(ABC 6 News) – As of Monday the Minnesota House of Representative is officially back at full membership with 67 Republicans and 67 DFLers.

It comes as Rep. David Gottfried (DFL-Shoreview) was sworn in after winning the special election for seat 40B on Tuesday, March 11.

“I kind of liken this to this legislative session three-point-0. You know we started with a tie and then we went to a one-seat advantage and now we’re back to the tie,” said House Speaker Rep. Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Springs).

This session marks only the second time in Minnesota history the House is evenly split between Republicans and the DFL.

With the house now tied in political party membership, the bipartisan power sharing agreement is in full effect.

It made for a busy day at the capitol, with lawmakers in the House chamber kept in committees and floor session well into the evening.

“The one big bill that is up today is really important. We are hoping that our Democrat colleagues will join us helping to return any potential future surplus back into the hands of the taxpayers of Minnesota,” said Demuth.

Under the power sharing agreement, nearly every committee will become bipartisan in chairs and members.

“I’m a co-vice chair on the Agriculture Committee, so any bill that gets through any committee has to be bipartisan, it has to have a vote from the other side,” said Rep. Andy Smith (DFL-Rochester).

The only exception is the Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee, which will keep a 5-3 Republican advantage and be chaired solely by Kristin Robbins (R-Maple Grove).

“A lot of the bills that actually talk about like fraud prevention, actually aren’t even going to that committee, they’re going to regular committees like commerce and ways and means and other committees before coming to the floor,” said Smith.

With this session already halfway over, time is ticking to pass the state budget and any other legislation.

“Now, you have to be able to work in a bipartisan manner, and there has to be bills that has support from someone across the aisle, no matter what aisle you sit on,” said Smith.

Whether the tie will make it easier or harder to get bills passed remains to be seen.