Minnesota House Democrats have delayed a vote on a $1.37 billion public works package in the hopes of securing the six Republican votes they would need to pass the long-delayed bill.

As the House and Senate prepared to convene Monday for the fifth special session of 2020, speaker Melissa Hortman said she was confident of getting the necessary 60% supermajority needed to pass the bill, commonly known as a bonding bill. But she conceded she didn’t have the 15 GOP votes that would have been needed to suspend House rules and rush the bill through Monday, so she postponed the vote until Wednesday.

The bonding bill is the biggest piece of unfinished business left over from the 2020 regular session, where work was slowed by the pandemic before lawmakers were constitutionally required to adjourn in May.

By — Lakeland News