Gov. Rauner announced today that Patricia R. “Patti” Bellock has been named director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (DHFS). Bellock has served in the General Assembly since 1999 and is recognized as one of the body’s leading advocates for Medicaid, health care and social services, areas she will oversee in her new role.

“Illinois is so fortunate to have an advocate for health and human services as dedicated and talented as Patti Bellock,” said Rauner in announcing the appointment. “She has been instrumental in virtually every health advancement our state has made in the last two decades and I am looking forward to her leadership of the state’s ongoing effort to reform our delivery systems and improve our outcomes.”

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. In recognition, State Representative Patti Bellock introduced and passed legislation this year, HR 254, to support and commend the efforts of those people and organizations who work tirelessly to help victims break free of the devastating effects of domestic abuse.

Domestic Violence Awareness Month evolved from the "Day of Unity" held in October of 1981, and was conceived by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Since 1989, October has been designated as National Domestic Violence Month. Read more.

To learn more, please visit the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence online at www.ncadv.org.

EDUCATION FUNDING
Gov. Rauner issues amendatory veto to ensure school funding bill is fair, equitable for all students. Tuesday, Gov. Bruce Rauner issued an amendatory veto to Senate Bill 1, the school funding bill. The matter now heads to the Illinois General Assembly, where the governor has respectfully requested that lawmakers uphold his changes. If these changes are upheld, Illinois will achieve historic education funding reform.

House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) released the following statement today on the retirement announcement of Deputy Leader Patti Bellock (R-Hinsdale):

“I have been privileged to serve alongside Patti Bellock since she first came to the Illinois General Assembly in 1999. Patti has brought the common-sense approach of a mother and grandmother to her public role, combining a keen understanding of how the law impacts people’s lives with a depth of knowledge and expertise in key policy areas unequaled among her peers. Patti’s unparalleled work ethic has been a tremendous asset to our caucus, particularly over the past four years in her role as our Deputy Leader, the first woman in Illinois history to serve in that post. Patti will long be remembered as an extraordinary leader and a tireless advocate for Illinois families; particularly on health care, disability and budget issues. Patti and I have been personal friends for many years, so I wish her and her family all the best as she looks forward to the next chapter in her life at the completion of her term.”

Leader Durkin appointed Representative Bellock to the position of Deputy House Republican Leader in October 2013. Leader Bellock also currently serves as a budget negotiator for the House Republican Caucus, Minority Spokeswoman for the House Human Services and Human Services Appropriations Committees, respectively, as well as being the co-chair of the Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force. She has been a member of the Illinois House of Representatives since 1999.

Budget – Unpaid Bills
Backlog of unpaid bill hits $8.6 billion. The unpaid-bill count, tracked on a day-to-day basis by the office of Comptroller Leslie Munger, hit more than $8.6 billion this week. The red-ink number is closely watched by holders of Illinois debt paper and by international credit rating agencies and firms that rank worldwide debtors by chances of insolvency. For example Moody’s, the world’s largest credit-rating firm, currently ranks Illinois general obligation debt backed by general funds at Baa2, two ranks above “junk bond” level. Moody’s adds that they have a “negative outlook” on Illinois’ current Baa2 rating. Analysts at Moody’s report that Illinois’ “structural budget gap” currently equals at least 15% of Illinois general fund and pension expenditures.

Jobs – Illinois labor force

Illinois payroll drops by 8,200 jobs in August. The monthly jobs and unemployment report from the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) showed a 30-day drop of 8,200 in Illinois’ seasonally-adjusted nonfarm payroll jobs. This key employment number declined from 6,016,900 in July 2016 to 6,008,700 in August.

House Republicans call on Democrat colleagues to continue budget collaboration

On Wednesday, House Republican legislators who have been participating in bipartisan budget working groups expressed their disappointment with Democrat Speaker Michael Madigan’s dismissal of their collaborative efforts. They called for a continuation of the efforts of rank-and-file members from both sides of the aisle to devise a framework for a compromise and balanced budget.

Rep. Patti Bellock (R-Hinsdale) shared her experience and leadership on health care policy at a recent Healthcare Summit in Washington, D.C. hosted by Women in Government. During the summit, Bellock met with other female legislators from across the country to discuss the numerous national, regional and local issues surrounding health care.

Bellock's landmark legislation – the SMART Act reforming Illinois' Medicaid system and new laws requiring mental health parity and MRSA infection control have all been recognized on a national level.

“Heroin is no longer a secret,” Illinois State Rep. Patti Bellock told dozens of lawmakers, community leaders and local advocates who gathered at the Robert Crown Center for Health and Education in suburban Chicago on Wednesday to commemorate the inaugural Illinois Heroin Abuse Awareness Day.

“Eight or nine years ago,I wasn’t worried about heroin,” said Bellock, who sponsored the resolution to make November 4th Heroin Abuse Awareness Day — an effort to raise awareness among Illinois residents, and parents in particular, about the dangers of heroin, the deadly drug at the center of a nationwide epidemic.

“When a close friend approached me, distraught because her son was addicted, I was shocked,” Bellock said. “People weren’t aware that heroin was a problem.”

The midwest, and the Chicagoland area specifically, have been among the regions hardest hit by the country’s current drug problem which, according to the CDC, has caused the rate of heroin-related deaths to nearly triple since 2010. Read more on Yahoo News.

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.

The Illinois House of Representatives adopted a resolution Wednesday to encourage the continued use of vaccines for children, adolescents and adults to ensure the safety and health of the citizens of Illinois. The bill, HR 184, was introduced and sponsored by Deputy House Minority Leader and State Rep. Patti Bellock (R-Hinsdale).

“Immunizing children and adolescents helps protect the health of our communities throughout the State of Illinois by slowing down or stopping certain disease outbreaks,” Rep. Bellock said. “I grew up during the era of the polio epidemic, when thousands of children and adults suffered lifelong paralysis. The advent of the polio vaccine virtually eradicated the disease from the United States, as did the vaccines for measles and other communicable diseases.” Read more.

With the holiday season in full swing, the state Capitol is largely quiet. But some legislators say this is the exact time to think of children in the state’s care.

State Rep. Patti Bellock, R-Hinsdale, called reports of physical and sexual violence within the state’s child welfare agency “an absolute tragedy.”

She said an upcoming hearing to examine the problems at the Department of Children and Family Services could mark the start of a bipartisan effort to greatly improve child protection in Illinois.

State Rep. John Cabello, R-Machesney Park, another member of the House Human Services committee examining the issues, agrees change is needed, including making child protection a true state priority.

DCFS has long been underfunded and understaffed and leadership at the top has too often changed, Cabello said. “I’ve worked with a number of DCFS people, caseworkers, in my area. I can tell you they are committed to doing what is right, committed to doing the most they can with what they have,” said the Rockford police detective who is on leave while he serves in the General Assembly. The Rockford Register Star has the story by Mark Fitton with the Illinois News Network.

The Auditor General today released a troubling audit on the failure of the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to report missing children in state custody dating back to 2011. The audit comes on the heels of an ongoing investigation into abuse and lack of supervision in DCFS residential facilities, the subject of an upcoming Illinois House hearing scheduled for January 7. The reports involve cases of physical and sexual abuse of children in state custody; including exposure to drugs, acts of violence and forced prostitution.

The audit released today was conducted in response to a legislative measure adopted in May, HR 120, directing the Office of the Auditor General to conduct a management audit of the DCFS search for missing children. The Resolution asked the audit to determine for calendar years 2011–2012: (1) the number of children reported missing; (2) whether timely reports of missing children were made to required parties; and (3) the steps followed to locate and recover missing children, including compliance with procedures. Read more.

Judy Baar Topinka – biography
State Comptroller passes away in office; veteran elected official is remembered by both parties.  Judy Baar Topinka, a lifelong resident of historic Riverside, Illinois, passed away on Wednesday, December 10. The incumbent State Comptroller had just been reelected by popular vote to serve a second term in office; she would have taken her oath of office alongside Governor-elect Bruce Rauner on Monday, January 12.

House Republicans today praised the scheduling of a hearing of the Human Services Committee for Wednesday, January 7 to receive testimony regarding documented abuse at DCFS Residential Facilities throughout the state. The hearing comes in response to a series of disturbing reports exposing cases of physical and sexual abuse of children in state custody; including exposure to drugs, acts of violence and forced prostitution.  Read more.

Budget – Medicaid
House Republicans again push to impose limits on the rate of Medicaid growth.  Medicaid patient headcounts and expenditures are shooting up nationwide. This pattern is partly due to the federal Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), which encourages the states to expand and enlarge their individual Medicaid programs.  In 2012, 72.2 million American residents – more than one-fifth of the nation’s population – were covered by Medicaid for at least one month.  In their story this week, “Reversing the Medicaid Tidal Wave in Illinois”, The Caucus Blog describes the national numbers.  

Rep. Patti Bellock

Every state is struggling with the explosive growth and cost of its Medicaid program. Illinois, however, found a way to reduce Medicaid spending significantly, freeing up money for other important projects—or better yet, tax cuts.

Medicaid, the government health-insurance program for the poor and disabled, covered 72.2 million people for at least one month in 2012, according to estimates from the Department of Health and Human Services.

But enrollment is growing quickly. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reports that Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) enrollment is up by about 8.7 million people—nearly 15%—since the Affordable Care Act’s October 2013 rollout. Total Medicaid spending was about $432 billion in 2012. The federal government provided $250 billion, or a bit more than half, but states paid the rest.

For many states, Medicaid is already their single largest expenditure, and now it is demanding more, forcing state governments to limit or reduce spending in other important areas like education and welfare.

Enter the Illinois solution. In 2013, the state faced a Medicaid budget shortfall of $2.7 billion. Springfield had begun implementing some reforms, such as shifting more Medicaid recipients into private managed-care organizations, but that wasn’t enough.

So Illinois state Rep. Patti Bellock garnered bipartisan support to pass legislation in 2012 that included several Medicaid reforms. One of the most important was a provision to establish the Illinois Medicaid Redetermination Program to “redetermine” if Medicaid enrollees were still eligible to participate.Every state is struggling with the explosive growth and cost of its Medicaid program. Illinois, however, found a way to reduce Medicaid spending significantly, freeing up money for other important projects—or better yet, tax cuts. Read more by Merrill Matthews in the Wall Street Journal.

Chicago – NRI
“…we are trying to get the base out…” Newly-released emails confirm politics part of troubled Quinn program. On Tuesday, Oct. 7, former Quinn chief of staff Jack Lavin turned over personal emails subpoenaed by the Legislative Audit Commission that tie the 2010 election and Quinn’s campaign to the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative.

In a Sept. 5, 2010 email to Ben Nuckels, then Quinn’s campaign manager, Lavin outlined strategies to appeal to African-American voters. “If we are trying to get the base out and that’s the key to our victory, we better prioritize correctly,” Lavin wrote. “The African-American community tends to break late so we have some time. The Gov’s Neighborhood Recovery Initiative will also help on the jobs and anti-violence messages.”

Illinois has become the first state in the nation to enact a comprehensive set of standards to ensure transparency in the management and oversight of state grant funds.

The Grant Accountability and Transparency Act, signed into law by the Governor on Wednesday, strengthens and streamlines requirements for all state grants across all state agencies. The reforms include stronger state grant procedures to bring them in line with federal standards; improved conflict of interest disclosure requirements; and strict, real-time auditing of all state grants.

The new law is in response to a report by the Illinois Single Audit Commission, created last year by legislation spearheaded by Leader Patti Bellock, which found that, currently, the Illinois grant process has no common application, no common grant agreement, a lack of transparency, no uniform administrative rules, and a lack of a State-wide non-compliance list.  Many of these issues are what result in the ability to misuse grant funds.  The legislation co-sponsored by Leader Bellock and signed by the Governor remedies all those current failures. Read more.

It's a big number that State Representative Patti Bellock (R-Westmont) calls a “public health crisis of epic proportion.”

Now, two Illinois legislative committees are studying the growing use of heroin in Illinois and one of the more alarming findings of their studies is a trend twoard younger and younger users. Read the entire story on CSNChicago.