Reps. Bourne, McCombie, Hammond, Bryant and Winger
wear black to show solidarity and their commitment to ending
sexual harassment and discrimination. 

Yesterday for the State of the State address members of the Illinois General Assembly wore black to show their solidarity and renew their commitment to ending sexual harassment and discrimination.

Reps. Barb Wheeler and Christine Winger rose on the House Floor to speak about the alarming testimony they heard as part of the Sexual Harassment Task Force and urged support of HR 783 to launch an investigation into harassment allegations.

Rep. Sara Wojcicki Jimenez shared the experiences of the first women Illinois legislator,  Rep. Lottie Holman O'Neil and spoke eloquently about creating an environment where "it is not riskier for women to speak-up than to remain silent."

Finally, Governor Rauner signed Executive Order 2018-02 strengthening state policies to ensure all government employees under his jurisdiction have reliable and responsive outlets for reporting acts of sexual misconduct. Among other things, the order creates a chief compliance office and requires the review of harassment allegations within 10 days or less. Read the entire Executive Order

House Republicans members will continue to take action against perpetrators of harassment and work to improve protections for women in the workplace.

Last night the House passed a historic compromise education funding plan that ensures all children in Illinois will have access to a high quality education. Read more about SB 1947.

Here is what some of our members are saying about it.

Rep. Christine Winger
“Today’s agreement is a historic step forward for education funding, one that will help our students have the opportunities they deserve to succeed while also ensuring all school districts are treated fairly.”

State Reps. Michael McAuliffe, Christine Winger, Peter Breen, Grant Wehrli, and Keith Wheeler today introduced legislation, House Bill 4082, to immediately repeal the one-cent-per-ounce Cook County Sweetened Beverage Tax. The tax, which went into effect on August 2, will result in Cook County consumers having to pay on average 67 percent more for a 2-liter of pop, 43 percent more for a gallon of juice drink or sweetened iced tea, and 29 percent more for a 12-pack.

Reps Olsen, Winger, Bellock & McDermed joined the
Governor and Simon Wiesenthal Center to announce
the expansion of anti-hate education in Illinois.

Governor Bruce Rauner announced today the State of Illinois will work with the Simon Wiesenthal Center to expand anti-hate education to Illinois students. This is part of Governor Rauner’s efforts to combat anti-Semitism and other hate crimes in Illinois.

“As Simon Wiesenthal and others frequently said, ‘For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.’ We’re here because we’re doing something. Illinois will not stay silent in the face of hate, bigotry and persecution,” Governor Rauner said. “Illinois is a leader in anti-hate education, and we will work with organizations like the Simon Wiesenthal Center to continue to lead by example.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center today presented Governor Bruce Rauner with its 2017 Digital Terrorism and Hate Report at the State Capitol. He is the first Midwestern governor to be presented with the report.

"The Simon Wiesenthal Center is grateful for Governor Rauner taking a leadership position today, in supporting our ongoing efforts to combat racism, anti-Semitism and extremism, especially on social media." said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization, and founder of the Digital Hate and Terrorism Project, twenty two years ago.  "The Simon Wiesenthal Center's Midwest Director, Alison Pure-Slovin, has already begun to train facilitators for our new Students Tools for Tolerance program that will empower young people to deal with the tsunami of online hate. We look forward to working with Governor Rauner and Secretary of Education Beth Purvis to educate our children on the perils of social media.”

Earlier this month, Governor Rauner unveiled a four-part initiative to combat the rise in anti-Semitism and hate crimes both in Illinois and around the country. His directives include:

• Strengthening Illinois’ hate crime law to prevent and prosecute hate crimes targeting specific religions
• Improving law enforcement training to properly identify, investigate and prosecute hate crimes
• Expanding K-12 education to combat hate
• Prohibiting state contracts with companies that boycott Israel

General Assembly – Redistricting
Independent Maps referendum language thrown out by Illinois Supreme Court. The 4-3 decision, which fell along partisan lines, found that the Independent Maps amendment to govern the way Illinois draws its lines for General Assembly seats should not appear on the November 2016 ballot. The decision, which cannot be appealed to any higher panel, will make it impossible for Illinoisans to speak out on the process used to elect members of the Illinois General Assembly.

House Republican Leader Jim Durkin today announced his appointments to the newly formed Illinois School Funding Reform Commission. The commission will be composed of five designees from the Governor’s administration and each of the four legislative leaders. Secretary of Education Beth Purvis will serve as chairperson.  

“The current school aid formula is archaic and needs to be reformed. I applaud Governor Rauner for forming this commission in an effort to bring all sides to the table to find a solution that is fair to both schools and taxpayers across Illinois,” said Durkin. “Each of my appointees to this bi-partisan, bi-cameral commission has taken a strong interest in reforming education funding, and each will bring a different regional perspective to the discussion.”  

House Republican appointees are:

• Avery Bourne, 95th District
• Sheri Jesiel, 61st District
• Dwight Kay, 112th District
• Bob Pritchard, 70th District
• Christine Winger, 45th District

The Commission is charged with coming up with a recommended comprehensive solution to reform Illinois’ school funding formula. A report is to be presented to the Governor and the Illinois General Assembly by February 1, 2017 with action to be taken in time for the 2017-2018 school year.

Rep. Christine Winger continues to stand with residents adversely impacted by O'Hare Airport. In April, Winger sent a letter to Attorney General Lisa Madigan asking her to take action to protect the health of those affected by noise and pollution generated by operations at O’Hare.

According to the Attorney General's website, "One of the primary responsibilities of the Attorney General's office is safeguarding the public by protecting the environment. Attorney General Madigan plays a significant role in protecting the health and welfare of all Illinois residents and strives to provide a future that will include a safe environment." Read more.

Rep. Christine Winger advanced legislation on Tuesday that would instill a little normalcy in the lives of Illinois foster children.

Spending time at a friend’s house, taking school trips, attending prom, holding a summer job, even having a Facebook page are normal activities for many Illinois youth. “Most would agree these experiences help young people develop interests, acquire skills, understand cultural differences and build relationships,” explained Winger. “While we take these experiences for granted, it is not the case for Illinois foster kids.” Read more.

Read a little about what members are doing when they are not in Springfield:

BENNETT: Area Lawmakers Call for Higher Education Compromise

BOURNE: Representative Bourne Joins Local Law Enforcement to Tackle Synthetic Drug Epidemic

JESIEL: House in Recess; Republicans Protest

MCAULIFFE: Resolution Raises Awareness for Cardiovascular Disease in South Asian Community

MCDERMED: Rep McDermed Hosting Property Tax Seminar

WINGER: Winger, Munger listen to women’s concerns, explain fiscal crisis

A bill sponsored by State Representative Christine Winger (R-Wood Dale) to increase the number of Veterans Courts in Illinois cleared its first hurdle. House Bill 5003 passed out of committee unanimously on Tuesday.

Veterans Courts focus directly on the needs of former and current members of the armed forces. Currently, there are 12 Veteran Court programs in Illinois. All are limited to veterans with non-violent records who are struggling with substance abuse or mental health issues. Veterans who qualify and successfully comply with court orders get the treatment they need and can have charges dismissed. As of 2014, problem-solving courts including Veteran Treatment Courts kept 1,200 offenders out of prison, saving the state of Illinois nearly $20 million. Read more.

FY16 Budget
Governor vetoes unfunded MAP grant bill. SB 2043, passed by legislative Democrats on partisan roll-calls, is a $721 million appropriations bill for higher education, without a funding source to pay for the appropriations. The bill “would explode the State’s budget deficit,” Governor Bruce Rauner explained in his veto message. SB 2043 purported to appropriate FY16 money for Monetary Award Program (MAP) grants and community college programs, but was not backed up by new or existing revenues to the State.

O’Hare area legislators announced bi-partisan efforts to bring noise relief to the communities around the airport, at a press conference yesterday (Tuesday) in Chicago.

State Rep. Christine Winger (R-45th) of Wood Dale, whose constituents are in the suburbs immediately west of the airport, was joined at the James Thompson Center by State Rep. Michael McAuliffe (R-20th), State Sen. John Mulroe (D-10th), both of Chicago’s Northwest Side, and State Sen. Laura Murphy (D-28) of Des Plaines.

“We are committed to working together to find solutions,” said Winger. “Our constituents deserve no less.”  Read more in Journal-Topics.

Budget – FY16
Many providers of mandated state-financed services report they are not being paid despite court orders. In one case, the operation of networks of residential care services for persons with developmental disabilities, a federal judge has ordered that the state pay the networks and the Comptroller has reported that Illinois does not have the money to immediately carry out this order. Approximately 10,000 persons with developmental disabilities are affected.

State Representative Christine Winger (R-Wood Dale) has introduced new legislation that would provide an income tax credit for taxpayers who purchase sound-mitigating windows, doors, insulation and other items to alleviate excessive noise from O’Hare’s new runway patterns.

In October of this year, thousands of new households will be blasted with house-rattling, conversation-halting, sleep-depriving jet engine noise they will endure when aircraft begin flying less than a mile over their rooftops. In spite of the new flight patterns for takeoffs and landings at O’Hare, these residents do not qualify for federal grants to assist with soundproofing projects. Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), who set the parameters for access to the grant money, excluded this new group of property owners, saying that as long as the airport expansion progresses as planned, their exposure to excessive noise would only last six years. According to the FAA, that is when another new runway is scheduled to be operational. Read more.

General Assembly Pay
House Republicans vote for bill to deny pay increase for selves in FY16. The measure, HB 576, amends State law to block implementation of the automatic pay increases slated to be paid in FY16 to Illinois elected officials. This action is necessary to prevent an annual automatic pay increase from being paid to members of the General Assembly, statewide elected officials, certain Cabinet-level executive branch agency directors and appointees, and county state’s attorneys. Automatic pay increases of this type have been mandated by the Compensation Review Act since 1984.

Reps. Christine Winger and Michael McAuliffe introduced HR500 this week, a measure that would reward airlines for utilizing voluntary federal Fly Quiet protocols when landing at and departing from O’Hare International Airport.

The Fly Quiet Program was adopted by the City of Chicago in 1997 to reduce the noise impact on residents living around O’Hare airport. Currently, pilots and air traffic controllers are encouraged, but not mandated, to use Fly Quiet designated runways and flight tracks during nighttime hours. These routes direct aircraft over less-populated areas, such as forest preserves and highways, as well as commercial and industrial areas to reduce the impact of noise on residential neighborhoods.

Budget – FY16
Despite deadline, Democrats again refuse to pass balanced budget for FY16. The Illinois Constitution requires that the State annually pass a balanced budget in which revenues match mandated expenditures. One way that Speaker Madigan has been Speaker for 32 of the past 34 years is by passing a series of unbalanced budgets, which have all spent money the State has not had. He has curried favor with powerful interests and forced Republicans to be the villains whenever steps are taken to prevent the spending of imaginary money.

Having only spent four months on the job, the large class of House Republican freshmen came together in the Capitol today to express their disgust with the partisan political atmosphere that has engulfed Springfield.  The message they came to deliver is there is no better time than now to call for term limits in Springfield.

“I don’t believe there’s a single one of us who truly understood the high barriers towards reform that have been erected by the entrenched leadership here in Springfield,” stated Steve Andersson (R, Geneva).  “The time is now to discuss this issue, while we are amidst this gridlock.”

In an effort to protect wards of the state, State Representative Christine Winger (R-Bloomingdale) passed legislation out of the Illinois House today that initiates a recommendation made at a legislative hearing scrutinizing the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). Rep. Winger’s legislation specifically targets allegations of abuse at state-supported youth residential facilities.

At the hearing, a former ward of the state testified that having the ability to submit complaints, concerns and suggestions anonymously would help improve the safety of state wards living in residential treatment centers regulated by DCFS. She explained that oftentimes residents felt they needed anonymity to report wrongdoing or risk retaliation from their abusers. Read more.

The state would be required to operate a hotline to receive complaints about jet noise from O'Hare International Airport and collect scientific data that "creates an accurate overall portrait of the impact of noise on community quality of life," under legislation that was introduced Thursday.

The state would be required to operate a hotline to receive complaints about jet noise from O'Hare International Airport and collect scientific data that "creates an accurate overall portrait of the impact of noise on community quality of life," under legislation that was introduced Thursday.

State Rep. Christine Winger, a Republican from Bloomingdale in DuPage County, said residents in her district are concerned about how O'Hare noise may be affecting the health of families as well as potentially lowering property values.

Major changes in O'Hare flight patterns that took effect in October 2013 are sending more planes west and east of the airport, while generally reducing the number of flights north and south of the airfield.

Winger introduced three bills that she said would require the collection of more information by jet noise monitoring devices and implement tougher accountability measures. Read more.