FY16 Budget
Leaders’ budget meeting with Governor moved to December 1. The face-to-face meeting is scheduled to bring together Governor Bruce Rauner and the leaders of the four General Assembly legislative caucuses, including House Republican Leader Jim Durkin. Originally scheduled to be held on Wednesday, November 18, the meeting has been reset for Tuesday, December 1. The new time will allow preparations to continue over the Thanksgiving holiday.

State Rep. Raymond Poe next week will begin undergoing a stem cell transplant designed to replace his bone marrow and cure a blood disease.

Poe, 70, will undergo the procedure at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where he said he will be “at least a month.”

“That’s what they’re telling me in Texas, you’re coming down here for a cure, not a treatment,” Poe said.

Poe, a Springfield Republican, was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic syndrome or MDS.

In an interview with The State Journal-Register in August, Dr. Leonard Giannone, a Springfield oncologist and hematologist who has treated Poe, described the disease as a low-level malignancy of the stem cells that produce blood. He said it is not a fast-growing cancer, and that patients can live with it for years. Read the story by Doug Finke in the Springfield Journal-Register.

Legislation recently introduced by State Representative Raymond Poe (R-Springfield) will ensure that state retirees receive a full refund for any contributions made to their health insurance premium.  Poe’s legislation stems from an Illinois Supreme Court decision that found state-subsidized retiree health insurance premiums are a protected benefit under the Illinois Constitution.  A law enacted in 2012 began the practice of requiring current retirees to make health insurance premium contributions.  Read more.

Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin echoed the sentiment of his members when he told reporters following the Governor’s state-of-the-state address that the administration could no longer blame the Great Recession for the state's financial situation. The states surrounding Illinois fiscal conditions are improving while Illinois stands at 8.6% unemployment. The Governor’s claims that the state has turned the corner are not borne out by the facts.

Today 23 Republican members of the Illinois House of Representatives signed letters sent to the Governor and Attorney General regarding the shortage of propane, urging them to take further action. The shortage during severe weather is causing prices for propane to skyrocket. Many are finding it impossible to pay their heating bills and keep their families warm.

House Republicans thanked the Governor for the recent disaster proclamation and asked him to:

1. Allocate additional emergency funds for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to assist Illinoisans in paying their propane or other heating bills.
2. Provide emergency low-interest loans/temporary lines of credit to propane distributors/suppliers to ensure they will have the resources necessary to purchase additional propane to alleviate shortages.
3. Work with the General Assembly to pass a temporary suspension of the state sales tax on LP/propane in order to provide some relief to families struggling to heat their homes.
4. Urge the federal government to create a strategic reserve of LP/propane and moderate exports of the fuel while supplies remain critically low.

Additionally, they asked the Attorney General to protect Illinoisans from improper tactics firms may be using during the crisis to gouge consumers.

Raymond & Carol Poe

State Rep. Raymond Poe was 19 when he and his wife-to-be, Carol, were at the Sangamon County courthouse getting their marriage license as President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963.

“Everybody remembers where they were,” Poe, 69, recalled this week.

“We got married the next day, and then went down to the Smoky Mountains” in Tennessee, he said. “At that time, people showed so much respect for the president, and literally, you couldn’t hardly find a place even to stop and eat” because so many businesses were closed. Open gas stations were rare, too.

“I’m not sure today that would happen,” the Springfield Republican said. “There was just a lot of respect and a lot of mourning going on.”

He said he and Carol did have TV at their motel and watched the coverage in the aftermath of Kennedy’s death.

“I think it hurt every American,” Poe said. “We … hope to never live long enough to see it happen again.” Read more of the story by Bernard Schoenburg in the SJR.

House Republican Leader Jim Durkin
Jim Durkin unanimously elected by Illinois House as Republican Leader.  Durkin’s election, which was an anticipated event after his colleagues unanimously elected him in August 2013 to lead their caucus, took place on Tuesday, October 22.  This was the first day of the Illinois House and Senate veto session, a series of days set aside in the fall to respond to veto messages submitted by the Governor and take action on urgent issues of public interest.  Durkin’s election formalized his status, and renewed the ability of House Republicans to slate members of House committees and participate in the naming of members of their caucus leadership team.

Leader Durkin announced that his highest priority would be to reverse current State laws that discourage job creation and economic growth.  “The biggest social issue of the day is the 9.2 percent unemployment rate,” Durkin told reporters.  Illinois’s jobless rate is currently the 2nd highest of the 50 U.S. states, exceeded only by Nevada.

Row 1:  Rep. Rich Brauer on farm tour and at "Kiss a Pig" Diabetes Fundraisers.

Row 2:  Reps Rich Brauer & Raymond Poe at Oak Ridge Cemetery Gate Dedication and with Menard County Fair Queen.

Members of the Illinois General Assembly spend a great deal of time in Springfield in the first half of the year for legislative session, in the remaining months they are working in their districts. The photos below depict some of their activities.

Rep. Patti Bellock and Phil Southerland, founder of Team T1D at the
 Diabetes Awareness 5k on June 24 at Chicago’s historic Soldier Field.

Rep. Raymond Poe meets with seniors from his district at the 15th Annual
Central Illinois Senior Celebration on May 15.

Rep. Don Moffitt presents flag flown over state Capitol at
Aledo fire station grand opening on June 1.

June 25th tour of BNSF Railyard in Galesburg by
Reps. Norine Hammond & Don Moffitt

Rep. Raymond Poe

Budget bills are in committee this morning expect to see them on the House floor soon. Session today begins at noon, follow it live here.