Treasurer's Office, March 15-26

The last two weeks in Springfield have been keeping me busy. March 29th marked the beginning of a two week spring break for the General Assembly so the two weeks prior to break were a bit hectic. Monday the 15th was fairly slow though, as the House was not due back in Springfield until Tuesday and the Senate was not beginning until the afternoon. Because I work almost exclusively with the House, I usually listen to the Senate (when the House is not in) but am not the staff member responsible for compiling the daily report so there was not much for me to do but listen.

Tuesday was busier, but not terribly exciting. Because the deadline to move bills out of committee has passed, committee hearings are much fewer in number- now held only to hear amendments to bills that had previously passed out- and session is much longer during the day. I spent most of my day listening to the House and determining what bills being discussed were of importance to our office and should be included in a report. Because St. Patricks day was Wednesday, both chambers adjourned early to allow for celebrating that night.

Wednesday was much of the same as Tuesday. The House was in session from 10-4 moving bills from 2nd to 3rd reading or passing them. While I enjoy listening to the debate I have realized how nice it was to have committee hearings throughout the day to break the day up. Wednesday was much of the same, as the House was again in session from 10-4. The Treasurer's office is working with the Attorney General's office on a piece of legislation to regualte debt settlement companies and it has proved to be somewhat controversial. Because we knew it would be more difficult to get the bill passed, our office divided up half the members of the House to lobby (the AG's office had the other half). The 11 or 12 representatives on my list were top priority for Thursday.

Because the House did not begin until 11 on Thursday, I wanted to make the most of the time prior to that to catch reps in their offices. Once they went on the floor I knew it would be a while before they were finished and it is often much harder to talk to reps once they leave the floor because many are often trying to leave for the day. I started early and did my best to find as many representatives as possible. About half of the people on my list were in their offices and I was able to speak with all of them. Most were very receptive to the legislation and a few even signed on as co-sponsors of the bill. One stated she needed more time to research and look into the issue, which is obviously understandable, but I hate not being able to get a good idea of which way they will vote. I worked right up until 11 talking to representatives, but then it was time for session to start and I needed to head back to my office to listen to debate.

The House was scheduled to begin at 9 on Friday so I came in early in an attempt to catch legislators in their offices prior to them going to the floor. I was unsuccessful though, as the ones I needed to speak with were not in their offices. Many of their secretaries stated that they would likely head straight to the floor upon arriving at the Capitol. The House debated until about 1 and the Capitol went from buzzing to quiet in a very short period of time.

Monday the 12th started slowly and remained uneventful until the House came into session at 3. It looked as though session would only last an hour or so because several committees had hearings scheduled at 4, but it wasn't long before my inbox filled with emails informing me that committee times had been pushed back and new hearings had also been scheduled. (There is a service in the capitol that staffers can sign up to receive email notifications when committees are scheduled, times are changed, additional bills are posted to the committee, etc. I did not have this service until a couple of weeks ago and now that I have it, it is extremely convenient.) I headed to a committee hearing at 5 to listen to a Senate bill that had passed out a week or two before. The bill would allow state universities to take out short term loans to fill the budget holes that are being created because the state is failing to make payments. The President of SIU testified asking that this legislation be passed. He listed some of the consequences of not being able to come up with the money to fulfill all of its payments and the situation for his university, like most around the state, sounds very dire. The bill passed out and multiple floor amendments have been added since then, placing restrictions on the borrowing, dictating how quickly the loans must be paid back, etc.


Most of Tuesday morning was spent in a House committee. The hearing lasted right up until 11 when the House began session. We had a number of bills we were monitoring that were sent to the committee. Session then lasted from 11-4 and I listened to the debate all day. Committee hearings began at 4 but our office was not concerned with any of the bills that were being discussed. I left the office at 5, which was probably a first for a day when one of the chambers was in session.


Wednesday was a big day for those in the Capitol and IL state government in general. What most are calling the biggest pension reform bill ever was passed in only a day, much to the surprise of many. However, I like most others, had no idea what was in store for the day so I went about my business as usual. I had meetings with two representatives in the morning to discuss our debt settlement legislation. I'll admit I had been putting off talking to these final two because I knew it was highly unlikely that they would support the legislation. While both were polite when talking to me, I was right in that they could not support it, each citing their own reasons. At least I had expected it and they were the only two that told me they could not vote for the legislation. After I finished my meetings I came back to the office to follow up on a few things before session began at 11. While I was in meetings, Sheleda had gone to the House pension committee to listen to an amendment that had been proposed and had gone straight to committee. It turns out this was the amendment that would spark pension reform for the state. The Senate had passed a bill in March of 2009 dealing with pensions, but the content of the bill did very little. The bill was then sent to the House but remained in the Rules committee until Speaker Madigan chose to use it for a pension overhall. The House amendment to the bill was what contained all of the changes and because it was introduced and sent to committee all within a few hours, no one had much time to even realize what the amendment would do. This caused a lot of problems for lobbyists for labor unions, as they did not have a chance to read the legislation, contact representatives, etc. Normally, there are posting requirments for legislation- a minimum of 24 hours (I believe) between a bill/amendment being introduced and going to committee, etc. All of these requirements were waived however to get the bill passed. As soon as the bill was read in the House, the Republicans immediately went to caucus, as most of the members really had no time to know what the bill did or hold any discussion. After they returned to the floor, the bill eventually passed out fairly easily considering that high profile of the bill. It did not take long to hear that the Senate had scheduled a committee to hear the bill and at 7:30 the bill was brought up on the Senate floor. Some discussion was held but again it passed out fairly quickly. I left the office around 8:30 after what was a long, but very exciting day in the capitol.

Thursday brought about much discussion of the new pension reforms that had swept through the General Assembly the day before. Labor unions were irate that all time requirments were forgotten and they did not have a fair chance to have their say. The media was either praising the legislation and the way its' passage was accomplished, writing that it really didn't make that many changes so there was no need to get so worked up, or criticizing the legislature for going along with the bill and the way it was passed. Regardless of what was all being said about the pension reforms, the House was still back in session early in the morning which meant I needed to listen to the debate. One of the first bills called was our office's debt settlement legislation. It was finally time to see if all of our hard work was going to pay off. Only one representative spoke against the bill and it passed out of the House will widespread support! 106-9-0 was the final vote count. Made for a good day in the office. The bill now goes to the Senate and we know we have a tough road ahead of us there. Then I listened to the House for the rest of the afternoon.

Fridays are usually very slow, but today was an exception as it was the deadline to have bills passed out of the House. If a legislator has worked hard on a piece of legislation that has not yet passed, today is the day they have to make it happen or the bill will be dead. The House debated until after 4, which is extremely late for them to be in on a Friday. Throughout the day it was apparent that members wanted to get moving home, as debates on bills got shorter and shorter and representatives began to leave the chamber. Once the House adjourned I was able to leave thanks to my boss, who declared that because we had worked overtime so much that week that we were able to leave a little early on Friday. A great way to end the week!