Lawmakers ask Senate president to convene committee of whole to
address excessive electric rates
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[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.
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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.
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![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/reference/ads/current/maple%20ridge%20lda%202007.jpg) |
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/reference/ads/current/free%20fabulous%20february%20lda%20020907.png) "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]
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