized dairy operations that participate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Dairy Margin Coverage (“DMC”) program. Since the DMC program wasn’t fully authorized until last year, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (“MDA”) hasn’t been able to open the DAIRI program for enrollment, but has so recently. The DAIRI funding authorized by the Minnesota Legislature directed the MDA to base enrollment on a farm’s 2022 milk production, so without an update to the DAIRI law, new dairy farms that only started marketing milk in 2023 or part of 2022 would not be eligible.
The bill to update the DAIRI program is expected to be introduced this week, and may receive a hearing as soon as next week. Expected authors of the bill are Rep. Nathan Nelson (R – Hinckley) and Sen. Rob Kupec (DFL – Moorhead).
