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By Peter Cox and Ellie Roth

Chipping away at a backlog of work, Minnesota lawmakers began sending Gov. Tim Walz more elements of a tardy budget as well as a measure to remove some immigrants from subsidized health coverage.

A special session featured a series of votes and gripes about the deal that led to a finalized budget just weeks before a partial government shutdown would occur.

The longest debates in the House and Senate came on a bill narrowing eligibility for MinnesotaCare. Adult immigrants lacking legal status will lose the premium-based coverage they got just this year while their children will retain that coverage.

Republicans made the restriction a priority of the budget negotiations, saying the costs are mounting and the priority is misplaced. They said Minnesota wouldn’t be alone in reeling it back.

“We cannot justify spending hundreds of millions on individuals who broke the law to enter the country while we face cuts to special education, nursing homes, and disability services,” said Sen. Jordan Rasmusson, R-Fergus Falls.

Democrats challenged that estimate and said the change could wind up costing more than it saves because hospitals will have to absorb uncompensated care expenses and those might get passed onto others.

“Minnesotans come from every corner of the world and choose our state to make and make it a beautiful and incredible place to live because of them, we don’t have to be cruel and hateful,” said Sen. Lindsey Port, DFL-Burnsville. “We can do better. This bill does not make health care more affordable for anyone. It does not make health insurance more affordable for anyone.”

Both chambers started just after 10 a.m. They entered to shouts from protesters opposing the immigrant change outside the chamber rang in whenever the main doors came open.

Rep. Jeff Backer, R-Browns Valley, said Minnesota taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for all costs related to undocumented immigrants on the program.

“When we find undocumented illegal immigrants. That is 100 percent from the cost of Minnesota taxpayers,” Backer said, adding, “If we do not focus on the Minnesota health care system, our hospitals, are EMS and our dental then what’s going to happen is then the whole system will go into cardiac arrest and that doesn’t help anybody.”

Democrats dug in for a long debate even if the bill seemed on track for passage. Rep. Samantha Sencer-Mura, of Minneapolis, said the move lacks compassion in “a time of fear and scarcity.”

“We know that in the past our country has been wrong in the way we have scapegoated immigrants. Let’s not repeat those same mistakes today,” she said. “Because this is how it starts: first it’s your health care, then it’s your documentation, then it’s saying you can’t move around at night.”

The bill cleared the House on a 68-65 vote — the smallest “yes” vote number possible for passage — after about four hours of debate. House DFL caucus leader Melissa Hortman was the sole Democrat in favor with 67 Republicans. Senate consideration was up next.

It passed the Senate by a 37-30 vote, with four DFLers joining Republicans.

Gov. Tim Walz summoned the Legislature into the special session as part of an agreement with top legislators that it be confined to 15 bills and be wrapped up by 7 a.m. Tuesday.

That’s also when layoff notices would be sent to thousands of state workers if a completed budget isn’t adopted, just one of many preparations for service interruptions that would happen without a new two-year spending plan.

Walz said he and leaders from both parties contributed “hundreds of hours” in recent weeks working toward a final agreement.

Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth and Hortman — a leadership tandem in an evenly split chamber — stood together Friday to vouch for the deal and defend what has been a messy and opaque process.

“You’ll hear that not everybody is happy about every part of it, and that’s to be expected,” Demuth said. “But by getting this work done, even though late, we’re looking forward to Monday, getting things closed up, and then moving forward.”

Hortman said lawmakers did the best they could given the political circumstances — a Legislature divided between 101 DFLers and 100 Republicans.

“It is a frustrating process,” she said. “There’s the analogy of making sausage and that, that is how it kind of always is. It’s a little bit frustrating in terms of it’s not a very clean or pretty process.”

The Senate moved with a little more pace as the House debated the MinnesotaCare bill. Four budget bills and a routine bill to polish up previously passed legislation were approved by the Senate by 1 p.m. Senators made light of their progress in relation to what was happening in the House.

But it wasn’t all smiles in the Senate either.

“We’re still looking at something like a $3 billion in the out years. That wasn’t addressed, and that’s going to be a concern to Minnesotans going forward,” said Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, a Republican. He referred to the two-year budget beyond the next one where a projected shortfall appears.