Treasurer's Office- February 22-26

This week in the Treasurer's office was pretty run of the mill when comparing it to the experiences I have had so far. Both Monday and Friday were fairly slow (as days when the legislators are not here tend to be), but I managed to keep myself busy- Monday, double checking everything to make sure I am prepared for the week ahead and Friday doing everything to get ready for the next week. On Fridays our office goes through all of the committee hearings posted for the following week and determines what hearings we need to attend and what bills need to be watched. Mondays usually involve double checking what we did the previous Friday.

Tuesday was much busier as usual because the legislators were back in town. The House did not do much while in Session, but had multiple committee hearings after. I went to the House Agriculture and Conservation hearing hoping to hear a number of bills called. I was not disappointed, as a bill that our office is not directly concerned with but wanted to monitor because of controversy was called. The bill calls to reinstate the humane slaughtering of horses in Illinois. A bill that was passed in 2007 made this illegal. However, a lack of this option in Illinois has forced horse owners with horses that are "unwanted" (They are often old and are no longer able to serve any purpose, like riding) to now send horses to Mexico for this option instead. As the sponsor of the bill pointed out, putting a horse in a trailer for 40+ hours to make the trip to Mexico to face unknown conditions in a slaughterhouse is hardly more humane than having such a procedure done in Illinois. Unwillingly, I feel as though I became somewhat of an expert in the horse slaughtering business after listening to the long discussion. It wasn't an easy topic to listen to and it was almost a little hard to believe that such a topic was being discussed, but in the end I understood why the representative had proposed the bill. As did the other members as the bills passed unanimously out of committee.

Wednesday was another busy day (which I prefer any day over a slow one). Several committee hearings in the morning, followed by listening to the House in session at 12. After the House adjourned, Sheleda, Brittany and myself headed to the Stratton building (where almost all of the Representatives have offices) to speak with legislators about a bill that is an initiative of our office and was in committee the next week. Unfortunately with the craziness that afternoons often bring with multiple committee hearings, it was hard to track down many of the legislators. However, I left my card with secretaries or made appointments to speak with legislators before the hearing. I had to run to committee at 4 as well so I was not surprised at my lack of success tracking down legislators.

On Thursday I had to be in the office at 8 (normal start time is 9) for a committee hearing. The hearing actually started relatively on time, but none of the bills I was there to monitor would be called. Oh well. However, one of the representatives I failed to track down yesterday was in the committee, so after returning to my office I called his secretary to make sure he was available. I quickly ran to the Stratton to catch him before he went off to another committee and was lucky enough to speak with him. He is actually the representative of my home district so it was nice to make that connection. He also agreed to support the bill which makes my job that much easier! After I finished speaking with him, I ran to various other committees until the House began session at 11. A lot of bills were called while in session but none were of importance to our office or anything controversial so there was nothing really to report. One thing I did enjoy hearing however was a Representative speak to the House about how early they were adjouring (1:30- normal for a Thurday) so that the legislators could go home for the weekend. She cited the horrible fiscal crisis the state is in as one of many reasons the legislature should not be adjourning so early. While I doubt this will make any difference in the minds of most legislators, it was nice to hear the frustration of so many citizens vocalized on the floor.