# Minnesota Senate *Upper house of the Minnesota Legislature* The Minnesota Senate is the upper chamber of the [[Minnesota Legislature]]. It has 67 seats, half the number in the [[Minnesota House of Representatives]], which makes it the largest upper chamber in any American state legislature. Each senator represents about 85,000 residents.[^1] Floor sessions take place in the west wing of the State Capitol in Saint Paul. Committee hearings and the offices of senators and staff are in the Minnesota Senate Building, just north of the Capitol.[^1] Besides passing legislation, the Senate must consent to certain appointments by the governor. These include all 17 members of the [[Metropolitan Council (Minnesota)]], none of whom is popularly elected.[^1][^2] The chamber's proceedings are recorded in the Senate journals, which are available online from the Office of the Revisor of Statutes and from the Senate.[^3][^4] The roll calls and bill histories in this record show how the Senate acted on particular measures. In 1982 it passed the [[State Government Pay Equity Act]] unanimously.[^5] In 2026, by contrast, no Senate companion was filed to the House repeal bill [[House File 5143]].[^6] ## History The Senate opened its first regular session on December 2, 1857.[^1] In 1982 Minnesota became the first state to apply [[Comparable worth]] by statute to its roughly 35,000 state employees. The State Government Pay Equity Act was recommended by the [[Council on the Economic Status of Women]] and met "little visible opposition." It passed the Senate unanimously and the House 100–13, and Governor [[Al Quie]], a Republican, approved it on March 23, 1982 (Laws 1982, chapter 634).[^5] Two years later the [[Local Government Pay Equity Act]] extended the same method to every county and city.[^5] In April 1991 the Legislature debated a charter school bill. Ember Reichgott Junge (DFL–New Hope) was its lead Senate author, and the Time Table row links the measure to Laws 1991, chapter 265.[^7][^8] In 2002 Mee Moua was elected to the Senate, becoming the first Hmong American state legislator in the United States.[^9] In 2017 the Senate, styled the Ninetieth Minnesota State Senate, appeared as a named party in *Ninetieth Minnesota State Senate v. Dayton*, No. A17-1142, before the Minnesota Supreme Court.[^10] According to the Star Tribune, Xcel Energy and state regulators were called before Senate committees on April 12, 2023, over the tritium leak at the Monticello nuclear plant.[^11] Also in 2023, Senate File 2980, paired with House File 2397, carried a $100 million reparations proposal. Its action log shows only the introduction and the addition of authors, with no hearing or vote. The 2024 successor, House File 5456, was a $500,000 study appropriation to the [[Council for Minnesotans of African Heritage]]. It had no Senate companion and died.[^12] In the 2023–2024 biennium, the Senate Committee on Environment, Climate and Legacy posted FY2024–25 Clean Water Fund recommendations by agency in connection with SF 1682.[^13] FMR published a legislative update titled *MN House & Senate rewrite Legacy and undercut Clean Water Fund recommendations*, which took a position against the two chambers' changes.[^14] On May 13, 2026, five days before constitutional adjournment, seven House members filed House File 5143. The two-page bill proposed repealing §43A.191 along with nine statutory and eight rule sections in all. No Senate companion was filed, and no Senate Republican authored one. The bill received no hearing, debate, vote or fiscal note.[^6] That session, the Republican caucus's flagship priority was [[House File 1]], an Inspector General bill.[^6] CBS News Minnesota separately reported the Senate's final passage of a bill creating an Office of Inspector General.[^15] ## Powers In addition to lawmaking, the Senate gives advice and consent on some of the governor's appointments. State law creates hundreds of executive posts, and most are filled without Senate confirmation. Rejections are uncommon: the chamber has turned down nine executive appointees since 2000.[^1] Metropolitan Council members are among the confirmed appointees, since all 17 are named by the governor subject to Senate approval.[^2] The Senate website hosts the Republican caucus's archive of Metropolitan Council reform legislation.[^16] The Committee on Rules and Administration page carries the chamber's ethics and internal governance rules.[^17] ## Elections Every Senate district contains two House districts labeled A and B. Senate District 41, for example, contains 41A and 41B. The state constitution bars any House district from crossing a Senate district line.[^1] Districts are redrawn after each decennial federal census in time for the elections in years ending in 2. To fit that cycle, senators serve one two-year term and two four-year terms each decade. Four-year terms follow the elections in years ending in 2 and 6, and the two-year term follows the election in years ending in 0.[^1] The cached Wikipedia text, retrieved October 26, 2026, gives November 8, 2022, as the most recent Senate election.[^1] ## Leadership Until 1973 the lieutenant governor presided over the Senate. Voters approved a constitutional amendment in 1972 that let the Senate elect its own president beginning in January 1973.[^1] The president presides over floor proceedings, acts as parliamentarian and supervises the secretary of the senate. The majority leader schedules the chamber's business and directs its partisan and nonpartisan staff. Each caucus chooses its own leaders and deputies.[^1] As of the cached text of October 26, 2026, the majority leader was [[Erin Murphy (Minnesota politician)]], a Democrat from Saint Paul. The minority leader was [[Mark Johnson (Minnesota politician)]], a Republican from East Grand Forks.[^1] In 2022 the Senate DFL caucus announced that, with its majority restored, [[Bobby Joe Champion]] had once again been elected Senate president.[^18][^19] ## Minnesota Senate Building Most committee hearings are held in the Minnesota Senate Building, which opened in January 2016. The building cost $90 million, covers 293,000 square feet, and stands across University Avenue to the north of the Capitol.[^1] It contains three hearing rooms, offices for every senator and staff member, a raised terrace facing the Capitol, and 264 underground parking spaces.[^1] The Capitol was undergoing extensive restoration in 2016, so