A protracted floor fight over House rules ended exactly as anticipated -- with the DFL majority passing the proposed rules on a party-line vote.

January is generally not the time of year for four-hour committee hearings at the Capitol. But Wednesday’s gathering of the House Commerce and Consumer Protection Finance and Policy Committee nearly reached that dubious mark.

A bipartisan group of legislators unveiled a bill on Wednesday to create a state-administered marketplace where individuals and corporations will be able to purchase health insurance. Minnesota must enact such legislation by the end of March in order to be in compliance with the federal Affordable Care Act, which will be fully implemented in 2014.

House Republicans submitted their committee requests to incoming DFL House Speaker Paul Thissen on Thursday. Among the notable picks: outgoing Majority Leader Matt Dean, of Dellwood, was put forward as the minority lead on the Capitol Investment Committee.

On Thursday morning state Reps. Carolyn McElfatrick and Tom Anzelc appeared on the “Making Sausage” radio program on KAXE (FM 91.7) in Grand Rapids. They fielded questions about the budget, taxes and the proposed constitutional amendments.

As Gov. Mark Dayton pieces together his 2014-2015 budget, he’s hearing from a bipartisan group of mayors that state lawmakers have cut their funding too deeply and too capriciously during the past decade.

In the past week state lawmakers have inched toward a special session to deal with flood damage in northeastern Minnesota, but the movement has been marked by repeated Republican objections to the size and specific details of the $190 million relief bill proposed by Gov. Mark Dayton’s administration.

In what was both a dense tax policy exposition and a moment for election-year grandstanding, the House Taxes Committee on Monday dissected the many sources of revenue that are intended to pay for President Obama’s health care act.

Obamacare is here to stay. That is the apparent takeaway from the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month that largely upheld the 2010 federal health care overhaul.

House Taxes Committee chair Greg Davids has scheduled a hearing for July 23 to discuss the financial implications of the federal health care overhaul.