Illinois House Floor Debate — May 24, 2019

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are no excused absences on the Republican side."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, join Representative Mason in honoring Trooper Ellis for his service and dedication to the State of Illinois. To his family, thank you for sharing your son, your brother, your husband, your father with all of us, and God bless you."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the Majority's indulgence on this… on this piece of legislation. Amendment 2 simply adds a couple Members to the task force, as well as adding a question about the Move Over Law to the SOS pool. And I ask for its adoption."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Amendment 3 adds a member to the task force from a bonafide labor organization."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If we could continue off of that last Resolution and maybe have the Body's attention for just a little bit. While we have members of law enforcement up in the gallery, the Bill that we're presenting does two 10100056.docx 5  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019 important things. I'm really only going to talk about the first part. I think the second part is certainly more important. We've obviously been dealing with the issues of deaths of our troopers and law enforcement people. And this Bill originally was simply a small Bill to address something called the zipper merge. For those of you that have been driving up and down I-55 recently… for those of you who have been driving up…"

"The original intent of this Bill and only… the only intent of the Bill originally was just to address teaching the zipper merge which, if you drive up and down I-55, it's a safer way to merge for our construction workers. And we're dealing with Scott's Law and we've had the loss of both people in law enforcement and construction workers this year. This small part was to deal with that. But I want to commend… you know, I wish the public could see how we come together and work on Bills that are… maybe don’t get as many headlines as some of the other things that we're talking about here 'cause there's a lot of people that deserve credit. I know Representative Evans brought a Bill, I believe yesterday, that was important on addressing the Scott's Law issue. But, you know, there is the phrase I like, how much we can get done if nobody cares who gets credit. I really have to point out Representative Butler on this Bill. Even before some of the tragic deaths that we had, he was addressing this Bill 10100056.docx 6  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019 and had a Bill that he was the Chief-Sponsor on, not the cosponsor. He was addressing this issue. He had the foresight to understand that safety of our law enforcement officials is important. So he was the one that carried the Amendment. Probably would actually be proper if this Bill was switched instead of Batinick-Butler, it started off Butler-Batinick. But I'm going to go ahead and let Representative Butler talk about the second half of the Bill. Thank you."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And again, I appreciate the Majority's indulgence to let us have this legislation while we have members of Illinois State Police here. What this Bill does, it follows up on Representative Evan's Bill from yesterday. It does two main things. One, it adds a question to the pool of questions for Secretary of State to educate the public about our move over laws, about Scott's Law, to better educate the public. The second thing it does, it establishes a task force. And I know we establish a lot of task forces around here but this is a quick moving task force that will report back by the end of the year from industry, from law enforcement, from government, from private entities about what we can better do to educate the public about the move over laws and how we can avoid the tragic deaths that we've seen here in Illinois. You know, I think the goal of this task force would be to never have our Illinois State Troopers here again to have to name a road for a trooper that has been killed by a move over accident. And I know… I know that's really one of the goals that we want to do. And I appreciate the director being here today, and I appreciate 10100056.docx 7  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019 all the folks from ISP for being here. We have been working on this for a while. And again, like I said yesterday, I appreciate Representative Hoffman for really leading a bipartisan effort on this. I want to thank Representative Evans, I thank Representative Batinick, and everybody… Cabello… who's been involved with this. This is a really important task force that I think is going to do some good things. And I would certainly urge an 'aye' vote on this."

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

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to introduce my Page for a day, today with me. His name is Joshua Struble and he's 10 years old and he's from Mercer County. He's homeschooled with the Alpha Omega Academy. He's in the sixth grade. His activities in school include wrestling, art, and guitar. He's in his 4-H and local church, and very active in those organizations and with his church ministry. And his special recognition is he's a wrestling sectional qualifier. He's here today with his folks, Aaron and Melissa Struble, and his brother and sister, Luke and Abby Struble. So, I'd like for all of us to give him a warm welcome here today."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Point of personal privilege, please."

"Thank you. I'm blessed to have with me, today, my beautiful wife Amber and my three boys, Nolan, Jonah, and 10100056.docx 9  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019 Raylan. So, I'm happy to have them up here today. And if we could give them a big Springfield welcome, I’d appreciate it."

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

"I would like to introduce my Page for a day, Sammy Gomez. He is a student at Harvest Christian Academy in Elgin. He is a senior, so will be graduating soon or did he… he just graduated, so congratulations to Sammy. He is a very, very active volunteer in his community. He volunteers at the Gail Borden Library in Elgin, also with the High Five Camp, he is a volunteer at Centro De Informacion. And he also tells me that he is interested in running for mayor some day of the City of Chicago. So anyway, would you please give Sammy a warm Springfield welcome?"

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Point of personal privilege, please."

"This is Mental Health Awareness Month. Mental health conditions like depression and anxiety are more common than diabetes or cancer, yet we still don’t treat them like we do for other medical conditions. There are more than 2.5 million people in our state affected by mental illness. Suicide is all too… too common for our young people. Addiction is on the rise, often to self-managed and underlying, but untreated, 10100056.docx 10  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019 mental health condition. As lawmakers, we need to make mental health a priority. We can no longer accept treating these conditions as a stepchild to other illnesses. Thank you."

"Point of personal privilege."

"Thank you. I would like to draw the Body's attention to Revenue Committee this morning. I made a vow at the beginning of this Session that I was no longer going to be bullied. I was bullied this morning in Revenue Committee. We were discussing the rates that would apply under the new Constitutional Amendment. This is part of the most important measure that we, as a Body, are going to consider this year. We, as a caucus, we're not told… our staff was not told that this was going to be heard this morning. For reasons that no one is able to explain, this measure was not open for witness slips. So there were no witness slips filed for this particular Bill this morning. To compound the bullying, when I was questioning witnesses, I was cut off because there were more people that were needing to be heard. Guess what? There were, in fact, no more people ready to be heard. What does this say about your confidence in this policy, in this measure, when the only way that you can get it through to the floor of this House is by engaging in tricks, legislative tricks, and shout down people on the other side? It doesn’t speak well of it. You're better than that. Stop the bullying."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the comments from Representative Zalewski and also from Representative McDermed. And I just want to remind people that at this time of year, the emotions run very high, things move very quickly, but one thing we can never let go of is that what's more important than the policy is process in this chamber. And I'm glad that Representative Zalewski has made that clear that we are going to respect process. We should not be ambushed. We should not be given things at the last minute. We have the right to be able to have our witnesses heard. We should be able to ask questions. And we will do that as long as our caucuses are allowed to work in a meaningful, thoughtful manner in which we are not rushing to judgement too quickly or cutting off debate. And just for the new Members, just understand this, emotions will run very high, but let's not lose sight of why we're here. And remember that process is 10100056.docx 13  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019 just as important, or even more important, than the policies that we're going to pass out of this chamber over the next week and a half. So all of us, let's just cool off a little bit. Let's soak our heads, and let's get back to the business of governing in a thoughtful, respectful, bipartisan manner. Thank you."

"Point of personal privilege, Mr. Speaker."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members of this Body, I have with me here, today, my Page for the day, Ben Biros. He's from Mazon. He's 12 years old and is just finishing up with the sixth grade at ICS School in Morris. He likes to play basketball. His favorite team is the Chicago Bulls. He's a Chicago Sox fan, so I… I'm a Cubs fan, but I'll give that one to him. Actually, Representative Welch, just wanted to let you know that Ben here wants to be a meteorologist and a weatherman and focus on weather preparedness. So, I wish him luck in that endeavor as he continues to have interest in that. He's joined here in the chamber… gallery by his mother, Sarah, and his brother, Sam. He also has great involvement with the local 4-H. If you could, please give Ben and his family a warm Springfield welcome."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Point of personal privilege, please."

"Thank you. I have with me today, a Page for the day. Her name is Leslie Babbs. She's a recent graduate of Pontiac Township High School. She is going to continue her education in Illinois. She's going to go to Joliet Junior College in agriculture. She loves FFA, running track. And I bet you are faster than me. That's fantastic. Her mom is with us today, Kim, up in the gallery. So if you would please, also give them another warm Springfield welcome, please. Thank you."

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

"Representative, could you go into the fees a little bit? I'm reading that it eliminates foster care fees but it increases license fees for shelters and animal control. Are we setting those in statute or are we giving… you know, is that going to the agency to decide?"

"Okay. So the shelter fees go up, but other fees are eliminated?"

"Okay. So some go up, some go down, essentially?" 10100056.docx 16  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019

"All right. Thank you for the clarification."

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

"Thank you. Representative, this is a Bill… a version of this Bill we heard, I think last year, and never quite finished out. You and I had conversations after that regarding districts. Can you tell me how the district process that you have in place in this Bill would work?"

"So, as far as the timing is concerned, we have a census coming next year in 2020, so this would take effect after that is my understanding. Is that correct?"

"So… and there's… how many districts are going to be in this new situation?"

"I'm sorry. How many districts are in the proposed legislation?"

"Yeah, thank you for that clarification, though. That's an issue that we had concern with before. Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Bill. This is a Bill that in its previous incarnation I did not support. I did talk to the Sponsor, she made several changes, which I am grateful for. I appreciate the fact that she went the extra step to do those things. With those in place, I feel that my concerns about at-large district program which would not represent necessarily the area in which I live have been addressed. And I will be voting in favor of this measure rather than voting opposed to it as I had in the past. Thank you."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Senate Bill 131 is a Bill that requires rabies inoculation for cats. It's an initiative of the Illinois State Veterinarians and the Illinois Animal Control Association. There are no opponents to the Bill. I urge its adoption." 10100056.docx 21  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019

"Thank you, Assembly. This Bill deals with women's health and it speaks loudly to it. Right now, if after a screening mammogram, a physician requests additional diagnostic work to be done that is medically necessary, it isn’t always allowed. This occurs after about 10 percent of screening mammograms that reveals some additional information that needs to be sought out. This Bill basically allows the diagnostic work to be done with the diagnosis being ordered by the physician. Let's make it happen for women's health."

"First, I'd like to move for Standard Debate."

"Thank you very much. Will the Representative yield?"

"Thank you very much for bringing the Bill. I know you list off the three specific changes, would you mind just… the chamber was kind of loud, would you mind listing off those three changes again?"

"Yeah. So, I know in your opening you listed off the three specific changes this Bill allows in the requirement for being a university trustee. Because the chamber was a little loud, would you mind repeating those three changes?"

"So, it would be basically two instead of three. The driver's license or ID card, or… and then also voter registration. It would be a choice, right?"

"So, does that include the driver's license or ID card for a foreign national?"

"Okay. So people who are not citizens of the United States are offered that, so this would be and 'or'. So you can receive an identification card that is… there is no requirement to be a citizen of the United States or Illinois voter registration. So someone who is not registered to vote and theoretically not eligible to vote in Illinois, would be now allowed to be a trustee?"

"Yeah. So, it's an 'or' question, so it's either the driver's license or ID, and someone that in Illinois can get a driver's license or ID and still, you know, be a foreign 10100056.docx 25  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019 national or, you know, not be a citizen of the United States. That would be okay for the requirement to be the trustee, right?"

"Okay. To the Bill. Clearly, the situation… this is probably going to be opening the door for giving voting rights to people who are not citizens or residents of the United States and I think that’s something we should be concerned about. These students have all powers to vote on issues at the university, except for faculty. So… and that makes quite a bit of sense. You wouldn’t want a student voting on their economics professor or something. But this includes bond issuances, this includes who's going to be president of the university, this includes spending. So, literally, you will have people that are not citizens of the United States, not citizens of Illinois, yet they'll be able to vote on spending millions of dollars and they're not able to vote in an election. I think that’s significant. And this is just the door way to opening up to having illegal immigrants voting in Illinois elections. Please vote 'no'."

"Opposition."

"Will the Sponsor yield?"

"Thank you. Representative, do you know what a trustee does?"

"What are the roles or what are the duties? I served for three years as a trustee at Eastern Illinois University. So, can you explain to the Body what a trustees… what their job duties… what their descriptions?"

"No, I understand how they get there. But do you know what their duties are once they are a trustee?"

"And they have control over tenure? Is that correct?"

"And they approve hiring and firing of the president?"

"And they also oversee budgets?"

"And those budgets are taxpayer funds? The salaries are taxpayer funds?"

"And what you're proposing… is this just for the University of Illinois?"

"So, this does not apply to any other state institution?"

"Why not?"

"Why not?"

"The process… my concern is that we are going to allow someone that is not a citizen of this state, of this country, to vote on how our taxpayer funds are allocated, how we pay professors, how… what salaries they are, how we… what we pay administrators, how we run our university systems, which is all our taxpayer money. Do we have anyone allowed to serve here in this institution who is not a citizen?"

"Do… are noncitizens allowed to come and be a Member of this Body and vote?"

"No, it is. Because we're sending money… we're appropriating money from here to the universities and they are then appropriating the money at that level. Allowing someone who is not a citizen to appropriate money from this Body, from the taxpayers, is not a good idea."

"Certainly, we do. We certainly do. We collect from all of them. We have students from all over the world that come and they pay their fair share in order to enjoy an education that the taxpayers of Illinois provide." 10100056.docx 28  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019

"Not a voting voice. That’s okay. No…"

"To the Bill."

"Mr. Speaker."

"To the Bill. This is a bad Bill. This opens up the door to allow noncitizens to spend and appropriate the money that we send to universities. It allows a noncitizen to hire and fire a university president, to determine who gets tenure. It allows them to set fees. This is not the way we should be conducting business, and I would urge a 'no' vote."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Please let the record reflect that Representative Dan Brady is excused for the rest of today."

"Opposition."

"Will the Sponsor yield?"

"Representative, I just want to unpack this a little bit and make sure that I understand this correctly. Currently, the way it's structured, there's three student trustees that would be… you know, would be qualified to have voting rights for university. Is that correct? That would be selected by the students. Is that correct?"

"And these students have the ability to vote on bonding issues that would and could potentially increase the 10100056.docx 31  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019 indebtedness of a university for a time that extends beyond their tenure as a student, correct?"

"In addition to all of this, they also have policies that they would be able to set for the university, correct? Policies that are very wide ranging throughout the world of academia. Is that correct?"

"And these particular students that would be elected have historically always been asked to have a few things and one of them was to be a resident in the State of Illinois for six months. In addition to that, simply was a registered voter, correct?"

"And you're removing the ability for that person to be a registered voter. So for somebody that is traveling from outside this country, you can pick your region, they would have voting rights, correct?"

"Correct? So, somebody from Europe can come over here, go to college, and they would have a voting right if elected by this body, correct? They would have the right to… they would have a right to tie us to bonds, they would have a right to engage in tenure discussions, they would have the right to engage in general policy. Is that correct?"

"Is there any country you're aware of where I can go to college in a different country and have voting rights?" 10100056.docx 32  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019

"So, there's no college in the world that you're aware of where I can travel to and be elected by a body and have voting rights to bond out a college for additional debt and perpetuity to a defined years, there's no other example you can give to?"

"Is there any other state that has adopted these types of policies?"

"So, you're not aware of any country or any state that allows a noncitizen to have voting rights on our institutions?"

"And in your view, that is good policy?"

"A leader in diversity or a leader… or a leader in diversity or a leader in noncitizens abilities to vote?"

"Is there anything in this Bill that addresses diversity or is this Bill specific to the ability for a noncitizen having voting rights if dually elected by the students?"

"I've never once mentioned undocumented, Sir. I'm just talking noncitizen." 10100056.docx 33  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019

"Your Party wants to talk about undocumented. I'm talking noncitizen. The entire world… in your words, Representative, in the entire world, not one country you're aware of has adopted such policies, not one state has adopted such policies. And you want to set a policy for our educational institution for noncitizens. Your party is mentioning nondocumented. I haven’t mentioned it once and nobody on my side of the aisle has mentioned it once, so answer the question, please."

"To the Bill. I think this is yet another attempt by our Democratic colleagues to extend voting rights to noncitizens throughout the world. There has not been one example that the Representative can point to that there has been any best practice. This is terrible practice. The ability to bond out our institutions, the ability to set policy, the ability to adopt tenure. I urge a 'no' vote."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would ask that this General Assembly adopt Floor Amendment 2 to Senate Bill 1852, which deals with the issue of ethylene oxide in, particularly, a facility in Willowbrook, Illinois called Sterigenics. For purposes of debate, I would be more than happy to go right to 10100056.docx 36  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019 Third Reading if it's fine with you and we can get into the substance of the Bill."

"Thank you, again, Mr. Speaker. Senate Bill 1852 is the Matt Haller Act. And I'll talk about Matt in a little bit, but this issue regarding ethylene oxide has been the most important and most, I would say, concerning public health issue that I have encountered in my career in Springfield. And it just happens to be in my district. Willowbrook, Illinois is approximately… it's right off of I-55 and Route 83. A lot of us drive back and forth when we see that town. It's very small. It's about 8 thousand… 8900 residents and it is 2.75 square miles. It's not a large community but it's mainly families, residential, but there's one area in particular, there's a small business park. And within that business park, which is just a few blocks away from residents, is this entity referred to as Sterigenics. It's a sterilizer. They use ethylene oxide to sterilize. Now, the Village of Willowbrook received the mother of all sucker punches last 10100056.docx 37  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019 year when the U.S. EPA dropped a letter off to them and said that following some testing, it said that following, 'That if modeled and measured data represent typical ethylene oxide concentrations in ambient air, an elevated cancer risk exists for residents and offsite workers in the Willowbrook community, a 2.75 square mile community where residents are literally on top of this facility. It has caused panic of epic proportions. And as I listen to people come into my office but also speak at public hearings, the amount of illness, sickness, cancers, tumors is of a nature that I've never experienced and seen in my life. We all know that sometimes people do get sick but the fact is the concentration of people who have become extremely ill in that region is something that is alarming. And that was verified by the Illinois Department of Public Health within the last few months when they produced a cancer cluster study report that talked about the increase of illnesses, in particularly, cancers including not only with women, but also pediatric cancer. So, at the end of the day, through the process of elimination, we can actually focus on one cause of that, in my belief, and that is the emissions and the operations that have existed at Sterigenics and also its predecessor, Griffith Lab, for many years has caused great illness and sickness to people in that region. I'm not here to litigate the matter, that'll be done at some point down the future. But it’s my job to be able to connect the dots and talk of common sense. So we have an opportunity here, and I believe under our inherent police power authority, to make sure that we have the best interest of our citizens in mind when it 10100056.docx 38  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019 comes to the health, safety, and welfare of them. The citizens of Willowbrook, Darien, Burr Ridge, and all regions are concerned, they're scared, they're frightened, as they should be. They can't sell their homes. They're afraid to let their children out. We have to do more to make sure that we give comfort to people not only in that area but also throughout the State of Illinois. They've demanded a response and that's what we're doing today. But let me tell you also a little bit why I've referred to this and I've never done this before, but I have called this the Matt Haller Act. Matt Haller lives in unincorporated Willowbrook, approximately half a mile away from… he lived a half mile away from the Sterigenics facility. Matt is a… he was a very vibrant 42-year-old guy from the neighborhood. Beautiful wife, young son. Within 14 months he contracted a very rare form of stomach cancer, Stage IV cancer. He came to visit me in January. He was extremely ill but he felt it was important for him to tell his story to me and my staff. Matt had been ravaged at that time. He knew that his time on this earth was short but it was important for him for us to know his story. But he also wanted to make sure that his death would not be in vain and that his life would have had purpose. And this morning in committee, I was fortunate enough to have his brother Wally Haller and his two best friends, Tim and Lindsay Geonopolis, testify in committee and they're here today. Gentlemen, thank you for coming here today. And they spoke about Matt and how important Matt's life was. Not so much about everything that he did, but what he stood for. He told me when we were in our office that he wants to make sure, yes, that there is going to be 10100056.docx 39  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019 meaning in his life but he does not want this to happen to another family of what has happened to him. So, today, I present Senate Bill 1852 which has been the product of a lot of hard work. And we have been able to do this based on good evidence, solid evidence, facts in which we have been able to get from our federal and state regulators but also the Illinois Department of Public Health to produce the strongest Bill in the United States regulating this very dangerous and lethal product called ethylene oxide. So, I also want to thank the men and women of this chamber who have helped out, in particular, Representative Deanne Mazzochi who worked with me side by side over the past 6 months on developing this Bill and putting it in a place which is fair and responsible. But I want to make it very clear that as a resident and a father of that region, I do not want Sterigenics to open their doors again. They're currently under a seal order from the U.S. EPA. The matter is being litigated. But this is what we do. We want to make sure that bad actors in our communities, who are polluting our communities, should not have the opportunity to open their doors again because they have not been able to establish the good faith that we need from our businesses that operate with a very dangerous product. So, with that being said, I will just briefly go through the Bill. This Bill is going to require that sterilizers, it effects only sterilizers in Illinois, that they capture 100 percent of the emissions and a reduction of 99.9 percent or .2 parts per million before release of EO into the atmosphere. There is going to be regular testing through the IEPA and also through independent labs in which… independent third parties 10100056.docx 40  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019 who can do the approval which will have to be approved by the IEPA. The IEPA has the ability to shut down a facility if it doesn’t meet standards. Also, we have information, a provision in this, which I think Representative Mazzochi would like to talk about, which is alternative technology transparency, which is extremely important when there is an entity such as Sterigenics may have technology that would be a great alternative. But if they purchased it somewhere, we want to know whether or not they are sitting on it and not allowing it be used in the public arena. We also have something very important that needs in the future. Any other… when there is a clean air permit that is applied for a sterilizer in a county over 50 thousand individuals, that facility cannot be placed within 10 miles of schools or park. But if a county is under 50 thousand they cannot be placed within 15 miles of schools or park. The other important part of this is what we refer to as the 'Bad Actor Prohibition', which states that it will prohibit the use of EO by a facility, a sterilizer, that has been subject to a seal order such as Sterigenics. There may be other times down the road with other sterilizers who have a seal order but they cannot open their doors unless the IEPA certifies that the facility uses technology that produces the greatest reduction in emissions and, not or, and, the vendors must provide… of that facility, must provide a certification that each product or package must be sterilized by EO, there's no better alternative. Again, if this entity, Sterigenics, is for somehow has this ability to have this seal order lifted, the threshold that they will have to go through is extremely, 10100056.docx 41  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019 extremely high. I can't say that they need to be shut down, but I do not want their doors open again. And I believe this is the strongest language and it’s the right language for us to be able to do under our inherent police power authority to make sure that the men and women and the families in their region will never have to consume or breathe bad air coming out of that facility. So with that, Mr. Speaker, I'm willing to entertain any questions."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank Leader Durkin for the tremendous effort that he has also put into this process. This is the culmination of over nine months of work to try to get to a point where we can make sure that we are, in fact, dealing with the bad actors. Dangerous chemicals necessarily mean that we have to have manufacturers behaving responsibly and they can't be leaping through loopholes. This Bill closes those loopholes and, in fact, it's going to ensure that Illinois has the most stringent standards for the management and handling of ethylene oxide nationwide. Because we're worried about the bad actors, many of the provisions in this Bill are designed to target all of the ways that the bad actors have figured out ways to get around responsible handling of ethylene oxide. For example, we are making sure that testing is being done when they are at maximum capacity, that they are testing all parts of the facility, the stacks, the vac vents, everywhere that you can get external exposure, not just one narrow location. We're making sure that some of the promises that they make actually have some punch. We're allowing Illinois EPA to be more proactive in actually making 10100056.docx 42  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019 sure that they are getting the test results they need to ensure that facilities are safe. We're giving more local control to authorities so that they can have additional insight. And we're also making sure there's no more cherry picking test results, no more hiding data, and no more ensuring that there's going to be less harmful technology getting buried and not brought to the forefront. And we're also making sure that the suppliers are also going to play a role in that. No more being ostriches, sticking their heads in the sand, pretending like they don’t know what this is or that they can't find out some other way to do a better work around that's going to make our people more safe. So, because of that, I very strongly support this Bill. It is a good Bill, and I ask for an 'aye' vote. Thank you."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I want to thank all of who have had an interest in this legislation. This has been a very good exercise and a great process in which we took our recommendations from citizens, from advocates, from everybody within the State of Illinois to produce a product that I believe is fair and responsible. One that puts the citizens of, not only my region, but puts the citizens of Illinois in front of the corporate interest of Sterigenics and their operations. This process, as I said earlier, was deliberative. We did it based on results which came back from our federal and state regulators, but also other people within the health industry who gave us the assurance that what we are doing is the right thing. And I can't be more proud of how this has played out, but also, it's a very emotional issue. And I also particularly just want to finish by thanking Wally Haller and also Tim and Lindsay Geonopolis for sharing their story about Matt Haller today. And I said earlier, today's vote, which I believe will be successful, will be a true tribute to a very strong man who left this earth wanting to make sure that life will be better for not only his family, his son, his wife, but for every man, woman, child, and grandfather, and grandparent, aunt, and uncle who live in that region and also live in that region. So, thank you everyone for your participation. And also, Representative Mazzochi, your work has been absolutely spectacular and I 10100056.docx 44  STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 56th Legislative Day 5/24/2019 can't be more thankful for your participation in this. Thank you, and I ask for an 'aye' vote."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Upon adjournment the Republicans will caucus in Room 118."

"Point of personal privilege."

"I'd like to introduce the Assembly to Joshua Badal. He is a 13-year-old seventh grader from Hinckley joining us today on the floor. And I just want everybody to give him a nice warm Springfield welcome."