Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch replaced long serving Mike Madigan as Illinois Speaker of the House in January. | Photo Courtesy of Emanuel Chris Welch
Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch replaced long serving Mike Madigan as Illinois Speaker of the House in January. | Photo Courtesy of Emanuel Chris Welch
Illinois House Republicans are claiming that GOP-backed legislation is being held up by Democrats who currently hold supermajorities in the Illinois General Assembly.
When the Illinois House voted Emanuel "Chris" Welch (D-Hillside) as House speaker in January to replace ex-Rep. Mike Madigan, Republican lawmakers were hopeful that a new age of bipartisan collaboration would soon follow. But so far, that has not come to be.
"Out of 697 passed out of House Committees this spring, 82% of the bills were sponsored by Democrats," Illinois State Rep. Dan Ugaste (R-St. Charles) said in an April 19 Facebook post linking to an NPR article. "None of those bills include substantive reforms — like property tax reform or ethics reform, which we need to move our state forward."
Following the election of the new speaker, the Illinois House adopted rule changes for the spring legislative session, but GOP members said that more reform is needed to ensure fairness between the two parties, according to NPR Illinois.
State Rep. David Welter (R-Morris) said that proposals including legislation that would ban state lawmakers from serving as lobbyists (HB 3396) and allow for citizen-led recall petitions (HJRCA 4) had been unfairly delayed in committee.
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