McHenry Times

Rep. Dan Ugaste (R-Geneva) is taking a wait-and-see attitude when assessing what impact he feels House rules recently installed under new Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch (D-Hillside) might have.

"I think they have the chance to make things a bit better, but there's still a lot to see," Ugaste told the McHenry times. "On the one hand, I can say it's definitely a good thing that committees can now meet at least remotely as opposed to not at all, but there [are] still questions about how many of these committees will operate."

Under new guidelines, the Rules Committee will now be required to refer all House bills "to a substantive committee" before the deadline for committees to act on them expires.

Ugaste said he's not exactly sure how lawmakers should interpret that.

"Will we actually be hearing more of these worthy proposals in committee, or will they just get buried in these subcommittees," he said. "In my view, many of these republican bills deserve to be heard, and the people that are proposing them are doing so for a reason; namely, they're what their constituents want to see."

After approximately four decades of Mike Madigan's (D-Chicago) rule, Ugaste said he was pleased to see Democrats enact a practice that limits the term of any individual serving as the speaker or minority leader to 10 years. However, he wishes the order would have gone further.

"The term-limit rule is nice, and that's definitely an area where we need change," he said. "But in all honesty, rules expire after two years. If you're truly serious about doing what needs to be done on that front, you have to make the change part of the state constitution. That way, it's something we don't have to worry about again."