Illinois House Floor Debate — January 24, 2017

"Mr. Speaker, please let the record reflect that all Republicans are present today."

"A point of personal privilege, please."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As many of you know, Representative Jimenez and I are very proud to represent the capital city. We're going to start showcasing some of our fine businesses in Springfield. So, tomorrow morning feel free to join us in our offices in the Stratton Building in E- 1, Stratton for a free cup of coffee on Representative Jimenez and I from Custom Cup Coffee, a great coffee shop in downtown Springfield. Feel free to stop by from 8 to 10 and meet the folks from Custom Cup. Thank you." 10000006.docx 2  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017

"Point of personal privilege, please."

"I'd like to introduce my Page for the day. A senior at Quincy High School and soon to become an Eagle Scout, Jake Terry. Jake, would you stand up and wave. …Jake. And Jake's mother, Jan, sitting up in the balcony. Thank you for being here."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A point of personal privilege."

"I think this is a very important point, if I could have the Body's attention for just a quick second. You may have noticed that there is a new person in the Floor Leader chair, Representative Steve Andersson. I think in his first term, everybody realized that he is reasonable and logical. He debates things on the issues. He doesn’t jump to conclusions and he does a good job of being calm and helping others around him be calm, including myself. So, I think we can look to… I look forward to the Leadership as Floor Leader from Representative Andersson and I hope we have a Session that where we have some solutions after we have some good, logical, reasonable, spirited debate. Good luck, Steve."

"Well, I'll let people judge that for themselves, but all I would like to say other than thank you to Representative 10000006.docx 3  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017 Batinick for saying that is to remind the Body that there is far more that unites us than divides us. We agree on much more than we disagree on. So, I agree, let's have a full and fair debate and I look forward to working with every one of you. So, thank you."

"Yes, Sir, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Point of personal privilege."

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, if I could have your attention for just a moment. I'd like to introduce you to some special guests with us today that’s in the Speaker's Gallery. First, we have our Director of the Illinois State Police, Leo Schmitz. Leo, if you'd stand please with members of his staff and very special Illinois State Troopers. And the special guest of honor today is 8-year-old Hunter Hillman of Bloomington, who is accompanied by his mother, Megan Hillman, and his big sister, Ryan Sale. I'm also joined in our acknowledgment of Hunter and the Illinois State Police by Representative Keith Sommer, whose district Hunter lives in. And now for a brief little part of Hunter's story. Recently, as a second grader at Trinity Lutheran School in Bloomington, Hunter spent lunchtime eating by himself because Hunter was perceived by other children to be different. You see, Hunter has Autism, and being on the spectrum, he has challenges with his social skills and interacting with students. Hunter did not want to tell his mom about this daily problem because as Hunter said, I knew my mom would be sad. So Hunter's teacher 10000006.docx 4  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017 concerned about the situation informed his mom, Megan, at a parent-teacher conference. After learning and agonizing over this problem, Megan called a friend for support and advice on what to do. That friend was Jill Riesenberg, who's also with us today and their children, Mark and Kelsey. Jill shared the story… Jill shared the story with her husband, Captain Steve Riesenberg of the Illinois State Police. And in Captain Riesenberg's words, I felt motivated to go help and make this day a little brighter for Hunter. One day, Hunter came into the cafeteria at school to find a seat saved for him by three uniformed State Troopers. Their picture is here in our local paper. All who are with us today, as I said, Captain Steve Risenberg and Troopers Matt Frizzell and Chris Parmley, who on their own time, ate lunch with Hunter. The Troopers… the Troopers enjoyed packed lunches by Hunter's mom, Megan, which met the same dietary restrictions as Hunter's due to his severe allergies. Hunter's popularity soared with other children who wanted to join Hunter and his visitors for lunch. The visit even carried over to the playground after lunch where all enjoyed playing tag and playing on the playground together. This story is very personal for me for I, too, have a son, Tom, who has Autism and faces similar challenges such as Hunter. As Hunter's mother, Megan, said, I hope this encourages others to include children that might otherwise be excluded. She is forever grateful and moved by the Troopers taking the time for Hunter on their day off. In a time of hearing such… so much negative about law enforcement, these gentlemen have asked for no public acknowledgement, but they deserve every expression of appreciation that could be 10000006.docx 5  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017 bestowed upon them. It's simply the right thing to do. That’s why prior to coming to the Speaker's Gallery today, of which we thank Speaker Madigan for allowing our guests here today in the gallery, Governor Rauner also met with and expressed his appreciation for the act of kindness as well. And maybe the best part is that Hunter has been joined by more children at lunchtime at school. Please help me in recognizing and saying thank you to all these very special people from all of us here at the Illinois House of Representatives."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Republicans request an immediate caucus."

"One hour."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"

"Just an initial question with regard to the Amendment that was just adopted. Can you explain what the Amendment did?"

"So it corrected the discussion that we had yesterday in Rules. Is that correct?" 10000006.docx 10  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017

"Very good. And what's the case with the exception regarding Leadership?"

"Okay. So that…"

"Correct. But the previous exception that existed in the 99th Rules with regard to persons receiving a Leadership stipend, that’s been removed. Is that correct?"

"Thank you. I would agree with you, by the way, Leader, that the Rules are substantially the same at this point. There is one Rule that I’d ask a question about and that’s the Constitutional Amendment Rule. I think its Rule 46."

"Can you explain what the intent… what is that change and what the intent is?"

"And notwithstanding this deletion, there are still Rules governing that time frame within the Constitution itself, correct?"

"Okay, very good. So, if we agree that the Rules are substantially the same, I think I'd like to focus a few questions, if I might, with regard to the existing Rules and whether or not we can make these better, whether or not they can function in a way that serves all the Members that we… or all the people that we, Members, serve. If we could look at that a bit, talking about the Rules Committee. You and I had a good discussion yesterday about the Rules Committee and whether it's procedural or substantive in nature. What's your opinion about that?"

"And in fact, though, it does make substantive decisions, does it not?"

"Right."

"And I think we discussed yesterday that about 1200 Bills did not get assigned last year."

"I think that if you took a survey of the Members on my side of the aisle, they might respectfully disagree with the characterization that only the routine shell Bills, etcetera, didn’t make it out."

"Rest assured, Leader, I don’t engage in alternative facts or lies, as they might alternatively be known. If we can get back to this, though. With respect, I think that there is a filter that’s applied at the Rules Committee level and Bills that some people deem inappropriate never make it out. And I understand you don’t accept that premise, but bearing that in mind, that concern, one of the concerns we have is 10000006.docx 13  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017 the time frame, the public notice that’s required for the Rules Committee. Can you tell me what the public notice requirement is for the Rules Committee?"

"Real…"

"But you still didn’t quite answer the question. What is the notice requirement?"

"And you said that the… that what will be addressed is posted. Now, I will tell you…"

"That I had the pleasure to serve on the Rules Committee about four times. Once, most recently in January, January 9, I think it was. As I was driving into Chicago to attend that meeting, I looked online to see what was posted. Nothing was posted, nothing. And then, I looked at our Rules. And our Rules provide something very unique. Our Rules provide that everything is considered posted."

"So, at the moment on January 9 there were 7 thousand Bills that were posted. So, are you…"

"So… are you taking the position that adequate public notice is to list 7 thousand Bills?"

"Agreed. This was in the 99th. And so, there were 7 thousand Bills at that point that were available and your claim is that it's reasonable to say that… look through those and guess which one we're going to deal with?"

"So, I guess my point is with… whether it's 7000, 3000, 1000, the idea that the public would be interested in knowing what you're considering, how can they possibly know?"

"Well, I don’t disagree with you on that. I do agree with you on that, but the concern there lies in the speed at which things can happen. Let's talk about the last time…"

"…we… we worked on a budget Bill. That Bill was dropped as an Amendment and within one hour, I think it was a 500 page bill, it spent many billions of dollars, we were voting on it within two hours. How is that fair public notice to anyone who wants to be involved?"

"I appreciate your opinion on that. If we move instead to the scenario where a large number of the Members of this Body disagree with the decision of the Rules Committee, what's the method for discharge?"

"And it's an enormous requirement, wouldn’t you say? That’s 72 people."

"But it needs… it takes more people to override or to discharge from Rules than it does to override a Veto. That’s pretty significant."

"What about this requirement that they sign on to the Bill? What if someone has… what if someone sincerely disagrees 10000006.docx 17  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017 with the Bill, but at the same time feels the Bill should be heard and debated?"

"What is the point of that? Why do we do that? Why should someone indicate their support for a Bill by signing on to it simply then moments later be deleted?"

"So, the last area I'd like to cover, if I could, is with regard to the daily Calendar. We talked about this a bit yesterday as well. At present, as we move forward, today is not the case, but as we move forward into the Session, there can be hundreds of Bills that could be ready to be voted on. Is that correct?"

"Yes, in April or May. Yes. So, at that point… now, I don’t know about your side of the aisle, but on our side of the aisle, we don’t know what's coming. So, as much as… as much as we appreciate it being fast on our feet and having done our homework, which we do, I think would it not be more appropriate that there be some notice of the Bills that are actually going to be called, even the day before, so that our Members could study those Bills?"

"And by the way, I do appreciate that there are times in our Session where we do exactly that and I think that it works well and it honestly gives people a little bit of notice. But I'm not talking about how it can be done, I'm talking about how it should be done. And I'll tell ya, I come out of local government, and in local government there is a 48-hour notice for everything that’s going to be on the agenda, it has to be posted and it can't be everything. In fact, there's Attorney General opinions that speak directly to that point. My point here is, even though our Members could do as you suggest and move around the chamber and figure out what's happening, is that really the best way to do it? Wouldn't it be better if simply the day before, a real Calendar's put out saying these are the 10 or 20 Bills that we're likely to consider? You could even have that Rule and then suspend it in emergency. But wouldn’t it be more appropriate to all of us, both sides, to be able to have advanced notice so that we can really drill down and not have 10000006.docx 19  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017 700 Bills or 100 Bills, but we have just a few bills to consider on a given day?"

"I thank you for that. I'll speak to the Resolution, briefly. Folks, we all have the honor of serving here and I believe that everyone in this chamber is here for the right reason, and they want a full and fair debate. And the question is, do these Rules actually generate that full and fair debate? I think of it kind of like the old metaphor of a frog in a cooking pot, right? You put the frog in while the water's cold, then you turn up the heat. He never notices and he never jumps out and he dies, he gets cooked. But if you turn that thing to boiling and then throw the frog in, well, of course, he jumps out. I'll tell you, speaking as having been here now for two years, I think we're more inclined to just be used to this, to be comfortable with something that’s unjust. And quite frankly, I think these Rules are unjust. They're not as proportionate as the Sponsor would indicate. And I would actually look to the freshmen who haven’t had the pleasure of working under these Rules and say, does this sound right to 10000006.docx 20  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017 you? Does this sound like a fair way to do it? Or could we do it in a better way? I mean, think about it. Think about what I said. Local government has a 48-hour requirement and a specific agenda requirement, but we don’t. There's a thing in Illinois, a district called a Mosquito Abatement District. Mosquito Abatement District deals with abating mosquitos. They have a 48-hour notice requirement. Literally, mosquitos in the State of Illinois have more due process than the Members of this chamber. I'm sorry, that’s not right. Moreover, as I mentioned before, let's say we're not happy with the Rules Committee and we want to discharge something. It takes 72 votes, not 71, 72. So, it is harder to discharge something from Rules than it is to override a gubernatorial Veto. Imagine that. It is harder to disagree with the Speaker and the Members of Rules than it is to disagree and overrule the Governor. I ask this of all of you, I really do, I heard a lot of positive comments about our process in the intervening time while we were gone. I heard a Member speak, actually during inauguration, talking about the fact that four people are not enough to get the job done. That we should be more transparent, that we should be more inclusive in the process. I agree with that statement. These Rules are what hold us back, to make it more positive, to make it more open. I had another colleague, and by the way, the people I'm quoting are all Democrats. I had another colleague who said that she felt that she wanted to push the Speaker towards more thoughtful solutions along with a more open process to allow more ideas to come to the floor. I agree with that concept. These Rules don’t do that. And one more that said 10000006.docx 21  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017 that they think that the Rules are more restrictive than any other Legislature in the country and they create a lot of control in the Speaker. I agree with that. I'd like to bring that control back to us. So, I ask you, respectively, you don’t have to agree with our Rules, but how about we tweak these? How bout we improve these along some of the lines I just talked about, and not leave it simply that, well, we've always done it that way. We've always done it that way. That’s never been an excuse that carries any weight for me. Instead, let's look at them afresh, let's be that frog outside of the pot, and let's figure out do these Rules really make sense or can we make them better? I think we can make them better. So, I'd ask you to vote 'no' on these, so that we can work on making them better. Thank you, Mr. Speaker."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"

"Leader Currie, I appreciate the conversation we had in the Rules Committee yesterday. I would like to bring up one issue that we didn’t get a chance to talk about yesterday. I didn’t notice that it was in the Rules. This has to do with Rule 66 that is a Motion to adjourn to a time certain. There's a change there… a change that removes the ability for any Member of the House to make a Motion to adjourn to a date that’s not been scheduled by the Speaker. And the reason I ask about this, I think that’s a peculiar change for the House to make. When you look at the motion to adjourn to a date certain, there's a great description of it in Robert's Rules of Order. It says it's a privileged Motion that takes 10000006.docx 22  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017 precedence over all others and is in order even after it's been voted on to adjourn. Why have these House Rules taken the ability for a Member… taken away the ability for a Member to make the most privileged of all Motions?"

"A technical change that removes the ability of any Member of this Assembly with the exception of the Speaker, removes their ability for anybody in this chamber, to make a Motion to Adjourn to a date certain."

"But not as this Motion would be subject to a vote?"

"Was this decision to make this rule change motivated by anything in particular?"

"Thank you, Leader Currie. To the Resolution. Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, I think it's important that we consider the merits of the Rules that are being proposed today. And the important thing to remember is that unlike the election for Speaker, this is not a binary choice. We don’t have one choice on the Democratic side and one choice on the Republican side. The Rules of the House are complex and comprehensive and allow for Amendments of all sorts. Allow for Amendments that would make your Bill have a better chance of passage in this chamber. A Bill that if you have an idea for a budget that could end this impasse, if you have an idea for a reform that you think this state needs, if you have an idea for a great law that you think the people of Illinois deserve, these Rules make it harder for you to bring that Bill to a vote. Think of it this way. If you have a great idea on a budget, it's harder to get that to pass the Rules Committee than it would be to get it to pass the House Floor. It's harder to get that Bill to pass from the Rules Committee than it is to pass on the House Floor. You have a few people who control the agenda of the Rules Committee. Your Bill may never even receive a vote. It's harder for it to happen there. So, instead of welcoming new ideas, instead of welcoming competing thoughts, we're instead putting a roadblock at step one of the process. Before we can even get that momentum going, before we can even start to take those steps, we're putting the roadblock at the very front of the line. I think there's an interesting thought that we should all… all should have in mind when we consider how to vote on these Rules, and it's from a political author by the name of John Rawls. And 10000006.docx 24  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017 it asks the question, when you're debating and find a question of public policy, ask yourself how you would vote if you did not know which side you'd be on in the outcome. If you were sitting in this chair today and you didn’t know if you would be in the Majority Party or the Minority Party, if you didn’t know which side of the aisle you'd be on, if you didn’t know whether you'd benefit from all the protections and privileges that this… that these Rules put into place, would you vote for them? Would you vote 'yes' today if there was a chance you could be in the Minority Party? I think most of us would honestly answer 'no' to that. We know that on the whole these Rules are not conducive to bipartisan government. Let's take the chance that we have with a debate like the House Rules debate. Let's take that chance and make those a little bit better to make your constituents voices heard a little bit more. Let's take that chance today, vote 'no' on these Rules. Let's get back together and find something that works for everybody. Thank you."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Sponsor yield?"

"Leader Currie, as we debate the Rules that we are going to be operating under for the historic 100th General Assembly, is it fair to say we kind of have this unique place in time over the next few minutes, hour or so, or however long the debate takes, and say we don’t really have any Rules in place right now?"

"I thank you because I was going to start eating my sandwich while the Rules were not in place and telling the Clerk that there's a cleanup on aisle two. I'm glad you clarified that. Thank you. You know… to the Bill. We have a lot of new dynamics in our vernacular nowadays. It's #alternativefacts, is one I find interesting. I posted something under #alternativefacts that reads, the Rules of the Illinois House of Representatives that will be passed on Tuesday are fair and not oppressive as they will allow the voices of my constituents to be heard. And then I followed that with #alternativefacts because the fact of the matter is nothing can be farther from the truth. I went against my own self-imposed rule of limiting Facebook posts to my children and my wonderful grandchildren and the puppy next door. On Saturday morning, as many in this chamber and around our state and around our nation exercise their constitutional right to peacefully assemble and protest, I'm going to read that post, an open challenge from my brethren in the Illinois General Assembly who are exercising their constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and protest today, which would have been Saturday morning. Will you stand with me when every single one of my constituents is silenced once again on Tuesday, when the most oppressive House Rules in the nation are established effectively writing 'We the people' out of the Illinois Constitution? Stand with me. Every thinking person in our state knows this is wrong and an end run around democracy and all voices being heard. I am confident that I can count on each and every elected official exercising their right today to continue that momentum and stand up against the blatant oppression that will be 10000006.docx 26  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017 facilitated on the House Floor on Tuesday. Even the process by which we got here is questionable. The hearing is in front of the Rules Committee. It has been talked about earlier that the Rules Committee in and of itself is a highly questionable dynamic. These… the original Rules went to the Rules Committee that was posted for a subject matter only hearing at 3:30 yesterday afternoon. Yet, when our members arrived at 3:35, five minutes after the meeting posted for subject matter hearing only started, said, oh no, here are the rules. No notice, no ability to review the Rules and oh, by the way, it's no longer a subject matter hearing. We will be voting here and now. How ironic that Rules that are the most oppressive in the United States of America would be adopted in committee that was posted for subject matter only hearing, and then you change the Rules on that to even contemplate the rules. I mean, that is straight out of Dilbert comic strip. I hear periodically in this chamber, well, these Rules are just building on the rules that Lee Daniels had 20 years ago, Rules that weren’t fair to the Minority party in those 2 years. And I would say to that, the 'he cheated too' argument is as weak today as it was when your mother saw through it when we were children. And the truth of the matter is, you cannot have a dynamic where you are silencing the voice of 5.5 million people. The Minority in this state represent 5.5 million people. That’s more people than many states in our union and we certainly should have the right to have those voices heard. You know, wrong is always wrong, it really is. And the dynamic that you can have different values on Saturday morning than you do on Tuesday afternoon is pretty 10000006.docx 27  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017 questionable. This should be a soul searching moment for anyone who exercise their constitutional rights to say voices should not be silenced, they should be heard, they should be heard in a peaceful demonstration. How on earth could you arrive here three short days later and hit the green button knowing that every constituent that I represent will be muffled? Every teacher, every laborer, every firefighter, police officer, office worker, everyone who's a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent, everyone who really has fed up with the process, and that number's growing, they will have no legislative voice. To my constituents who are listening at this moment, I apologize to you. I apologize to you that this august chamber is about to enter into Rules that silence your voice. You know, I'm going to give you a couple of examples of how petty and small this can be. I had a Bill last year that was a follow up Bill in relation to how we treat property taxes after a tornado. Representative Phelps had an area devastated by a tornado and he brought legislation that would make people whole on their property taxes. I followed that Bill giving the same kind of courtesies to small businesses and there were a couple of tweaks. This is a Bill that came over from the Senate unanimously, a Democrat Senator passed it in the Senate, my Senator from the other side of the aisle. A Bill that almost certainly would have passed out of here 118 to 0, could never get the Bill discharged. When I tell school children, and I've taken to doing this, you know, we like to think a Bill happens in the School House Rock kind of version, I am a Bill, I'm only a Bill sitting on top of Capitol Hill, we all know the song, but I have to now follow 10000006.docx 28  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017 that up with here's how it really works. When I stood on the floor of the House of Representatives under the photograph of the portrait of Abraham Lincoln and said, can I get my Bill discharged from the Rules Committee? One person, in the singular, can stand up and say, I object to that Motion and it stays in the Rules Committee. It wouldn’t matter if I had 10, 15, 50 cosponsors, it remains in Rules. That’s outrageous. You know, my community… my district is actually closer to Indianapolis than it is to Springfield. And I have to tell you, if this is how we're going to do business on this floor, I may lead kids over to the Indiana Capitol to say here's where democracy happens 'cause it damn sure doesn’t happen in Springfield. The Rules Committee is not even open to the public. There's no press, there's not a single constituent there. No other state in this union has rules that are this oppressive. Truly ironic, the Rules across the hall in the Senate and the way they are administered, fundamentally different, fundamentally different. My colleagues who have served in this Body who have gone over to the Senate said, wow, you know, I may still be in a Super Minority, but I can get my Bill called. I can have the wonderful constituents over to sit in a hearing and have their voices heard. That’s what democracy looks like; that's what it looks like. You win some, you lose some on the vote, but there should be a discussion. There should be a vote. Mr. Speaker, should this Bill receive the prerequisite number of votes for passage, I'd like to request a moment of silence on behalf of my constituents to mourn the death of democracy as it relates to their access to the legislative process." 10000006.docx 29  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017

"Thank you for letting… allowing me to follow that wonderful speech. I'm going to go directly… I'm going to go directly to the Resolution. And since somebody brought up alternative facts, you know, we were told that the Rules treat members of the public fairly. The reason I know that’s an alternative fact because Members of both sides of the aisle have said that both publically and privately. You know these Rules aren’t fair to the Members of the public and us. You know they're not fair to you. I'm going to correct one thing the fine Representative just said. He said these Rules affect 5.5 million people, no they don’t. They affect 11, 12 million people because you're being oppressed by it too. Your ability to get your Bill called to the floor is being oppressed too. Let’s think about an actual Bill in my situation. We have a company in my district, I talked about it previously, there's pass-through money sitting in the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Pass-through money sitting in a bank account for work that that company and several companies including some downstate, in the former Representative Bradley's district, that did work over a year and half ago. Pass-through money that’s being used as a political football. We have families that are employed by these businesses that did good work for the state of Illinois and we can't get them paid as rank and file Members because of the games that are played with the Rules Committee. This is our opportunity. This will be the foreshadowing of the next two years. Are we, as Representatives, going to allow the State of Illinois to continue its self-destruction which this Body, under… people 10000006.docx 30  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017 under this dome as the main cause are we going to stand up and say no, work together on a more fair legislative process as both you and I know needs to happen? I cringe to what's going to happen if this goes off on a partisan Roll Call in Illinois the next two years. We've seen enough carnage. Please vote against these. Thank you."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, to the Bill. We sit here and we debate these Rules, but these aren’t House Rules. These are Mike Madigan's Rules. That’s whose Rules they are because all he's doing is trying to get… assure a political outcome. He's not interested in real democracy. He controls absolutely everything that goes on in this chamber and everybody knows it. So, to sit on the other side and pretend like anything that we're doing here is fair is completely ridiculous. In fact, you can argue that we have such concentrated control in the Speaker of the House of Illinois that is unheard of in any other Legislative Body in the entire United States. And that’s the truth. And how does he do this? Well, let's talk specifically about the committees 'cause everybody else has covered a lot of the other stuff and the way that that’s done is by doling out $10 thousand stipends to chair people. Because he controls exactly who's going to sit in what committee and who's going to be the chairperson. And the taxpayers are getting ripped off by these $10 thousand stipends for committee work. Let's put in this perspective. In 2015, 9 of those committees met five times or less. In 2016, 15 committees met five times or less. In fact, in 2016, when you look across the data, the average amount of time 10000006.docx 31  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017 that the committees met, and there are 49, was four times. That means those committee chairs made $2500 per committee meeting. What a waste of taxpayer dollars. 'Cause when the Bills come out, they go to the committee that the Speaker wants the Bill to go to. They don’t even go to a committee that would make sense for the topic area. This happens time and time again. So, when he got mad at former Representative Dunkin, as you can easily see, the Appropriations for Higher Education Committee never met again. All those Bills went to the other Higher Education Committee 'cause that’s how the control works here. Nothing makes sense, it's all the Speaker's Rules. That’s whose Rules these are that you're voting on. They're not the House Rules. I bet you most House Members don’t agree with most of these Rules. So, I mean, let's just be clear here. We're wasting a lot of money. We've got new Insurance Committees this year. In fact, we've got two Insurance Committees now. Why? What a waste of money, and we waste time too. So many Bills could be consolidated into single committees, work could get done, but we don’t do that. We don’t do that. We don’t do anything efficiently here, it's all for political purpose. It's all to garner political control over people by handing out stipends. That’s what this is about."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Resolution. I agree with many of the previous speakers that this is one of the most important votes we will take over the next two years. And for a lot of us on both sides of the aisle, this is the first time we will get to weigh in on this important set of Rules 10000006.docx 32  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017 that will govern how we operate this Body over the next two years. I'd like to briefly speak to one Rule that is glaringly not in our Rules. So, a lot of the Rules that we are talking about are procedural in nature and our constituents and the public don’t generally know about them, but there is one that I have heard many times from my constituents and about… and it's about Amendments being germane to the underlying Bill. That’s not how they say it. They'll say why do we… why do they have extra stuff on the Bills? Why did they change this at the last second? And often I'll tell them a story about a Bill that I had that had to do with oil and gas posting requirements and it got changed to expunge records for cannabis or drug paraphernalia violations. This is the gut and replace. It's famous and it's wrong. The practice of removing language of a Bill and replacing it entirely in order to get around the three-day constitutional posting requirement is wrong. Every Bill that deserves a full hearing that we intend to be legislation. At least 46 states have Rules that require that Amendments be germane to the underlying Bill. It’s a commonsense rule to maintain the integrity of the contemplative legislative process and it promotes state… straightforward legislating and for the public to know our true intention. On the whole though, we often hear from Members in this chamber that we need active participation from Rank and file, Members on both sides of the aisle to fix the true challenges our state faces. I agree with that, but voting for these Rules will mean perpetuating a system that closes out new ideas, that shuts down all debate, that consolidates power at the top and leaves most of 10000006.docx 33  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017 our constituents without a voice in this process. Voting for these Rules shuts out the Minority Party and as has been mentioned, shuts out the voices of our five and half million constituents. Every Illinoisan deserves better and we can do better. We've presented a set of Rules that are better. We need a transparent, straightforward process that returns the power to individual Legislators. We can and should do better. And I urge all of my colleagues to please vote 'no'."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Bill. A few weeks ago we had a Member of ours retire; I'm sure many of you remember Representative Leitch. Before he left, he talked to many of us about how this place used to work. He had the opportunity to serve here for a very long time, almost three decades. And he would talk about a time when I could… when he could walk across the aisle to a friend on the other side and work on a Bill, come up with a compromise, find support, find a consensus together. That is long gone. This place has spent the last two decades… the last two decades killing democracy. The reality is democracy is almost dead in this state and if you vote for this, you are voting to put another nail in the coffin. A vote for this Bill means that you are going to vote to give every ability to represent your constituents to one person. And you're going to spend the next two years begging to be able to represent your constituents. That’s what's going to happen. Democracy in this state is broken. And I'd like to use a little statement for my friend, my former Representative David Leitch, what has happened in this state is a travesty."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Resolution. There are many leaders in this chamber of very noble causes. Minority rights, equality, to name but two, and I would just ask those that are passionate about those two to remember this vote. And are you being selective in your endeavors to further those noble causes, because an affirmative vote for this Resolution turns your foundation to sand. I would just like to close by saying a quote from Thomas Jefferson during his first inauguration. 'Bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will must be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression.' Do not go against your core values by voting 'yes' for these oppressive Rules. Vote 'no' and stand for your beliefs."

"Thank you. Will the Sponsor yield?"

"Thank you. Leader, what is it that the proponents of these Rules fear? Do you fear debate on ideas that are not yours? Do you fear that we might prevail on some ideas that aren't yours? Do you fear substantive debate?"

"Well, we know the Rules don’t promote transparency. We know the Rules don’t represent democracy. We know they don’t promote good government and we know this because the Rules haven’t solved any of the problems that the people of Illinois still have. To the Bill. We spend a lot of time here talking about the most vulnerable and yet we haven’t spent any time actually fixing their problems. The reason that we haven’t been able to solve the problems of Illinois are because of these Rules. These Rules suppress transparency; they suppress any attempt that representative democracy, good government, and diversity of ideas. We can do a lot better than that here, Representatives. Let's have some Rules that allow us to bring forth ideas from all of us. Together, the 118 of us, can solve the problems confronting the State of Illinois. Right now, we can only debate Bills that pass by three Members of the General Assembly because Rules don’t permit things to come out. How do I know this? Because my Bills don’t come out, people, and it's not… not the only one. So, let's have a situation. Let's have Rules where all 118 of us can work to 10000006.docx 36  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017 solve the problems of the people of Illinois. Vote 'no' on these Rules. And let's have some rules that actually support representative democracy and put the people of Illinois ahead of procedural rule."

"Thank you. I have a brief question and then a brief statement. Leader Currie, it's my understanding that Rule 18(g) was first adopted in 2011. Is that correct?"

"Mr. Hoffman, you're a very attractive man, but could you please sit down? You're blocking my view."

"And have you been the Chairman of the Rules Committee since 2011?"

"Can you cite one particular piece of legislation that has been discharged from the Rules Committee by using Rule 18(g)?"

"Because it's an impossibility. We know that."

"I've been around this chamber for some time and it is an impossibility and was set up for failure. Now, last week on the floor… when at the inauguration, I made a statement about both Parties need to respect the priorities of each other. We can accomplish things; we can get things done if we respect 10000006.docx 37  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017 the priorities of the other side. To me and my Caucus, our priority is to be given a fair hearing on legislation that impacts their districts, the 55… 5.5 million that we represent. I don't think that’s unreasonable to ask. Unfortunately, 118(g) (sic-18(g)), the way that it is under the Rules Committee under 118(g) (sic-18(g)) will not accomplish that. It's really unfortunate because there is a better way of going about this. I've introduced my own Rules, HR57, which is our version of how the House should conduct its business. We allow for every Member to have a fair shot to get their Bill posted and be discharged from the Rules Committee, if they don’t like the way the Rules Committee is acting or if they're moving too slow. We allow discharge from the Rules Committee with just 71 votes and will also guarantee consideration of Bills or Resolution before the full House. These Rules also, get this… how about this… require public review period on budget Bills. No Bill that provides for an appropriation of the State Treasury can be considered for passage by the House until the third calendar day following the day the Bill was last amended in the House. Why not give a little sunshine to our budget Bills? That’s what's in these Rules. And lastly, we have a lot of other things, but I also want to make mention of this, that we also allow for the automatic referral of Bills to committee during the first year of the General Assembly. We believe that everyone, both… not Republicans, but also Democrats should have a right to have their Bills placed in a substantive committee to be given an up or down vote, nothing more. That's what democracy is about. Now, I will say this that I've listened and I've read 10000006.docx 38  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 6th Legislative Day 1/24/2017 a lot of things about my counterparts about how they believe in transparency and fair play. They've campaigned on it time and time again. Whether you're a Progressive, a Liberal, or an Independent, and I know you are, but the fact is, how can you readopt Rules that have Rule 118… that have Rule 18(g) in it, which do not allow for the thoughtful consideration of legislation on behalf of most Members of the Minority Party. And I don’t think that’s right. There's a better way of going about business and that’s with our Rules, House Resolution 57, which should be taken under consideration. And I'm asking those who believe in transparency and fair play who also believe that both sides of the aisle should have their legislative needs… we're asking that we respect their legislative priorities and their needs. There's a way of doing that and that’s with House Resolution 57. I'm asking you, for those who believe in transparency, to reject the Rules that are before you today so we can take up HR57 and you can come on and be a cosponsor on the Bill. I would ask that you do that, but also I'd ask you to reject these Bills so we can start this and do this in a more fair, Democratic matter."