The Illinois General Assembly heads into the final scheduled week of its spring session, facing unresolved issues from the budget to a proposal to help the Chicago Bears move to the suburbs.
SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois General Assembly heads into the final scheduled week of its spring session facing unresolved issues from the budget to a proposal to help the Chicago Bears move to the suburbs, while also coming under pressure to toughen government ethics laws in the wake of the
“They won’t be something that we have to turn around and try to fix again because we operated in haste in 2023,” the Rockford Democrat said. In fall 2019, following a federal raid on the offices of then-state Sen. Martin Sandoval and the arrest of then-state Rep. Luis Arroyo on a bribery charge, the General Assembly approved a measure that required more disclosure from lobbyists and ordered the Illinois secretary of state to create a combined online database for information on lobbyists, campaign contributions and public officials’ annual statements of economic interest.
The energy policy overhaul Pritzker signed in fall 2021 also contained provisions aimed at addressing ethical issues exposed by the ComEd scandal, including a requirement that state officials disclose whether they have immediate family members who work for utility companies. Government reform advocates argue that a prohibition on former lawmakers becoming lobbyists for at least two years after leaving office is the best way to prevent legislators from “auditioning” for their next gig while still in office, Kaplan said.
During a news conference last week, Quinn said the ethics laws passed in 2021 were “praiseworthy” but “not sufficient.” House Republicans echoed some of Quinn’s recommendations, including those on campaign finance reform, during their news conference last week, but expressed pessimism that the Democratic supermajority will address ethics reform in the closing days of the spring session.“At the end of the day, you’re never going to put a law in place that’s going to stop criminal behavior,” said state Rep. Blaine Wilhour, a Republican from Beecher City.
As Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot declared a state of emergency last week in response to thousands of migrants who have settled in the city after crossing the southern U.S. border to seek asylum, the legislature could consider more funding to help the city provide services.
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