Senators Carla Nelson, R-Rochester, left and Bill Weber, R-Luverne, recite the Pledge of Allegiance as the Minnesota Senate kicks off the first day of the new legislative session in St. Paul on Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)

Assistant Minority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-Nisswa, his daughter, Jessica Branston, and his grandson, three-month-old James Saul Branston, pose for a photo on the Senate floor as the Minnesota Senate gathers for the first day of the new legislative session in St. Paul on Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)

Senate Minority Leader David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, makes a point as the Minnesota Senate gathers for the first day of the new legislative session in St. Paul on Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)

President of the Minnesota Senate Sandra Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, gavels in the new legislative session in St. Paul on Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)

Senators Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, left, and Julie Rosen, R-Vernon Center, talk in the Minnesota Senate during the first day of the new legislative session in St. Paul on Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)



University of Minnesota students, from left, Caleb Odean, Ryan Bergquist and Chris Kloeckner hold signs endorsing more hemp research outside the Senate building as the Minnesota Senate gathers for the first day of the new legislative session in St. Paul on Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)

Before gaveling in their 10 weeks of work, Minnesota legislators hustled into the construction-addled Capitol and the newly inaugurated Senate Office Building ready for accord.

“It’s just like the opening of school,” said Rep. Mary Murphy, a Hermantown DFLer and a former schoolteacher. “This is another first day, and I’m just looking forward with great hope and expectation.”

Golden Valley pastor Richard Buller, who spoke to House members Tuesday, carried forward those hopes in asking all lawmakers be granted “a big dose of patience this legislative session.”

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But any hopes that this year’s pre-election session would be one of agreement died nearly as soon as the last words of the opening prayers were uttered.

“Every session is an opportunity to make progress, and I think that’s what we’re going to be looking for this session, but it didn’t get off to a very good start,” said Lt. Gov. Tina Smith.

Here’s what your lawmakers disagreed about Tuesday.

IRON RANGE UNEMPLOYMENT

For months, Democrats and Republicans said they believed laid off Iron Range workers who have run out of unemployment benefits should get at least 26 more weeks of benefits granted. The state estimates that about 2,000 mining workers have run out of benefits and another 3,800 in northern Minnesota in non-mining jobs who are in similar straits.

In the House, a Republican move to provide 26 weeks of benefits for laid off workers from “an iron ore mining industry employer or from an employer that is a supplier of goods or services that are directly related to the extraction or processing of iron ore” attracted Democratic ire because it also gives employers a break on unemployment insurance taxes.

“This bill has no support on the Iron Range,” Rep. Tom Anzelc, DFL-Balsam Township, shouted on the House floor. “I can tell you miners do not support this legislation, so why take up our precious time on this first day of this session for a bill that has no support in mining country?”

Republicans said that their bill would have meant immediate benefits to Iron Range workers and that anyone who voted against it cared more about politics than people.

“I think the questions today is: Why did Democrats delay it?” said House Speaker Kurt Daudt, R-Zimmerman.

In the Senate, a DFL plan to hold a Tuesday afternoon committee hearing on a bill to extend unemployment benefits attracted disappointment because members and the public were given little notice. Despite that, the committee met and approved the $29.6 million measure. The full Senate is expected to vote on the bill later this week.

COMMITTEE CHAIRS

Senate Republicans launched a passionate protest against the Democratic-Farmer-Labor majority’s leaders for “stacking the deck” against rural Minnesota by creating a new subcommittee dominated by urban environmentalists.

GOP senators were upset that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Richard Cohen, DFL-St. Paul, with the support of Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, last week created a new division of his panel with jurisdiction over environmental and energy budgets and policies. The leaders stripped those duties from a panel that also oversees agricultural and economic development issues.

“Sen. Bakk is stacking the deck against Greater Minnesota by packing liberal Democrats from the Twin Cities on this important committee and choosing the Senate’s leading environmentalist as chair,” said Sen. Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls. Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, is the division chairman.

Bakk responded that DFL leaders made the changes to better align the Senate’s organization with that of the Republican-controlled House. Those differences, he said, contributed to the Legislature’s failure to pass a budget during the 2015 regular session and required a special session in June to resolve the issues.

For more than an hour, Republicans railed against DFLers putting liberal environmentalists in charge of farm feedlots, buffer zones along lakes and streams, waste water, water-quality standards and other issues vital to farmers and rural businesses. The protests did not change the decision.

Of the prolonged speeches, Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, said, “We’re satisfying our addiction to debating non-stop.”

CAPITOL CONSTRUCTION

A multiyear, multimillion-dollar renovation of the Minnesota Capitol caused the state Senate to move its chambers into its newly constructed building behind the Capitol and left the House working in less-than-perfect conditions in the marbled halls.

With the House meeting in the under-construction Capitol, public and media access to representatives during floor sessions will be severely limited in 2016. Only 278 people will be permitted to be in the domed building at a time, and that includes the 134 House members and their staffs.

Before the very first session in the building, Rep. Dan Schoen, DFL-Cottage Grove, said that meeting in the Capitol was among the “dumbest things.”

“This place is supposed to be for the public. The public isn’t here. They’re not involved. This is not the way its supposed to be,” he said. “There’s not even water here for people.”

DFLers objected to the presence of 20 seats for the public in the House chamber, which House rules specifically forbid, and the scant space for Capitol media on the House floor. Unlike past years, only a limited number of reporters and visual professionals are permitted to attend House floor sessions and media members on the floor are penned behind ropes.

CHAMBER CLASH

The ill feelings at the Capitol continued into the evening, when legislative leaders appeared before the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce at its session-opening dinner.

Bakk, who hails from Cook in northern Minnesota, lashed out at the chamber.

“In my years in the Legislature, I have never been so disappointed in this organization,” said Bakk, who has prided himself on being a business-friendly Democrat.

His voice rising, Bakk shouted that he blamed the Chamber of Commerce for linking unemployment benefits for Iron Rangers with the unemployment fund tax. It was, he said, “damn shameful.”

“If you want to pick a fight at the Legislature and tie a big tax cut to an unemployment extension for families that don’t have any unemployment, bring it on. Because it’s not going to be a very good session for you,” Bakk said to a smattering of applause and a few gasps.

Daudt, in response, said to much louder applause: “What miner on the Range don’t want is just an unemployment check. They want a pay check.”

Despite the rancor, the feuding lawmakers did find a few areas of agreement.

REMEMBERING ‘A GIANT’

House members began by remembering one of their own.

In August 2015, Rep. David Dill, DFL-Crane Lake, died, leaving an open seat and a hole in northern Minnesotans’ hearts. Rep. Anzelc remembered him as a “a giant of the House.” After bipartisan praise for Dill on Tuesday, House members honored Dill with a moment of silence.

The House on Tuesday also began work to create a “David Dill memorial trail” in St. Louis and Itasca counties. That measure is sponsored by Republican and Democratic members, including House Speaker Daudt, Minority Leader Paul Thissen and Dill’s House replacement, Rep. Rob Ecklund, DFL-International Falls.

STAMPS

With little dissent and no debate, senators quickly approved their postage stamp allowances, expense reimbursements for attending conferences, mileage eligibility and committee deadlines for passing bills.

David Montgomery and Tory Cooney contributed to this report.