« Obama: Chicago State: Jones | Main | Gidwitz on Pork, with a bullet* »
Listen up! Legislative pay raise, transparency, and more
By AFP | May 16, 2008
DJ Jim Raftis has released his newest installment of the AFP Capitol Podcast. CLICK HERE to listen.
Here are a couple of the highlights, transcribed:
The heat got so prickly last week that Senate President Emil Jones removed Senator Debbie Halvorson as chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee – a powerful panel that serves as gatekeeper to hundreds of bills.
By replacing her, its serves several of purposes. It protects her from a public relations firing squad should the Rules Committee continue to sit on a “good government” bills such as AFP supported HB4765. Her removal also solves a problem for Jones, who was growing more uncomfortable with Halvorson’s positions. She favored a recall amendment, which Jones opposed; she advanced an ethics bill, which Jones stalled; and she opposes pay increases for legislators while Jones supports them. Last fall, she threatened to bench the Rules Committee until Jones agreed to move forward on the ethics bill.
So Wednesday, at the end of a leadership meeting in Jones’ office, he told her he would be replacing her on the Rules Committee.
“He said, ‘I don’t think this is working out,’ ” Halvorson said. “We only have three weeks left (of the legislative session), and we have so much to get done, and we can’t be worrying about every little thing the Republicans are going to take out of context. They were having a field day.”
Jim, as always, is keeping everyone abreast of developments with HB4765:
For another week HB4765 has stalled in the Senate Rules Committee. Efforts by the Senate Sponsors to move the bill will continue as they have vowed to do whatever it takes to move this legislation forward for a vote. The bill now enjoys by partisan support in the Illinois Senate and the support of over 15 national and statewide interest groups. Our work is not done, your continued calls, media letters are most important.
Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
May 20th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
[...] Listen up! Legislative pay raise, transparency, and more [...]