CAPITOL RECAP: Sweeping police reform bill faces opposition; lame duck session underway

[January 11, 2021]  By Capitol News Illinois

SPRINGFIELD –The Illinois House of Representatives continued to debate a massive criminal justice omnibus bill Sunday, Jan. 10, that would transform policing practices in the state.

A 611-page amendment to House Bill 163 would heavily revamp use-of-force guidelines, mandate body cameras for every law enforcement agency, end cash bail, remove some qualified immunity protections, and strip collective bargaining rights relating to discipline from police unions. Further language could be added in a future amendment as well.

The legislation, which is the culmination of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus agenda to end systemic racism, faces opposition from law enforcement groups and Republican lawmakers.

“This has been a 400-year-plus journey that we have been on,” Rep. Justin Slaughter, a Chicago Democrat who helped craft HB163, said in a news conference held Sunday morning by the Black Caucus.

“We want to go from protest to progress,” he repeated three times with increasing emphasis.

Slaughter chairs the House Criminal Judiciary Committee, which must accept the amendment before it can go to the House floor for a vote. The committee heard testimony and debate on the bill from law enforcement, municipal representation, legal experts and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.

HB163 would amend the acceptable forms of force by officers, banning chokeholds and restraints that can restrict breathing as well as severely limiting the situations where deadly force is authorized. The reforms were strongly opposed by the law enforcement coalition during the hearing.

Ogle County Sheriff Brian VanVickle, representing the Illinois Sheriff’s Association, called the proposed reforms “catastrophic” to law enforcement and said they would make policing impossible for officers that have to make split-second decisions.

Crystal Lake Police Chief James Black, who serves as president of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, said he supports reforms to use of force but HB163 is not the answer.

Body cameras would be mandatory for all law enforcement agencies under the law. Larger agencies would be required to have cameras in place by Jan. 1, 2022, and all agencies would need to have cameras in place by 2025.

Any municipality or county whose law enforcement agency does not comply would have its Local Government Distributive Fund contributions from the state reduced by 20 percent each year until it meets the requirements. The LGDF is the portion of state income tax revenue that goes to cities and counties.

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POLICE CERTIFICATION:A new bill would revamp the way police certification works in Illinois.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Elgie Sims and Rep. Justin Slaughter, both Chicago Democrats, alters the Illinois Administrative Code as it relates to the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board.

An amendment to House Bill 841 filed Friday, Jan. 9, would create the Illinois Law Enforcement Certification Review Panel to conduct oversight of officers found to have engaged in misconduct, create a mandatory reporting system for officer training compliance and increase transparency surrounding the conduct of individual officers.

Under the proposal, ILETSB would be granted greater discretionary power to decertify officers based on the determinations of the Certification Review Panel. Officers found to have committed an act that would be a felony or misdemeanor, even if not convicted or charged, would also be subject to decertification.

Additional offenses that could result in decertification would also be included: excessive use of force; failing to intervene when another officer uses excessive force; tampering with dash or body cameras, including the footage created by these cameras or directing others to do so; committing perjury, making false statements or tampering with evidence; and engaging in conduct of “moral turpitude,” which would be defined as any action that goes against the responsibility to protect the public or an action that sullies the integrity of law enforcement.

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LAME DUCK SESSION BEGINS: Illinois House lawmakers were back in the capital city Friday, Jan. 8, for the first time since May, kicking off a five-day “lame duck” legislative session.

No substantive action was taken in the brief House session Friday, which began with Republican Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, requesting greater access for members of the media in the Bank of Springfield Center which hosted the session. Only a handful of reporters were allowed on the second level of the 7,700-seat arena due to strict COVID-19 restrictions.

The venue is the same as it was in May, but reporters had requested better access to lawmakers on the floor of the center. No such expanded access was granted Friday.

Shortly after convening, Democrats called for a closed-door caucus meeting to discuss an expansive criminal justice reform measure and other priorities of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus.

Prospective candidates to unseat House Speaker Michael Madigan, who has held that position for all but two years since 1983, were also scheduled to make their case in the private caucus meeting. Stephanie Kifowit, D-Oswego, Kathleen Willis, D-Addison, and Ann Williams, D-Chicago, are the three declared challengers to Madigan.

At least 19 members of the House Democratic caucus have said they will not support Madigan, putting him several votes shy of the 60 needed to retain the gavel. The 102nd session of the General Assembly is set to convene Wednesday, Jan. 13, following adjournment of lame duck session, at which point a speaker must be chosen before substantial action can be taken.

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K-12 EDUCATION BILL: Members of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus are advancing a K-12 education bill that would expand resources for marginalized students and reform education policies that disproportionately harm students of color.

The bill addresses the education and workforce development pillar of the ILBC’s four-pillar agenda, which also includes criminal justice reform; health care and human services; and economic access, equity and opportunity.

On Sunday, Jan. 10, lawmakers on the Senate Executive Committee heard testimony from one of the bill’s sponsors, Sen. Kimberly Lightford, and representatives from education groups, including the Illinois Federation of Teachers and Illinois Education Association.

Among the new provisions in the bill is a required assessment for children entering kindergarten that would evaluate their literacy, language, mathematics, and social and emotional development skills.

The bill prohibits the assessment from being used to prevent a child from enrolling in kindergarten or as the sole measure to determine whether a student should be promoted to the next grade level.

Another provision of the bill would allow students who receive intervention services before they turn 3 years old to continue to access those services until the beginning of the school year after their third birthday.

The bill would also create two new programs – Freedom Schools and the Whole Child Task Force – both with the intent of offering additional resources and opportunities to Black students.

Other provisions of the bill would automatically enroll students in accelerated courses if they meet certain standards, and establish required computer science standards and courses in the state’s curriculum.

Lightford suggested the bill is still under revision and additional changes are expected as the General Assembly’s lame duck session progresses.

IFT and IEA both opposed provisions in the bill that amended the Invest in Kids Act, which provides scholarships to nonpublic schools through an income tax credit program. Lightford said language regarding the program will be removed from a future draft.

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PRITZKER'S TAX PRIORITIES: Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday, Jan. 8, announced his top priority for the lame duck session, a series of tax changes that he says would save the state about $520 million for this fiscal year.

The bulk of that, roughly $500 million, would come from decoupling a portion the state’s tax code from the federal tax code so that business tax cuts approved by Congress as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Stimulus, or CARES Act, last year would not automatically reduce Illinois state revenue.

Without decoupling, the governor’s office said, those changes at the federal level would automatically reduce the amount of business income that is taxable by the state of Illinois.

Pritzker also announced that he is unilaterally delaying the effective date of certain business tax credits that the Illinois General Assembly passed in 2019, and which were scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, as part of a package known as the Blue Collar Jobs Act. Those involved expansions of certain tax credits that businesses could take for relocating to Illinois or expanding existing facilities in the state.

“Right now, we cannot afford to expand tax breaks to businesses that already receive tax breaks,” Pritzker said in a news release. “As we recover from the pandemic, we must focus on job creation and balancing our state budget.”

But House Republicans, especially those who helped negotiate the Blue Collar Jobs Act, said Pritzker’s actions would hurt small businesses that have been severely affected by the recession brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and would ultimately make Illinois less economically competitive.

“That’s precisely the kind of tool that we’ll need as we emerge from the pandemic and the entire world starts to rebuild the economies that have been so profoundly impacted by these closures,” Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, said during a news conference.

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ECONOMIC EQUITY: As the General Assembly’s lame duck session moved into its third day, lawmakers in both chambers turned their attention to a sweeping bill aimed at narrowing economic disparities faced by Black and brown communities in Illinois.



That is one of the four pillars that make up the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus’ agenda, which has been the focus of the lame duck session thus far.



The proposed Economic Equity Act, House Bill 5871, was introduced Thursday, Jan. 7, by Rep. Sonya Harper, D-Chicago, and like many of the other bills being pushed by the ILBC, it drew general praise for its intent, but criticism over a number of specific parts.

The 334-page bill contains sections dealing with predatory lending, the use of criminal background checks in employment decisions and housing, diversity requirements in state contracting and purchasing, and the removal of lead water pipes in public water systems, something that advocates say disproportionately affects communities of color.

It also would create a new African Descent-Citizens Reparations Commission that, among other things, would be charged with developing future legislation to require corporations and other institutions to disclose any past ties to the slave trade and to negotiate financial reparations.

“This pillar is part of the Black Caucus’ agenda to end systemic racism,” Harper said of the bill on Sunday, Jan. 10. “In this pillar, we are addressing several different areas such as banking and investment, economic mobility, small business and entrepreneurship, procurement and the Business Enterprise Program, industry-specific equity, housing, land-use gentrification, and pay equity and workers’ rights.”

One part of the bill, called the Employee Background Fairness Act, calls for strictly limiting the ability of employers to use a person’s criminal history to deny someone a job or take any other adverse action unless there is a “direct relationship” between the conviction and the job, or if there is a specific federal, state or local law prohibiting the employment of such a person.

It also contains similar language regarding housing in buildings under the jurisdiction of public housing authorities.

The bill also contains provisions to put more restrictions on companies that offer small-dollar loans such as payday loans and vehicle title loans. Provisions include capping the interest rate they can charge at 36 percent, the same cap that applies under federal regulations for loans to members of the military.

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HIGHER EDUCATION REFORM: A bill aimed at making college education and teacher preparation programs more accessible and affordable for people of color began working its way through the General Assembly on Saturday, Jan. 9, with the formal introduction of language that lawmakers have been negotiating for months.

The action came on the second day of the General Assembly’s lame duck session, which is focused heavily on a racial and social justice agenda developed over the summer and fall by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus.

Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, who chairs the House Higher Education Committee, introduced the language in the form of a 268-page amendment to Senate Bill 458. During a hearing Saturday, she said the omnibus bill touches on numerous aspects of higher education, but she focused the hearing on a few key parts: restructuring the AIM HIGH scholarship program; increasing the diversity of the state’s teaching workforce; and reforming the way schools place students into non-credit bearing “developmental” or “remedial” classes.

AIM HIGH is a scholarship program that lawmakers first authorized as a pilot program in 2019. It provides up to $3,000 per year for students who attended an Illinois high school and who meet certain academic and financial qualifications. Currently, the cost of those scholarships is split evenly between the state and the institution.

But Ammons said that puts some smaller schools that cater to higher-need students at a disadvantage because they often lack the resources to fully fund their share of the cost, which means a portion of the state funding they are allocated goes unused.

The bill would divide public colleges and universities into two tiers. Those in which 49 percent or more of their student body is eligible for Pell grants would have to match only 20 percent of their state allocation, while those with fewer Pell grant-eligible students would be required to match 60 percent.

Increasing the diversity of the state’s K-12 teacher workforce has also been a focus of the Legislative Black Caucus agenda.

One of the ways the state tries to do that is through the Minority Teachers of Illinois scholarship program, which is open to Illinois residents who meet academic qualifications and who are from either Black, Hispanic, Asian American or Native American origin who have expressed an interest in becoming teachers.

But Robin Steans, president of the education advocacy group Advance Illinois, said funding for that program, at less than $2 million a year, has not kept up with demand or the rising cost of higher education.

Steans said the proposal also calls for setting aside up to 35 percent of the money that is allocated to the program for Black men, a group that is considered greatly underrepresented in the teaching profession. And it would specifically target high school students who graduate after completing a career pathway in teacher preparation for recruitment into the program.

The proposed bill would also seek to increase the number of minority students who actually complete a college degree.

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SMALL BUSINESS GRANTS: The grant program for small businesses owners in Illinois who suffered losses during the pandemic has run out of money.

Illinois’ Business Interruption Grant program was the largest state program of its kind, but only about 20 percent, or 8,974 applicants, received a grant.

The Illinois General Assembly created the program using federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, money. The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity helped administer the program, and awarded more than $275 million since the first round of grants were issued in August.

DCEO Director Erin Guthrie said this particular set of federal dollars has been exhausted, but the department continues to look for ways to help businesses statewide.

“We know that businesses are hurting and we wish that Congress would provide more relief,” Guthrie said in an interview Friday. “This virus has shut down so much of our economy, and that is a struggle for every person and business across our state. The other thing I would say is, we're constantly working with our federal counterparts, with other sources in ways that we can creatively provide relief to those businesses.”

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LIQUOR DELIVERIES: In a committee hearing Friday, Jan. 8, on the Bank of Springfield Center floor, lawmakers advanced Senate Bill 54, which allows for the home delivery of liquor throughout the state.

The bill allows retailers to use third-party groups via phone applications or internet service while removing liability for retailers if those services violate age verification laws.

In what came as a surprise to some members, the committee allowed testimony through videoconference – a first for the Illinois House. No one aside from lawmakers or staff is otherwise allowed on the BOS Center’s floor to testify.

The Illinois Craft Brewers Guild testified to ask for an amendment to allow for small brewers and distillers to deliver their own products, which the bill does not allow for, despite wineries having those abilities.

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CAPITOL SECURITY: Just two days after hundreds of rioters broke through police barricades and vandalized the halls of Congress, Illinois lawmakers returned to the seat of government for a lame duck session.

In a statement Wednesday, Jan. 6, Gov. JB Pritzker said he asked for the Illinois State Police and other law enforcement to “redeploy to heighten their presence at government buildings and the Capitol in Springfield” Wednesday night.

Pritzker’s spokesperson did not respond to a question Thursday about whether the governor plans to deploy the Illinois National Guard at the Statehouse or other government offices for the legislative session.

The governor’s statement Wednesday came as a much smaller group of demonstrators gathered outside the Illinois Capitol to protest the election certification of President-elect Joe Biden.

There were no arrests or incidents reported at the Illinois protest, according to Henry Haupt, a spokesperson for the Illinois Secretary of State, who estimated it was attended by 40 to 50 people.

The Secretary of State Capitol Police force is assigned to the nine buildings comprising the State Capitol Complex. Security at the Bank of Springfield Center, where the Illinois House will meet, falls under the purview of the Illinois State Police, said Haupt.

Steve Brown, spokesperson for House Speaker Michael Madigan, declined to comment on security procedures at the Bank of Springfield or discussions among House leadership for additional security.

House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, speaks on the floor of the Bank of Springfield Center in Springfield on Friday, Jan. 8, requesting increased access for reporters covering the session. A handful of reporters were allowed on the mezzanine level of the 7,700-seat convention center. No expanded access was granted Friday. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Jerry Nowicki)

“I think there is adequate security, as there was in May (during the last legislative session),” Brown said on Thursday, Jan. 7. “If you remember, visualizing the scene, (security) was pretty comprehensive from what could be seen, and there were additional layers, not necessarily visible to the general public.”

John Patterson, spokesperson for Senate President Don Harmon, did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.

Haupt said he couldn’t comment on staffing levels or security protocols at the Capitol Complex but said the Secretary of State Capitol Police are working with the Illinois State Police and other law enforcement entities to ensure the Complex and surrounding area remains safe.

Every entry point at the Capitol Complex is staffed with at least one armed Capitol Police investigator, Haupt said.

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SPEAKER’S RACE: State Rep. Ann Williams officially threw her hat into the ring Wednesday, Jan. 6, to become the next speaker of the Illinois House, making her the third Democrat to announce they were challenging embattled Speaker Michael Madigan.

Williams, 53, a Chicago attorney, released a statement Wednesday morning, hours ahead of a virtual candidates’ forum being hosted by the House Democratic Women’s Caucus.

She joined Reps. Stephanie Kifowit, of Oswego, and Kathleen Willis, of Addison, in the race for speaker.

The third day of the lame duck session, Sunday, Jan. 10, ended with an hourslong closed-door meeting between House Democrats to consider speaker candidates.

Multiple reports pegged Madigan at nine votes shy of another term -- at least on the first unofficial ballot -- with 51, while Williams had 18, and Kifowit had three. Willis dropped out, backing Williams on a day that saw several women's groups issue news releases supporting any of Madigan's female challengers as the first woman to lead the chamber.

But that vote isn't officially scheduled until Wednesday, Jan. 13, when the 102nd General Assembly begins, and the work of the 101st General Assembly is still not complete.

Madigan, who has served as speaker for all but two years since 1983, has been struggling to maintain his grip on power since July when he was implicated in a yearslong bribery scheme in which utility giant Commonwealth Edison awarded no-work jobs and lobbying contracts to his associates in order to curry his favor for legislation that benefited the company.

Madigan has not been charged and has denied any wrongdoing, but the scandal has eroded his support within the Democratic caucus to the point where he no longer has the 60 votes needed to be reelected speaker.

Williams, a member of the party’s liberal wing, was just reelected to her sixth term in the House. She currently chairs the House Energy and Environment Committee. In her statement, she said her priorities have included addressing the climate crisis and protecting access to reproductive health care.

Kifowit, 49, a Marine Corps veteran, has served in the House since 2013. A former Aurora city alderman, she currently chairs the Veterans Affairs Committee, which recently held hearings recently about the COVID-19 outbreaks at state-run veterans homes.

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VACCINE UPDATE: As of Tuesday night, Jan. 5, approximately 344,525 total doses of Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna vaccines have been delivered to Illinois, excluding the city of Chicago.

Federal supply issues have resulted in delivery reductions, according to the governor. The state is receiving approximately 120,000 doses per week, 60,000 each of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. From this lower than expected number of vaccine doses, Pritzker said the federal government pulls an allotment of doses from each delivery to put towards its long-term care vaccination program.

Approximately 114,075 doses from Illinois’ latest allotment, outside the city of Chicago, have been set aside for this purpose. The long-term care vaccination program is being facilitated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in partnership with CVS, Walgreens and Managed Health Care Associates Inc. to offer on-site COVID-19 vaccination services for residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

About 850,000 residents are eligible for the first phase of vaccinations currently underway, which includes health care workers and long-term care facility residents.

Illinois as a whole has administered approximately 207,106 total vaccine doses to date, including Tuesday’s first round of second doses for recipients who received the first dose in mid-December.

That number also includes vaccinations through the federal long-term care vaccination program. Pritzker noted the program’s partners started vaccinating in Illinois on Dec. 28, nearly two weeks after the state’s first delivery of vaccinations.

Because of high demand for the COVID-19 vaccine, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended two initial priority groups receive the first rounds of vaccination.

Those in Phase 1A, who are currently receiving vaccines, include health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities.

Phase 1B will include Illinois residents age 65 years or older and non-health care frontline essential workers. ACIP recommended residents 75 years or older be prioritized, but Illinois reduced the age by 10 years. Gov. JB Pritzker noted Wednesday, Jan. 6, the average age of COVID-19 deaths is 81 for white residents, 72 for Black residents and 68 for Latino residents.

Phase 1B will begin once Phase 1A is substantially complete, but a specific time period is not yet clear. Pritzker said that many health care workers and long-term care facility residents are still in the process of receiving the vaccine and a decrease in federal vaccine distribution could delay the move to the next phase.

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TIER 3 UPDATE: On Wednesday, Jan. 6, Gov. JB Pritzker announced the possibility of Tier 3 mitigations being lifted by Jan. 15 in regions that meet certain metrics. That represents a 14-day incubation period following New Year’s Day.

In order to transition from Tier 3 to Tier 2, a region must experience a positivity rate below 12 percent for three consecutive days. It must also have greater than 20 percent available intensive care unit and hospital bed availability and declining COVID hospitalizations for 7 of the 10 days.

Regions began hitting Tier 2 restrictions in November, with statewide Tier 3 mitigations announced on Nov. 20. No region has been able to move back to Tier 1 restrictions after reaching Tier 2.

According to an IDPH document detailing Tier 2 restrictions, “IDPH will continue to track the positivity rate in regions requiring additional mitigations over a 14-day monitoring period to determine if mitigations can be relaxed, if additional mitigations are required, or if current mitigation should remain in place. If the positivity rate averages less than or equal to 6.5 percent over a 3-day period, the region will return to Phase 4 mitigations under the Restore Illinois Plan.”

Phase 4 mitigations are less strict than any of the tiers of the resurgence plan.

As of Friday, Jan. 8, only two of the state’s 11 mitigation regions meet the criteria set by the governor’s office to return to Tier 2 mitigations with one week left before they would be able to do so.

Those regions include Region 2, which covers 20 different counties in north-central Illinois, and Region 7, which covers the south suburban Kankakee and Will counties.

Under Tier 2 and 3, indoor dining is suspended. A region would have to move to Tier 1 in order to open indoor dining with limited capacity. Tier 1 restrictions also include suspension of indoor bar service.

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COVID-19 UPDATE: Illinois reported another 4,711 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 81 additional virus-related deaths Sunday, Jan. 10, as the rolling seven-day average positivity rate fell below 8 percent.

The state is now reporting a total 1,028,750 cases, including 17,574 total deaths across the state’s 102 counties.

There were 77,775 test results reported in the previous 24 hours with more than 14 million results reported since the pandemic began.

As of Saturday night, 3,527 hospital beds were in use by COVID-19 patients, a decrease of 62 from the day prior, and 740 were in intensive care unit beds, a decrease of 2 from the day prior. There were 391 COVID-19 patients reported on ventilators, a decrease of 2 from the day prior.

The statewide seven-day rolling case positivity rate is 7.9 percent, dropping from the previous day’s mark of 8.3 percent. Sunday’s one-day rate was 6.1 percent.


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HOSPITALIZATIONS DECREASING: Hospitalization rates for COVID-19 continued to fall for the sixth straight week as of Sunday evening, Jan. 3. From Dec. 28 through Jan. 3, the daily average hospitalization count from COVID-19 stood at 4,099, down 7 percent from the week before, and down 33 percent, or 2,029, from the period ending Nov. 22. At the end of Sunday, there were 3,948 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Illinois, an increase of 131 from the day prior.

There were 816 intensive care beds in use by COVID-19 patients as of Sunday, an increase of 18 from the day prior. That left 25.9 percent of ICU beds open statewide, while the seven-day average for ICU bed usage stood at 833. That was a decrease of 9.9 percent, or 92, from the prior seven-day period. It’s the fifth consecutive week that the average decreased.

COVID-19 patients occupied 471 ventilators as of Sunday, an increase of five from the day prior. The seven-day average for ventilator use stood at 479 as of Sunday, a decrease of 43, or 8.3 percent, from the previous seven-day period.

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VETERANS HOMES: On Nov. 1, Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs officials reported a deadly outbreak of COVID-19 in its LaSalle Veterans’ Home that has since claimed 36 resident lives, more than a quarter of its total residents.

The House Civil Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Andre Thapedi, D-Chicago, will hear from the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs on Monday morning, Jan. 11.

There have been a number of other investigations into this outbreak, including an independent investigation conducted by acting inspector general of the Illinois Department of Human Services and several legislative committee inquiries.

An initial site visit was conducted by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in November during which officials noted wall-mounted hand sanitizer dispensers contained non-alcohol-based products, staff was reported not following proper personal protective equipment protocol and not adhering to social distancing guidelines.

The Illinois Department of Public Health visited the LaSalle Veterans’ Home in mid-December to review the preventative practices in place, and the LaSalle home was found to be compliant with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

But lawmakers still have concerns about how the outbreak occurred in the first place, which has led to the various committee hearings and investigations

There have been a total of 108 COVID-19 cases reported among residents at the home, with 71 recovered and 36 having died. The outbreak appears to have been contained with no new cases reported in IDVA’s two January updates regarding the outbreaks.

One additional COVID-19 case among employees was reported Friday, for a total of 107 cases among employees. No employees have died due to COVID-19.

Since mid-December, National Guard members have been assisting staff members with COVID-19 administrative tasks at the LaSalle, Quincy and Manteno veterans homes.

At the Manteno home, 19 residents have died from COVID-19. There have been 69 cases of the disease in the home’s residents with 50 recovered and no new cases reported in the most recent update from IDVA on Jan. 6. Four additional cases among Manteno employees were reported on Jan. 6, however.

The IDVA’s Jan. 8 report on the Quincy Veterans Home included five additional resident deaths, bringing the COVID-19 death toll at the facility to 17 since the pandemic began.

There were no new cases reported in Friday’s report, while 134 positive cases have been reported among residents since the start of the pandemic.

Among the employees at Quincy, two additional cases have been reported for a total of 162 COVID-19 cases among employees, and 146 of the employees have recovered.

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UNEMPLOYMENT: House Republicans continued to criticize the Pritzker administration Wednesday, Jan. 6, as the Illinois Department of Employment Support works through ongoing staffing and fraud issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since handling a historic number of unemployment assistance claims at the outset of the pandemic in March, IDES has added staff, changed processes and implemented additional measures to prevent fraudulent claims.

On Wednesday, some House Republicans continued calls for additional measures to be implemented, such as moving staff from other state departments to assist with the overload of unemployment assistance claims, implementing more anti-fraud measures and holding public hearings to discuss issues at the department.

IDES officials pushed back on criticisms offered by the Republicans Wednesday, stating that it is not possible to move employees from other state agencies without substantial training, and that many of the anti-fraud measures being proposed by the Republicans are already in use by the department.

“We are working hard to respond to an economic crisis and stand up five new, complex federal programs while battling fraudsters who have used stolen identities to file for benefits nationwide,” said IDES Acting Director Kristin Richards in a statement.

Richards said the department was already short-staffed as a result of years of budget cuts which left IDES ill-equipped to handle the unprecedented number of claims last spring. The current employee head count is roughly half of what it was 10 years ago, she said.

Since the pandemic began, the department has contracted over 1,000 employees to assist in handling unemployment claims, and has been approved for an increase in staffing and resources for the current fiscal year, which is fiscal year 2021. It continues to hire more employees, she said.

It has also implemented a callback only system which allows an applicant with a question to be placed in a queue to be called back, rather than having to experience extensive waits.

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FAIR MAPS PUSH: Republicans in the Illinois House said Tuesday, Jan. 5, that they hope to use legislation, instead of a constitutional amendment, to change the way state legislative and congressional district lines are redrawn every 10 years.

The so-called “fair maps” proposal would authorize the General Assembly to set up an independent, nonpartisan commission to redraw the lines, taking that highly political process out of the hands of legislators who currently are able to use that process to protect themselves politically, a process known as “gerrymandering.”

Redistricting is a process that all states go through following each decennial federal census and one that Illinois must complete in the upcoming session so that districts can be established in time for candidates to file for office in time for the 2022 elections.

Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield, said the measure is similar to the proposed constitutional amendment that supporters tried to put on the ballot in 2016 before being blocked by a sharply divided Illinois Supreme Court. The main difference is that it would put the process into statute instead of the constitution.

In 2016, supporters of such a change circulated petitions to put a constitutional amendment on that year’s general election ballot. That’s one of three ways the current Illinois Constitution allows amendments to be considered.

However, the constitution also limits the scope of citizen-initiated amendments to “to structural and procedural subjects contained in Article IV,” which pertains to the General Assembly.

In a 4-3 ruling, the Supreme Court blocked the proposal from going onto the ballot because the proposed amendment contained elements that also dealt with the attorney general and the auditor general.

Butler filed the bill, House Bill 5873, Tuesday. That makes it eligible for consideration in the upcoming lame duck session, which begins Friday, Jan. 8.

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MANAR RESIGNS: Democratic state Sen. Andy Manar of downstate Bunker Hill announced Monday, Jan. 4, he will resign from the General Assembly effective Jan. 17 to join the governor’s office as an advisor two days later.

Manar announced his resignation shortly after noon Monday, and within 20 minutes Gov. JB Pritzker’s office announced he would hire Manar as a senior advisor. Manar will be paid $278,000, annually according to the governor’s office, half of which will be paid out from a limited liability company created by Pritzker to compensate several of his top aides beyond their state payrolls. That company is East Jackson Street LLC.

The rate of pay is more than three-and-a-half times Manar’s Senate salary, which was $79,100 in 2019, according to a state database run through the Illinois Comptroller’s office.

“The time has come for someone new to take up the call in the Illinois Senate. Central Illinois is full of outstanding individuals ready to step forward to meet the challenge — be an agent of change in Downstate Illinois,” Manar said

Manar would have been up for reelection in the 48th Senate District in 2022, likely facing a difficult challenge in an area that leaned heavily toward Republican President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. He did not respond to a phone message from Capitol News Illinois Monday.

Manar replaces Nikki Budzinski, who left the administration in February, as a senior advisor.

The Bunker Hill Democrat has served in the Senate since 2012 and was most notably the lead negotiator of an evidence-based funding formula for K-12 education which directs money to the schools that are furthest from funding adequacy based on a number of factors. That reform passed in 2017.

Prior to the General Assembly he served as city councilman, then mayor in Bunker Hill, as well as Macoupin County Board Chairman.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government and distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.