It has been quite a while since my last post and it is definitely time to give an update on what has been happening here in Springfield. The first week in May marked the scheduled end of session and as a new-comer to Springfield, I did not know exactly what this would all entail. But I knew I would be busy- and I was very right. So now that I am less busy I have some time to write what is sure to be a long post.
Monday, April 26th was an uneventual day in the Capitol. Everyone was gearing up for what would likely be a busy week as the General Assembly prepared for adjournment in the upcoming weeks. The House would be in session starting at noon on Tuesday, with a committee hearing scheduled for 9 am. It was a little unusual to have a committee hearing scheduled before session on the first day legislators were in town for the week, but regardless, I volunteered to go.
Therefore, on Tuesday I was sitting in the House Judiciary I committee bright and early at 9. Only one matter was before the committee and it was the possible constitutional amendment that would change the redistricting process that takes place within the state after every census. The amendment had already passed out of the Senate on a partisan vote and was now in the House. I knew this matter would likely take a while because it is a very controversial issue, but when I finally left the committee 4 hours later I felt I had learned enough about the redistricting process to be at least somewhat of an expert. Even though it was the longest committee I had ever sat through by far, it was interesting at least. Debate became very heated at times, both from legislators and witnesses. Although session was scheduled to start at 12, the hearing was no where near finished by that time and the start time was pushed back until 1:15. After the proposed amendment (which was a Democratic initiative, FYI) was debated for over three hours, the Republican House leader came to the committee to present the GOP's version of a redistricting amendment. The chances of the Republican initiative making it out of committee was essentially none, but I am assuming their idea was presented to be sure they at least had their voices heard and to vocalize their discontent with the Democratic idea. After the Republican initiative was debate for over an hour, the committee chairperson finally halted debate and took a role call. The Republican initiative failed and the Democratic initiative passed, both votes going according to party lines. Whew! Finally time to return to the office.
The rest of Tuesday involved more listening to debate from the House floor. When bills were being debate that were not central to the Treasurer's Office, I wrote up an extensive report on each of the redistricting proposals that had come before the committee. Again, I felt I could at least be somewhat of an expert now! When session ended at 5, several committees had hearings scheduled so I attended one of those and was out of the office relatively early that night.
Thankfully Wednesday did not start off with a four hour committee hearing. The House had several committees before session, but it was nothing exciting. Session then went from 11-3:45 which made for a somewhat long day sitting at my desk and listening to debate. I assumed committees would decide to hold hearings after session, but they did not and I left the office a little before 5. That was the earliest I have ever left on a day when the GA was in session for sure.
Session on Thursday, the 29th began a little earlier than expected, at 10. Bills were debated all day. The biggest one of note was the redistricting amendment that I had learned so much on in committee. After approximately 2 hours of debate, the amendment failed on the House floor, with some Democrats even voting against it. After all that debate, I was a little surprised to see it fail!!
Friday saw more debate in both the House and the Senate, but it wasn't anything terribly exciting. Both chambers wrapped up in the afternoon. There was a definite tone to the day that said "go home this weekend and prepare for a long weekend ahead".
Monday, May 3rd brought a lot of speculation as to what the coming week would bring. Would the GA finish by Friday? Or should we plan to be here over the weekend? And how late would we be staying every night? It was definitely a busy week and most of those questions would not be answered until late Friday.
Both chambers began session at noon. House committeess started at 3 so I attended the Financial Institutions committee (I learned a lot about how interest is calculated on loans made to businesses and corporations- probably more than I really wanted to know but oh well).
Tuesday morning started out pretty slowly. There were several committee hearings before the House began at noon but the items in the committees were nothing that our office cared about- at least we thought anyway. When the GA is attempting to adjourn, often things are done very quickly and without much notice. Ordinarily, when an amendment is filed to a bill, it cannot be heard before a committee for 24 hours. However, this type of deadline is waived when the GA is trying to finish for the summer. An amendment was filed Tuesday morning, heard in committee and passed out all before 10 AM. This type of action makes for very hectic days. Fortunately it was an amendment that our office definitely wanted to pay attention to, but it was not something that directly affected our office. I had even checked what amendments had been filed within 15 minutes of arriving at work that day (anticipating this sort of quick movement) and it was not on the computer system yet. I checked back 45 minutes later and it was there, but had already been passed by that time.
I listened to the House for the remainder of the day and they adjourned, somewhat to my surprise, around 4:45. The Senate had committee hearings and session until 7.
Wednesday morning proved to be somewhat of a repeat of Tuesday morning, as an amendment was filed, heard in committee, and passed all before 10. This one dealt with the state's payment to pension plans, which is a huge topic in Illinois government right now. The amendment (which erased the contents of the previous bill, or "shelled" it, and inserted completely new contents and became the bill once it was adopted) provided that the State borrow money to pay for the pension system payments the state is required to make. Because the State is in such a poor financial situation at the moment, the only two options for funding pensions is to either borrow to make the payments or skip making payments completely.
Amendments containing big pieces of legislation continued to come out all day and I felt like I was constantly sending out emails to alert our office of what legislation was moving. On the floor, one very controversial bill was discussed for well over 2 hours. The bill would have allowed parents of the children in the Chicago Public School system to use vouchers from the State to send their children to private schools. Listening to the debate was very interesting. This was easily the most divisive bill I have heard thus far. Legislators from Chicago were either wholly for it or extremely against it. Both Democrats and Republicans stood up and spoke in favor of and against the bill. In the end, the bill failed by almost 15 votes.
Thursday was the longest and busiest day of my internship thus far. I checked what amendments had been filed all day and it seemed there was always something new and of major substance happening. I was again sending out emails to get feedback on the amendments and to see if any impacted our office in a negative way. One the House floor, several big items related to the budget were discussed and surprisingly most of them failed.
The House recessed at 5 to go to committees and came back to the floor around 7. They then debated a bill to reform policies of the McCormick Convention Center in Chicago that had been recieving a lot of press lately. The debate lasted for a little whle, but surprisingly the bill passed out very easily. The House then adjourned for the evening around 9.
The Senate was a different story. An appropriations committee scheduled a hearing for 9 to discuss the amendments that would make up the State's budget for FY 2011. The Senators came back to the floor around 10:30, only to have the Republicans go into caucus immediately. Debate finally began on the bill around 11:30 and lasted until after 1. All of the amendments passed out on partisan lines (with a few exceptions) but the debate still lasted for a long while. I left the office around 1:15 AM after a very long day.
The start of the workday on Friday came much quicker than I would have liked after being at work so late on Thursday. The House went into session at 9:30 and passed out one bill but then went in caucus. Rumor was the Democrats did not have enough votes to pass the same budget that the Senate had passed out the night before. Governor Quinn even came into the Democratic caucus to try to get more members to vote for the bill. In the end, the bill was never called in the House. Speaker Madigan said that the GA will be returning at some indefinite point in the future to finish the budget and other things that were not finished prior to them leaving on Friday. I was shocked to find myself leaving the Capitol at 7 that night, when I had originally assumed that I would be there very late Friday and possibly Saturday.
There was a lot left unfinished so it will be interesting to see what happens in the coming weeks!
Sorry for such a long post!
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