Minnesota lawmakers introduce record number of bills

Deals are elusive, but new bills are abound at the Minnesota State Capitol.

Driving the Revisor's office workload: House members have introduced a record 4,708 individual pieces of legislation for the two-year session, as of Wednesday, per data tracked by longtime lobbyist Gary Carlson.

Reality check: Very few of those bills will clear both chambers of the divided Legislature to get a signature from Gov. Tim Walz and become law.

• Leaders still can't agree on how to tackle big start-of-session priorities such as bonuses for pandemic workers and backfilling the state's depleted unemployment insurance trust fund.

Between the lines: Some of the thousands of new proposals will make it into bigger omnibus packages as the end of session nears.

• But given the current political environment, most will end up a vehicle for lawmakers to signal their policy priorities to colleagues and voters.

Prolific policymakers: Rep. John Huot (91) and Sen. Karla Bigham (136), both Democrats, are the top introducers so far, Carlson tells Axios.

• Among freshmen, DFL Rep. Athena Hollins (60) and GOP Sen. Zach Duckworth (103) lead the pack.