"The hour of 9:00 having arrived, the House will be in order. The Members will please be in their seats. Members and guests are asked to refrain from starting their laptops, turn off all cell phones and pagers and rise for the invocation and for the Pledge of Allegiance. We shall be led in prayer today by Lee Crawford the Pastor of the Cathedral of Praise Christian Center here in Springfield."
"Let us pray. Most gracious and most sovereign Lord from whom all life and sufficiency flows, it is this day with humble hearts that we see such a great need to trust and to depend upon You. For this is Your most precious word that is declared that we are to trust in You with all of our hearts and not to lean toward our own understanding. So this day, Father, this august Body leans on You for wisdom to be wise, leans on You for strength to be strong, leans on You for guidance not to be misguided. This we pray in Your Son's name, Amen."
"Representative Sacia, will you lead us in the pledge?"
"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."
Speaker Hannig: "Roll Call for Attendance. Representative Currie."
"Thank you, Speaker. Please let the record reflect that Representatives Rich Bradley, Brosnahan, Dugan, Fritchey, Gordon, Graham, Harris, Lyons, Molaro, Patterson, Rita, and Scully are excused today." 09500078.doc 1 STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 78th Legislative Day 6/21/2007
"And Representative Bost."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let the record reflect that I have a list, but not quite that long: Osmond, Dunn, Winters, Hassert, McAuliffe, Leitch, and Schock. Do we have a quorum? Just check…"
"Mr. Clerk, take the record. There are 98 Members answering the Roll Call, a quorum is present. Representative Riley, for what reason do you rise?"
"A point of personal privilege, Mr. Speaker."
"State your point."
"Just some points of clarification or maybe just some idle musings before we get started in the day… like your indulgence. In the last day or so, much has been made about a comment… matter fact, I'm not even sure as to its origin, but referring to the Body across the hall as the House of Lords and this august Body as the House of Commons. Here are some facts. To the extent that that comment might have been made to denigrate this House, I'm remembered in a class that I had many, many, many years ago, political science in college. There were two Acts, I can't remember the years of those Acts but I know one was right after the war, they were Parliamentary Acts which severely reduced the power of the House of Lords. If anyone watches C-SPAN and looks at the Prime Minister minutes, you know that one of the privileges of the House of Commons is to question, and I mean question quite severely the Prime Minister and any other Ministers about their actions. The other thing is the House of Commons, the House of Representatives, and this House, too are frequently represented as being the people's house. 09500078.doc 2 STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 78th Legislative Day 6/21/2007 Also, if you've seen the beginning of when Parliament starts, there's a figure, a character called Black Rod, and essentially Black Rod is a representative of the Sovereign, a representative of the House of Lords, and when Black Rod approaches the House of Commons, for the House of Lords and the Queen to be heard the door is slammed in Black Rod's face. And that’s in symbolic nature representing the independence of the House of Commons from the House of Lords and from the Sovereign. I mean, so there's all kinds about historical significance of the lack of significance of this whole issue of the House of Lords somehow or the hou… the Senate somehow being transcendent over this Body. Finally, ya know, let me say this. If I'm not mistaken, the House of Commons, the word 'common' does not refer to a commoner, it refers to the word 'commune', and to commune means to get together, hopefully collegially, and to commiserate about issues. So, whatever… whatever Lord or Baron that might've made that statement, he's factually incorrect. Finally, let me say this. I passed the Resolution yesterday with Senator Raoul about establishing a kindergarten day. And oftentimes in the media it is said that, ya know, we act like children, we should get together and get this budget done. Well, maybe that's just it. Maybe we should look at my Resolution and say that we should act more like children, because to the extent that we act like adults we bring all of our foibles and frailties to the work that we do. And we all know that children are genuine, they have not been imbued with the… with the prejudices and the illogic that they'll certainly get when they grow up. So maybe we should act more like 09500078.doc 3 STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 78th Legislative Day 6/21/2007 children and allow us to, I guess, be more attuned to something that children are attuned to and that is appealing to the better angels of our nature as we go forward and do our work in this Body. Thank you."
"Representative Verschoore, for what reason do you rise?"
"Point of interest, Mr. Speaker. For everyone that was lucky enough to go to the… Representative Turner's and Jefferson's party last night and barbecue, I just wanna personally thank them for an excellent dinner and I think everyone should give them a big hand. Thank you very much."
"Representative Mendoza."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, today I'm pleased to announce that up in the gallery we are joined by a very special delegation that has came all the way from China. They are members of the American Council of Young Poli… Political Leaders also known as the ACYPL. They are funded by… that… this… this is a program that's funded by the State Department and the ACYPL is an international exchange program for young politicians between the ages of twenty-five(25) and forty(40) that will open lines of communication and increase cross-cultural understanding and it’s a great program. Several Members of this Body, I know, have had opportunity to travel to different countries as delegates to the American Council of Young Political Leaders. But today we're joined by their leader, Miss Lee, we have Senator Clayborne up there, who as well is a member of the alumni of the American Council of Young Political Leaders. But they have come a long, long 09500078.doc 4 STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 78th Legislative Day 6/21/2007 way to see this beautiful Capitol and meet some of the Members here today and we'd like to give them a strong Springfield welcome."
"Representative Franks, for what reason do you rise?"
"A parliamentary inquiry and…
"…your point."
"…and then maybe we can get an answer from our parliamentarian. I was thinking about this, this morning. We spoke last week briefly about the travel cost incurred by the Executive Branch and there was an article in today's papers concerning the cost of approximately fifty-eight hundred dollars ($5,800) a day for the Governor to commute back and forth from Chicago to Springfield. And my question is this, under the Federal Tax Code I know that commuting is not a deductible expense. And I'm wondering, since it's being used for a commuter issue, for one to go to work, whether that would be a taxable event that the Governor has, and would owe the state the taxes on that benefit that he's receiving. And I'd like to know if we could get a parliamentary response on that or a legal opinion."
"I think that's beyond the scope of our House Rules, Representative Franks. But it’s a very interesting…"
"Could we get a legal opinion maybe from a…"
"It's a very interesting point. Yes."
"All right. Well thanks, we'll work on that maybe next week."
"On page 9 in the Calendar, we're going to start with Senate Bills-Second Reading. Representative Mautino, 09500078.doc 5 STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 78th Legislative Day 6/21/2007 you have the Senate Bill 119. Would you like us to read that Bill? Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"Senate Bill 119, a Bill for an Act concerning government. The Bill has been read a second time, previously. Amendment #1 was adopted in committee. No Floor Amendments. No Motions filed. All notes that have been requested have been filed."
"Do you wish us to move this to Third, Representative? Okay. So, Third Reading, Mr. Clerk. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill."
Senate Bill 119, a Bill for an Act concerning government. Third Reading of this Senate Bill."
"Representative Mautino."
"Thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen, Speakers of the House. Senate Bill 119, the Amendment, was a gut and replace Amendment. And what is contained in the Bill now will add a resident judge to the… for Grundy County and one for Kendall County. These are the fast-growing areas that we've had problems with the dockets, numbers of cases. And we've worked with the Republican side of the aisle and everyone's in agreement on it. I'd just simply ask for an 'aye' vote."
"Is there any discussion? This requires 71 votes. Then the question is, 'Shall this Bill pass?' All in favor vote 'aye'; opposed 'nay'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 97 voting 'yes' and 1 voting 'no'. And this Bill, having received a Three-fifths Constitutional Majority, is 09500078.doc 6 STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 78th Legislative Day 6/21/2007 hereby declared passed. Representative Eddy, you have Senate Bill 184. Okay. Out of the record. Representative Feigenholtz, you have the Senate Bill 259. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"Senate Bill 259, a Bill for an Act concerning regulation. The Bill's been read a second time, previously. Amendment #1 was adopted in committee. No Floor Amendments. No Motions filed."
"Third Reading. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 259, a Bill for an Act concerning regulation. Third Reading of this Senate Bill."
"Representative Feigenholtz."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Senate Bill 259 is a Bill that would license interpreters for the deaf. This licensure is needed essentially for protections for deaf consumers and people who are hard of hearing from unqualified or nonregistered interpreters. The legislation accomplishes that all sign language interpreters in Illinois abide by the set of same standards. And I would be glad to answer any questions."
"Is there any discussion? The Gentleman from Morgan, Representative Watson."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Bill. I just want to compliment Sara for the work she did on this. It was a lot of work to get a lot of people together and find some compromise and I think it's well needed and I commend you for your work."
"Is there any further discussion? Then the question is, 'Shall this Bill pass?' All in favor vote 09500078.doc 7 STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 78th Legislative Day 6/21/2007 'aye'; opposed 'nay'. The voting is open. This requires 71 votes. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 86 voting 'yes' and 12 voting 'no'. And this Bill, having received a Three-fifths Constitutional Majority, is here by declared passed. On page 6 of the Calendar, Representative Reitz, you have Senate Bill 17. You wish us to read that Bill? Out of the record. We're going to go to concurrences on page 14 of the Calendar. Representative Ryg, you have House Bill 1717. Representative Ryg."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. This is the legislation that enhanced the penalties for an assault on a severely or profoundly retarded person. And thanks to the diligence of my colleagues, we have checked into the language that the Senate Amendment changed and decided that the best course of action is to nonconcur in that particular Motion."
"Did you say you wish to nonconcur?"
"Yes. And the Senate has agreed to recede from their Amendment."
"I think, Representative, you need to also file a Motion to Nonconcur. Did you file that?"
"I'm sorry."
"Did you?"
"Yes. The Motion was filed yesterday."
"The Clerk indicates that you have a Motion to Concur on the record."
"Okay. I'm sorry." 09500078.doc 8 STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 78th Legislative Day 6/21/2007
"But you need to file a Motion then to nonconcur."
"Thank you."
"So, we'll take it out of the record while the Lady files her Motion. Representative Hoffman is recognized on House Bill 1911. Is the Gentleman in the chamber? Okay. Out of the record. Representative Munson on the House Bill 1979. Representative Munson."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. I move for concurrence on Senate Amendments 2 and 3 of House Bill 1979. Senate Amendment 2 addresses concerns from the Senate. It makes the defense of luring a minor for offenders who are over the age of twenty-one (21) the same as the higher standard established for those who are eighteen (18) to twenty-one (21) years old. Also, defines 'lawful purpose', to include only misdemeanors for felonies and to… include penalties only for misdemeanors or for felonies and defines 'stranger' and include those who are under age twenty-one (21). And Senate Amendment 3 adds to the Bill and makes it a Class IV felony to falsely represent oneself as a public offi… a public officer or public employee for the purposes of committing ID theft. Ask for your 'aye' vote and will answer any questions."
"The Lady moves that the House concur in Senate Amendments #2 and 3 to House Bill 7… 1979. Is there any discussion? Then the question is, 'Shall the House concur in the Senate Amendments and shall this Bill pass?' All in favor vote 'aye'; opposed 'nay'. The voting is open. This requires 60 votes. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the 09500078.doc 9 STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 78th Legislative Day 6/21/2007 record. On this question, there are 98 voting 'yes' and 0 voting 'no'. And the House does concur in the Senate Amendments. And this Bill, having received a Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative Hoffman, you have House Bill 1911 on the Order of Concurrence. Representative Hoffman."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. I move that we concur on Senate Amendment #1 to House Bill 1911. It's a technical change regarding the Department of Labor to ensure that we comply with the federal regulations. It was not in the original Bill and I ask for a concurrence."
"This requires 71 votes. Is there any discussion? Then the question is, 'Shall the House concur in the Senate Amendment and shall this Bill pass?' All in favor vote 'aye'; opposed 'nay'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 98 voting 'yes' and 0 voting 'no'. And the House does concur in the Senate Amendment. And this Bill, having received a Three-fifths Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. We're going to go… we're gonna go to page 16 on the Calendar, under the Order of Resolutions. And Representative Tryon, you have House Joint Resolution 13. Out of the record. Representative Coulson, you have House Joint Resolution 43. Representative Coulson."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. House Joint Resolution 43 encourages the State of Illinois to take steps to secure 09500078.doc 10 STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 78th Legislative Day 6/21/2007 funding from the recently passed Federal Comprehension Lifespand Respite Care Act of 2006, when those funds become available. This federal program authorizes 289 million dollars ($289,000,000) over five (5) years in competitive state grants to develop and implement respite care programs. And this is definitely a need for our communities for our children as well as seniors to develop better respite care programs. So, I'd encourage and 'aye' vote."
"Is there any discussion? Then the question is, 'Shall the House adopt House Joint Resolution 43?' All in favor vote 'aye'; opposed 'nay'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 98 voting 'yes' and 0 voting 'no'. And the Resolution is adopted. Representative Coulson, you have House Resolution 125."
"I'll take it out of the record."
"Representative Miller on House Joint Resolution #49."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Joint Resolution 49 provides for a bipartisan task force, so it shall hold public hearings to gather got evidence, develop and propose legislation, ultimately furnish a report concerning business and job development in Illinois. I ask for a favorable adoption."
"Is there any discussion? Then the question is, 'Shall the House adopt House Joint Resolution 49?' All in favor vote 'aye'; opposed 'nay'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all 09500078.doc 11 STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 78th Legislative Day 6/21/2007 voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 98 voting 'yes' and 0 voting 'no'. And the Resolution is adopted. Representative Tryon, you have House Resolution 189. Representative Tryon."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Resolution 189 simply proclaims May as a 'Look at Local History' Month in the State of Illinois. Almost all of our districts have some kind of historic preservation group that is very active in our community. And this will proclaim this month to actually be a month that they can look at local history on."
"Is there any discussion? Then all in favor of the Gentlemen's Resolution say 'aye'; opposed 'nay'. The 'ayes' have it. And the Resolution is adopted. On page 14 of the Calendar, under the Order of Concurrence, Representative Ford, you have House Bill 1685. Do you wish to… do you wish to concur at this time? Not at this time? Out of the record. Mr. Clerk, would you read the Agreed Resolutions?"
"Agreed Resolutions. House Resolutions 528, 529, and 530, offered by Representative Eddy. House Resolution 531, offered by Representative Turner. House Resolution 532, offered by Representative Currie. House Resolution 533, offered by Speaker Madigan. House Resolution 534, offered by Representative Hoffman. House Resolution 536, offered by Representative Dunkin. House Resolution 537, offered by Representative Riley. House Resolution 538, offered by Representative Burke. House Resolutions 539, 540, 541, offered by Representative 09500078.doc 12 STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 78th Legislative Day 6/21/2007 Mendoza. House Resolution 542, offered by Representative Riley. House Resolution 543, offered by Representative Mendoza. House Resolutions 544 and 545, offered by Representative Poe."
"Representative Currie moves for the adoption of the Agreed Resolutions. All in favor say 'aye'; opposed 'nay'. The 'ayes' have it. And the Agreed Resolutions are adopted. Are there any announcements? Representative Dunkin."
"Yes, for purposes of announcement. I just want to thank Representative Turner, former Representative Paul Williams, and Representative Chuck Jefferson for such a fine and splendid evening event over at their residence. They had great barbeque, even vegetation for us vegetarians, great beans and cornbread. And I'm looking forward to them doing another exquisite event on another wonderful day here in Springfield next time. Thank you and goodnight."
"Representative Meyer."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Inquiry of the Chair. Do you know if we are planning on being back on next Tuesday, as the schedule indicates? The last 2 weeks we've canceled Tuesdays."
"The Motion to adjourn will suggest that we… we'll say that we come back on Tuesday, the 26th at 3 p.m."
"Okay."
"Is there any further announcements? Then Representative Currie moves, that allowing for perfunctory time for the Clerk, that the House stand adjourned until Tuesday, June 26, at the hour of 3 p.m. All in favor say 09500078.doc 13 STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 78th Legislative Day 6/21/2007 'aye'; opposed 'nay'. The 'ayes' have it. The Motion is adopted and the House stands adjourned." 09500078.doc 14