Lawmakers ask Senate president to convene committee of whole to address excessive electric rates

[February 27, 2007]  SPRINGFIELD -- Three state senators -- John O. Jones, R-Mount Vernon; Dale Risinger, R-Peoria; and Bill Brady, R-Bloomington -- are calling on Senate President Emil Jones to convene a rare committee-of-the-whole meeting to deal with skyrocketing electric rates. 

The downstate Senate Republicans' request comes on the heels of the Illinois House planning the same session for Tuesday. In calling the session, the House will devote time to developing a consumer-relief plan.

"I was pleased to see that the entirety of the House will meet to deal with this issue," Jones said. "If the Senate is able to meet in the same way, then we can finally bring the much-needed relief that the electric consumers of downstate Illinois are asking for."

"Enough is enough," Brady said. "It's time for the two chambers and the governor to come together. The lack of leadership in Springfield is hurting real people and families. We really need to call a special session, but convening a committee of the whole would be a good first step."

The lawmakers said committee-of-the-whole sessions are not called very often, but if this meeting occurs, then all of the members of the Senate will be able to devote attention to skyrocketing electric rates.

"My office has been flooded with calls from citizens shocked at the huge increases in their electric bills," Risinger said. "And this is a statewide problem. As the ranking Republican on the Senate Energy and Environment Committee, I attended a public meeting in East St. Louis earlier this week and heard more personal stories about extremely high electric bills. We need to address this issue and get relief to consumers."

"This may be the next best thing to getting the governor to call a special session, and we hope that the House will send us a bill that we can vote on soon. However, we still need the governor to show some leadership on this issue," Jones concluded.

[Text from news release received from Illinois Senate Republican staff]