Rep. Greg Harris • 13th District
Springfield Update • January 14, 2021
Lame Duck Session Update
By law, the newly elected General Assembly began at noon January 13. However in the week leading up to the new 102nd General Assembly, the 101st General Assembly met to implement further response to COVID, including vital laws on evictions, foreclosures and rental assistance, remote legislation and others. We also passed major legislation and funding for transforming healthcare access, delivery and quality in communities what have suffered disproportionate impacts from the COVID epidemic on top of systemic legacy healthcare disparities. I also introduced the first of a series of Ethics Reform bills, based on testimony and recommendations heard over the past year from reform groups, municipalities, ethics experts and others by the Joint Commission on Ethics and Lobbying Reform which I co-chaired with Sen. Elgie Sims.
Besides these legislative issues, there were two groundbreaking and history-making accomplishments in the final days of the 100th General Assembly. The first was passage of the first 3 pillars of the Black Lives Agenda developed by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus. These historic omnibus bills took incredibly large steps in advancing equity, dismantling systemic racism, and sweeping criminal justice reform. We are working on a complete guide to all the various items included in the Black Lives Agenda bills and will send that out in a subsequent newsletter.
Also, as you know the House of Representatives elected a new Speaker. There were several excellent candidates who put themselves forward from the House Democratic Caucus. The candidate who I supported was my friend Rep. Chris Welch. As you know, Chris was elected by the Democratic Caucus to be our Speaker candidate and went on to win in the full House vote. To me it is a powerful sign of hope and change to see the baton of leadership passed to a newer and younger generation of leaders, and also that we elected our first African American Speaker in the 203 year history of Illinois.
Legislation that moved during Lame Duck which I sponsored included the Healthcare Transformation law to begin reducing healthcare disparities in underserved communities, and to also bring additional resources for the fight against COVID to under resourced areas. It is SB1510 and you can see it here: https://ilga.gov/legislation/fulltext.asp?DocName=10100SB1510ham003&GA=101&SessionId=108&DocTypeId=SB&LegID=118429&DocNum=1510&GAID=15&SpecSess=&Session=
The transformation program provides technical assistance and funding for developing new and innovative healthcare delivery systems, increasing access to behavioral healthcare, maternal/child healthcare, access to specialists in underserved communities, and development of post-COVID care. It focuses resources on medically underserved communities served by Safety Net Hospital and Rural Critical Access Hospitals, incentivizes collaboration, requires community participation and input, encourages partnerships with community organizations such as Community Health Centers (FQHCs) for access to primary care, and other community-based organizations to address social determinants of health. The program has robust MBE participation components, as well as strict transparency and accountability requirements. Applications will be accepted from across the state. Primary areas of special focus will be on the South and West sides of Chicago, Metro East and rural Illinois.
The initial investment in this program is $150 million dollars, which is already in the budget as part of the Hospital Assessment program and will be available annually.
Last year, I served as House Co-chair of the Joint Commission on Ethics and Lobbying Reform. The Commission was made up of Republican and Democratic legislators from both the House and the Senate, Inspectors General of the Attorney Generals’ and Secretary of State’s office and appointees of the Governor including both Democrats and Republicans.
The Commission had a series of public hearings last year hearing from government reform organizations, ethics advocates, the National Council of State Legislators, State Ethics Officers and Inspectors General, academicians and others. Before the Commission could complete its work and issue a final report however, COVID came along preventing meetings of the Commission (we were not legally allowed to have virtual meetings).
This week though, I introduced ethics reform legislation based on the testimony before the Commission. I’m pleased to say it successfully was voted out of the Executive Committee on a bipartisan rollcall. However it was not able to be called before the full House before the 101st GA ended. I will introduce it again for the current GA.
This bill is a first step in a larger process of ethics reform, and includes several of the items that the Commission heard about from advocates and the public. Here are some of the topic areas and link to the language for more of the details:
- Bans on public officials from being lobbyists
- Revolving door policy
- Statewide lobbyist registration and disclosure program covering not only the legislature, but all counties, municipalities and townships
- Stronger, clearer Statements of Economic Interests
- Prohibitions on fundraising on the days immediately before or after session of the legislature
- Disclosure of consultants
- Required ethics and sexual harassment training for lobbyists
The current version of the bill is here: https://ilga.gov/legislation/fulltext.asp?DocName=10100SB3071ham002&GA=101&SessionId=108&DocTypeId=SB&LegID=124305&DocNum=3071&GAID=15&SpecSess=&Session=
As always, if you have comments or questions, let me know at greg@gregharris.org.