"Good morning. The House will be in order. Members will be in their chairs. We shall be led in prayer today by Pastor James R. Bryson Jr., who is the first… is with the First Church of Deliverance in Chicago, Illinois. Pastor Bryson is the guest of Representative Robinson. Members and guests shall refrain from starting their laptops, turn off all cell phones, and rise for the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance. Pastor Bryson."
"Thank you. Let us pray. God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou who has brought us through far on the way, thou who is by thy might, led us into the light. Keep us forever in the path, we pray. To the eternal one who creates all things, sustains the world and the universes, who is full of abundance and completeness, and is transcendently emanate, today, we honor you. We recognize it is in you that we live, move, and have our being. In addition, today, as we reflect upon the history of the black American in our midst, we rely upon the presence of our ancestors, who join us in this sacred moment as we welcome their guidance, their grace and love. Now we, your people, are gathered to express our gratitude. To thank you for life, strength, joy and wisdom. And therefore, we seek your guidance as we pray with and for those who take care of the business of the people of the State of Illinois. As Representatives of the people of Illinois, I ask that you guide them to use their pens as plowshares. To exact laws that would benefit children without parents, the poor without resources, the disenfranchised without hope. To restore the wrongfully incarcerated, to cause the cessation of gentrification, gender bias, and homophobia. We pray for 10100087.docx 1 STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 87th Legislative Day 2/27/2020 and with Representatives who are called and were chosen by you and the people of this great state, to enact laws of Godly justice, laws that are steadfast in love, unconditionally sound, and full of mercy. Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee. Lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world we forget the shadowed beneath thy hand. May we forever stand true to our God and true to our native land. Amen."
"We shall be led in the Pledge of Allegiance today by Representative Bennett."
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
"Roll Call for Attendance. Leader Harris is recognized to report any excused absences on the Democratic side of the aisle."
"Madam Speaker, let the record reflect that Representatives Carroll, Evans, Gordon-Booth, and Tarver are excused today."
"Leader Spain is recognized to report any excused absences on the Republican side of the aisle."
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. Please let the record reflect that Representatives Davidsmeyer, Frese, Miller, Stephens, Unes, and Wheeler are excused today."
"Have all recorded themselves who wish? Mr. Clerk, please take the record. There being 101 Members answering the roll call, a quorum is present. Representative Bourne, you are… what do you wish to…" 10100087.docx 2 STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 87th Legislative Day 2/27/2020
"A point of personal privilege, please."
"Please proceed."
"Thank you. This Saturday is February 29, which is the rarest day on the calendar. It's also International Rare Disease Day. There are nearly 30 million people in America affected by a rare disease, and almost half of the people diagnosed with one of the seven thousand known rare diseases is a child. Four years ago, I introduced this Body to a beautiful and brave girl, named Grace Herschelman, from Hillsboro. Grace has INAD, which is a neuro degenerative disease. And at the time of her diagnoses she was one of only ten documented cases. So they rolled out Flat Gracie. If you're familiar with Flat Stanley, it's similar. So, it's not only to raise awareness but it's also so that they can show Grace all of the cool adventures that Flat Gracie is going on. So they have asked, this Saturday, for folks to post a picture of what they're doing on Saturday with Flat Gracie and they will share that with Grace and raise awareness for Rare Disease Day and for INAD. So if you would like to stop by and get a picture with Flat Gracie, feel free to stop by or we can get you a PDF and you can print off your own Flat Gracie to go about the day with you on Saturday. Thank you."
Speaker Willis: "Thank you, Representative. Representative Harper, for what do you wish to be recognized? Representative Harper."
"Point of personal privilege."
"Please proceed."
"Yes. As I would like to present today's black history moment. George Washington Carver was an agricultural 10100087.docx 3 STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 87th Legislative Day 2/27/2020 scientist and inventor, who developed hundreds of products, using peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans. Born a slave, a year before slavery was outlawed, he left home at a young age to pursue education. And would eventually earn a Master's Degree in Agricultural Sciences from Iowa State University. Nine years before George Washington Carver was born, Moses Carver, a white farm owner, purchased George Carver's mother Mary when she was just thirteen years old. The elder Carver reportedly was against slavery but needed help with his 240 acre farm. When Carver was an infant he, his mother, and his sister were kidnapped from the Carver farm by one of the bands of slave raiders that roamed Missouri during the Civil War era. They were sold in Kentucky. Moses Carver hired a neighbor to retrieve them but the neighbor only succeeded in finding George. At a very young age, George took a keen interest in plants and experimented with natural pesticides, fungicides, and soil conditioners. He became known as the plant doctor to local farmers due to his ability to discern how to improve the health of their gardens, fields, and orchards. In 1880, he applied and was accepted into Highland College in Kansas, but was later rejected when the administration learned he was black. And in the late 1880s Carver befriended a white couple in Iowa who encouraged him to pursue a higher education. Despite his former setback, he enrolled in Simpson College, a Methodist school that admitted all qualified applicants. In 1894, Carver became the first African American to earn a Bachelor of Science degree. Impressed by his research on fungal infections of soybean plants, his professors asked him to stay on for graduate studies, owning his skills and 10100087.docx 4 STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 87th Legislative Day 2/27/2020 identifying and treating plant diseases. In 1896, he earned his Master of Agriculture degree and immediately received several offers. The most attractive of which came from Booker T. Washington, at what is now known as Tuskegee University, where he convinced university trustees to establish an agricultural school which could only be run by Carver if Tuskegee was to keep it's all black faculty. Carver accepted the offer and would work at Tuskegee Institute for the rest of his life. Carver's early years at Tuskegee were not without hiccups. For one, agriculture training was not popular. Southern farmers believed they already knew how to farm and suited… saw schooling as a means to escape farming. Additionally, many faculty members resented Carver for his high salary and demand to have two dormitory rooms, one for him and one for his plant specimens. Carver also struggled with the demands of the faculty position he held. He wanted to devote time to researching agriculture for ways to help out poor, southern farmers, but he was also expected to manage the school's two farms, teach, ensure the school's toilets and sanitary facilities worked properly, as well as sit on multiple committees and councils. So by this time, Carver already had great successes in the laboratory and the community. He taught poor farmers that they could feed hogs acorns instead of commercial feed, plant in rich crop lands with swamp muck instead of fertilizers. It was his idea of crop rotation that proved to be most valuable. Through his work on soil chemistry, Carver learned that years of growing cotton had depleted the nutrients from soil, resulting in low yields. But by growing nitrogen fixing plants, like peanuts, 10100087.docx 5 STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 87th Legislative Day 2/27/2020 soybeans, and sweet potatoes, the soil could be restored, allowing yield to increase dramatically when the land was reverted to cotton use a few years later. To even further help farmers, he invented the Jesup Wagon, a kind of mobile horse drawn classroom and laboratory, used to demonstrate soil chemistry. Farmers of course loved the high yields of cotton, but they were now getting… that they were now getting from Carver's crop rotation technique. But the method had unintended consequences. A surplus of peanuts and other non- cotton products. Carver set to work on finding alternative uses for these products. He invented numerous products from sweet potatoes including edibles, like flour and vinegar, and non- food items such as stains, dyes, paints, and writing ink. But Carver's biggest success came from peanuts. In all, he developed more than three hundred food, industrial, and commercial products from peanuts including milk, sauces, punches, cooking oils, salad oils, paper, cosmetics, medicines, ex cetera. In 1921, he appeared before the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on behalf of the peanut industry, which was seeking tariff protection. Through… Though his testimony did not begin well, he described the wide range of products that could be made from peanuts, which not only earned him a standing ovation, but also convinced the committee to approve a high protected tariff for the common lagoon. He then became known as the peanut man, and in the last two decades of his life Carver lived as a minor celebrity but his focus was always on helping people. He traveled to the South to promote racial harmony. He traveled to India to discuss nutrition in developing 10100087.docx 6 STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 87th Legislative Day 2/27/2020 nations with Mahatma Gandhi. And he died on January 5 in 1943 after falling down the stairs of his home at the age of seventy-eight. Soon after, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation for Carver to receive his own monument, an honor previously only granted to Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The George Washington Carver National Monument now stands in Diamond, Missouri. Carver was also inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Today we honor George Washington Carver. Thank you.
"Thank you, Representative. Representative Davis, for what do you wish to be heard?"
"Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. I also wish to offer a black history moment for the Illinois House.
"Please proceed."
"Thank you very much, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. Today I want to recognize the accomplishments of Alexander Lane. He became the… he first came to my attention because of research that determined he was the first African American male to graduate from the school that I went to, Southern Illinois University of Carbondale, 144 years ago in 1876. For a time Lane was the first principal of Carbondale's East Side School for Negros. Later he moved to Chicago and enrolled in Rush Medical College. After graduation he was named by Cook County as the Assistant Physician. In 1906, he was elected to this House of Representatives from the 1st District. He was the first African American to win election from that district. The Illinois Blue Book for the 45th General Assembly reports that he lived at 1937 Archer Avenue in Chicago. The results from the November 6, 1906 election show that Dr. Lane was the 10100087.docx 7 STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 87th Legislative Day 2/27/2020 third place finisher with 9,439 and one half vote. He was a Republican. Thomas McNally and Francis Brady ran first and second. Brady was a Republican and McNally a Democrat. Some of you may remember 3 member districts. During his 2 terms in the House, Representative Lane introduced 8 Bills. Only 1 of which passed both chambers and it was vetoed by the Governor. Given all that we had been doing with regards to restorative justice, I found it fascinating and interesting that House Bill 633 as amended… excuse me, amended the Criminal Code to state that if a person was not convicted of a crime the authorities could not retain his photograph without that permission, interestingly enough. At my desk I have a copy of the Bill. It is also interesting to see that in 1909 the Legislation was corrected and amended on the original document as it moved through the process, the early stages of being able to amend the Bill. Two other Lane Bills of note place limits on the number of hours a woman could work, could be required to work, and an appropriations Bill to fund an armory on the South Side of Chicago. Let me also mention that SIU has taken another step to recognize the legacy of Alexander Lane, through their creation of the intern… of an internship at the Public… excuse me, the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute. And with us today, behind me in the chamber, is the 2020 Lane Intern, Mr. Dwight Cox. Dwight is from Bellville. He is majoring in political science and is assigned to our issues staff for the semester. After graduating, he's thinking of a career with either the FBI or the CIA. Dwight, thank you very much for being with us and for your efforts. Let me also thank Dr. Pamela Smoot of SIU, who wrote an 10100087.docx 8 STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 87th Legislative Day 2/27/2020 extensive article on Representative Lane. And also, David Joens, an SIU grad and who is the director of the Illinois State Archives, for their help in putting these remarks together. And also, let me offer a special thank you to our very own Steve Brown for providing me with this research to be able to make this presentation today. And closing let me take this opportunity to thank all of the Members of the Illinois House for their acknowledgement of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus throughout this entire month, as we inform and celebrate our culture and our heritage during Black History Month, February of 2020. Thank you all very much."
"Mr. Clerk, Committee Reports, please."
Clerk Hollman: "Committee Reports. Representative Harper, Chairperson from the Committee on Agriculture & Conservation reports the following committee action taken on February 25, 2020: recommends be adopted is House Resolution 621, and House Resolution 683. Representative Moylan, Chairperson from the Committee on Transportation: Regulation, Roads & Bridges reports the following committee action taken on February 25, 2020: do pass Short Debate is House Bill 3878. Representative Lilly, Chairperson from the Committee on Financial Institutions reports the following committee action taken on February 25, 2020: do pass Short Debate is House Bill 4403. Representative Flowers, Chairperson from the Committee on Health Care Availability & Accessibility reports the following committee action taken on February 25, 2020: recommends be adopted is House Resolution 748. Representative DeLuca, Chairperson from the Committee on Cities & Villages reports the following committee action taken on February 25, 10100087.docx 9 STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 87th Legislative Day 2/27/2020 2020: do pass Short Debate is House Bill 4508. Representative Slaughter, Chairperson from the Committee on Judiciary - Criminal reports the following committee action taken on February 25, 2020: do pass Short Debate is House Bill 3892, House Bill 3999. Representative Hurley, Chairperson from the Committee on Human Services reports the following committee action taken on February 26, 2020: do pass Short Debate is House Bill 3836, House Bill 4122, House Bill 4262, House Bill 4516; recommends be adopted is House Joint Resolution 86, House Resolution 635, House Resolution 636, House Resolution 647. Representative Mussman, Chairperson from the Committee on Elementary & Secondary Education: School Curriculum & Policies reports the following committee action taken on February 26, 2020: recommends be adopted is Floor Amendment 1 to House Bill 4011. Representative D'Amico, Chairperson from the Committee on Transportation: Vehicles & Safety reports the following committee action taken on February 26, 2020: do pass Short Debate is House Bill 4246, House Bill 4488, House Bill 4617. Representative Scherer, Chairperson from the Committee on Elementary & Secondary Education: Administration, Licensing & Charter School reports the following committee action taken on February 26, 2020: do pass Short Debate is House Bill 4306, House Bill 4417, House Bill 4510, do pass as amended Short Debate is House Bill 4103. Representative Evans, Chairperson from the Committee on Labor & Commerce reports the following committee action taken on February 26, 2020: do pass Short Debate is House Bill 4247, House Bill 4293, House Bill 4623; recommends be adopted is Floor Amendment 1 to House Bill 4152. Representative Kifowit, 10100087.docx 10 STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 87th Legislative Day 2/27/2020 Chairperson from the Committee on State Government Administration reports the following committee action taken on February 26, 2020: do pass Short Debate is House Bill 4055, House Bill 4476, House Bill 4611, House Bill 4625. Representative Ammons, Chairperson from the Committee on Higher Education reports the following committee action taken on February 26, 2020: do pass Short Debate is House Bill 3914; recommends be adopted is House Resolution 568. Representative Yingling, Chairperson from the Committee on Counties & Townships reports the following committee action taken on February 27, 2020: do pass Short Debate is House Bill 4056. Representative Conroy, Chairperson from the Committee on Mental Health reports the following committee action taken on February 27, 2020: recommends be adopted is House Joint Resolution 95. Introduction of Resolutions. House Resolution 788, offered by Representative West; House Resolution 789, offered by Representative Moller; and House Resolution 792, offered by Representative Moller are referred to the Rules Committee."
"Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Representative Mazzochi, for what do you wish to be recognized?"
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. Point of personal privilege."
"Please proceed."
"Thank you. I would like to alert all the Members of this chamber that back in January many of you were extremely upset about the fact that a man named Forrest Ashby was being given political insider privileges and perks in connection with potentially keeping his mouth shut about ghost payrollers and covering up knowledge about a rape in 10100087.docx 11 STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 87th Legislative Day 2/27/2020 Champaign. Yesterday, at the Public Appropriations Committee hearing meeting, was the first time we… we on our side of the aisle had an opportunity to actually ask someone from the administration what was going on with that. And as it turned out this same person was given a $60 thousand a year, no-bid job, based on his personal connections to the Executive Director of the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board. We have called for investigations. We have called for transparency, as to what this person did, what did he know, and more directly, what was Mike McClain doing? Who was he getting into these political positions? We don't agree with ghost payrolling. And if you don't think that this kind of thing isn't ghost payrolling, I don’t know what you think is. We've called for investigations and you've done nothing. You haven't convened any committees, you haven't done any investigations, you haven't made sure that this is not happening throughout all levels of our government. And I would like this Body, because you said you were upset, you said you were concerned, to actually do something. This was 2 months ago that you found out about this and you've done nothing. It's unacceptable. And I would really like to know when you're going to finally tell your leadership that this kind of corrupt culture is not acceptable here in Springfield and finally start doing something about it. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
"Mr. Clerk, Agreed Resolutions."
"Agreed Resolutions. House Resolution 787, offered by Representative Lisa Hernandez. House Resolution 790, 10100087.docx 12 STATE OF ILLINOIS 101st GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 87th Legislative Day 2/27/2020 offered by Representative Davis. And House Resolution 791, offered by Representative Brady."
"Leader Harris moves for the adoption of the Agreed Resolutions. For all those in favor say 'aye'; all those opposed say 'nay'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And the Agreed Resolutions are adopted. And now, allowing perfunctory time for the Clerk, Leader Harris moves that the House stand adjourned until Tuesday, March 3 at the hour of noon. All those in favor say 'aye'; all those opposed say 'nay'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And the House stands adjourned."
"House Perfunctory Session will come to order. Introduction and First Reading of Senate Bills. Senate Bill 33, offered by Representative Ammons, a Bill for Act concerning elections. Senate Bill 2303, offered by Representative Windhorst, a Bill for Act concerning safety. Senate Bill 2325, offered by Representative Zalewski, a Bill for Act concerning gaming. Senate Bill 2333, offered by Representative McDermed, a Bill for Act concerning education. Senate Bill 2497, offered by Representative Greenwood, a Bill for Act concerning transportation. Senate Bill 2527, offered by Representative Turner, a Bill for Act concerning property. Senate Bill 2559, offered by Representative Williams, Ann, a Bill for Act concerning civil law. First Reading of these Senate Bills. There being no further business, the House Perfunctory Session will stand adjourned." 10100087.docx 13