Minnesota Lawmakers Claim More Than $3.2 Million In Per Diem Pay Over Course Of Pandemic

CBS Minnesota

July 21, 2021

The pandemic upended so much of daily routines, and the Minnesota legislature was no exception, with remote work defining much of regular and special sessions that lasted 17 months straight.

But the more some things changed, others stayed the same — like lawmakers’ ability to claim daily expense payments known as per diem. No receipts required.

In 2020, there was a special session for at least one day every month starting in June, after the regular session ended in May, to renew the governor’s emergency COVID powers. All of those sessions totaled 26 days of work and lawmakers, in total, claimed per diem pay exceeding $170,000.

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