The little-known Rules that control the legislative process in Illinois were voted on today in the Illinois House of Representatives. Adopting a set of procedural rules to govern the House for the next two years is one of the most important votes a legislator will cast.
The Rules for the 104th General Assembly were drafted by the Democrat supermajority with no input from the Republican minority. These Rules will govern the House of Representatives for the next two years. House Republicans did propose reasonable changes that would increase accountability and transparency, however the proposal was rejected by the supermajority.
More egregiously, the Rules are designed to give ultimate authority to the Speaker of the House instead of the legislative body. The new Rules, as in the past, gives the Speaker powers to define the number of committees and their legislative makeup. Because committee chairpersons receive an increase in pay, often large numbers of committees are created to ensure the greater number of chairpersons can owe their allegiance to the Speaker who makes the appointments.
State Representative Kevin Schmidt joined his House Republican colleagues in opposing the rules. “These rules adopted by House Democrats today ensure that the failed status quo will remain in place, said Rep. Schmidt. “The interests of the more than 4 million Illinoisans represented by House Republicans will suffer as a result of House Democrats passing these Rules. Instead of using this opportunity to return representative democracy to the people by allowing all bills to be assigned to a Committee and to receive a fair and open hearing. The Rules adopted by the House today do not accomplish that goal.”
Yet today, all members of the Democrat supermajority voted to implement the Rules that will cede their power to one man. After former Speaker Michael Madigan’s long reign of power was ended, Emanuel “Chris” Welch took over as Speaker. During his first inaugural address after taking the Speaker’s gavel, he said it was a “New Day” in Illinois.
Unfortunately, Speaker Welch went back on his promise to turn the page to a “New Day”, and the House Rules that Madigan put in place are the same Rules that the Illinois House is operating under today. It’s a classic case of, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”