Monday, November 13

7:30 a.m. - The Midwestern Higher Education Compact, a multi-state organization of which Illinois is part, will meet across state lines both Monday and Tuesday in Overland Park, Kansas. Illinois’ MHEC Commissioners include Jim Applegate and Alice Marie Jacobs, of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, along with Commissioner Suzanne Morris, of the Illinois Community College Board. MHEC Commissioners Sen. Pat McGuire (D-Crest Hill) and MHEC Executive Committee Chair Rep. Kelly Burke (D-Oak Lawn) are also expected to attend. Agenda and Agenda Book.

1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. - The Department on Aging’s Committee on Older Adult Services will be held in two locations video video conference. In Springfield, the group will meet at the Illinois Department of Aging, 1 Natural Resources Way, #100. In Chicago, the meeting will be held at the Bilandic Building in the IDoA Conference Room on the 7th floor. No agenda has yet been posted for the committee, which took up budget and legislative updates at its August meeting. Prior to that, the group’s May meeting minutes detail the pains felt by the budget impasse; although no individual clients saw a loss of services, 17 entities terminated contracts with the state and 12 saw difficulty making payroll.  

Tuesday, November 14

9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. - The Health Facilities & Services Review Board’s all-day meeting will take place at Bolingbrook Golf Club, 201 Rodeo Drive, Bolingbrook, Illinois. The panel will hear from two Centegra Hospital facilities which seek to reduce services. Centegra of Woodstock is applying to discontinue a 60-bed medical surgical unit and a 12-bed intensive care unit. Centegra of McHenry wants to discontinue a 22-bed physical rehabilitation unit but is also applying to relocate the service at a cost of $3.9 million. Six other companies are applying for substantive new facilities projects, such as a 150-bed, $23 million skilled nursing facility in Geneva and five for non-substantive. Public participation is welcome. Agenda.  

11:30 a.m. - Secretary Randy Blankenhorn, of the Illinois Department of Transportation, will speak to the City Club of Chicago during a reception held at Maggiano’s Banquets on W. Grand Avenue in Chicago. Program.


12:00 p.m. - The Illinois Conservation Foundation will meet at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, in the IDNR Boardroom at 1 Natural Resources Way in Springfield. No agenda has yet been posted for the committee.

3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. - The Illinois State Charter School Commission will meet at the Thompson Center in Chicago, room 9-031. The commission is expected to make amendments to its bylaws, and review its FY2019 budget which will receive its first reading. Operations Committee Agenda. Schools Committee Agenda.   

Wednesday, November 15

8:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. - The Drug Utilization Review Board of the Department of Healthcare and Family services will hold its quarterly meeting at the University of Illinois College of Pharmacy in Conference Room B-16, at 833 S. Wood St., in Chicago. At its previous meeting the board reviewed Gov. Bruce Rauner’s Opioid Action Plan. No agenda has yet been posted for this meeting. Those seeking further information can contact the board at (877) 782-5565.

9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. - The Juvenile Justice Commission will hold its bi-monthly meeting on the first floor of the Department of Human Services building, 401 S. Clinton, in Chicago. The public is invited to join via teleconference by dialing (888) 494-4032 and using conference code 5329547331#. Ongoing projects for the commission include developing mental health opportunities for the Youth Division Task Force. No agenda has yet been posted for the meeting.

12:00 p.m. -  A joint meeting of the Senate Telecommunications and Information Technology and House Elections & Campaign Finance Committees will be held in Chicago at the Bilandic Building, in room C-600 on the 6th floor. In a subject matter hearing, the committees will discuss the state Board of Elections’ participation in the Interstate Crosscheck Program. At time of publication, 324 witness slips had already been registered in opposition to the state’s participation with no witness slips registered in support. Groups include several chapters of Indivisible Illinois and Indivisible Chicago, Action for a Better tomorrow, a number of independent businesses, and the faculty and students of several universities.

1:00 p.m. - The Liquor Control Commission will meet in Suites 9-039 and 9-040 of the Thompson Center, 110 W. Randolph St., in Chicago. While open to the public, no agenda has yet been posted for this committee. The body is scheduled to hold a hearing for businesses out of compliance with liquor laws but no materials or case identifications have been made available on its website. The commission’s Underage Compliance Report from October details nine citations for establishments in violation of liquor control laws. No hearing dockets for the Liquor Control Commission have been posted on its official website for over a year, the latest docket was for Aug. 17, 2016. Meeting minutes from the commission’s Sept. 20 meeting indicate no hearing was held.   


Thursday, November 16

8:00 a.m. - University of Illinois’ Board of Trustees will meet in room MC-350 of the 352 Henry Administration Building at 506 S. Wright St., in Urbana. The group is expected to settle three medical lawsuits worth $4.2 million, two of which involve injuries to children. They will approve a $100,000 pay-for-performance bonus schema for President Timothy Killeen, who will unveil FY2017 goals for the university. Similarly, an additional $75,000 will be awarded to UIC Chancellor Michael Amiridis. Only in Amiridis’ case will the bonus be incorporated it into his base pay, with any future pay-for-performance funds eliminated after 2018. The board is also expected ask the Illinois Board of Higher Education for $98 million in new funds, a 5.4% funding increase for FY2019. Agenda.

9:00 a.m. - The Illinois Gaming Board is scheduled to hold will its monthly meeting, although details are unconfirmed. The board typically holds open session meetings on the fifth floor of the Bilandic Building in Chicago. Although the boards October meeting was cancelled, their September meeting saw the initial consideration of a transfer of ownership for Rivers Casino, and a request from Harrah’s casinos to proceed with a refinancing initiative. Agendas are expected to be posted by Tuesday, Nov. 14 for both the Riverboat or Video Gaming committees of the board. For more information, Administrator Mark Ostrowski may be contacted at (312) 814-4700.

9:00 a.m. - The Illinois Pollution Control Board will hold a hearing in two locations via video conference: IPCS Hearing Room 11-512 at the Thompson Center in Chicago, and the North Entrance IPCB Hearing Room 1244-N at 1021 North Grand Ave. East in Springfield. The case, R2018-017, has been ongoing since Aug. 3 of this year, brought by the Illinois EPA which wants to see an overhaul of the state’s rules governing public water supplies. The hearing will be followed by the board’s monthly meeting at 11:00 a.m. No agenda has yet been posted for this meeting, but is expected by Tuesday.    

11:00 a.m. - The House Restorative Justice Committee will meet in room C-600, the 6th floor of the Bilandic Building in Chicago for a subject matter hearing on probation and parole in Illinois. At this time, no legislation has been assigned to the committee or slated for hearing. It in unclear whether a video feed will be available.  

Friday, November 17

9:00 a.m. - The Illinois Housing Development Authority’s Asset Management Committee will meet in Suite 1000 of 111 E. Wicker Dr. in Chicago. Third quarter figures are out via the most recent Performance Report for Illinois, detailing the distribution of $57.8 million in grant money. An agenda is expected to be provided to the public no later than Wednesday. For more information, call (312) 836-5200.

9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. - The Statewide Foster Care Advisory Council will hold a joint meeting with the Adoption Advisory Council in Springfield at the Northfield Center, 3280 Northfield Drive. An agenda is expected to be provided to the public no later than Wednesday.  

10:00 a.m. - The Sentencing Policy Advisory Council will hold the last of its tri-annual meetings. The group typically meets in Suite 200 of 300 W. Adams, in Chicago. The group rarely uses video conferencing but the public is normally invited to participate via teleconference at (888) 494-4032, using passcode 7205356689#. An agenda is expected to be provided to the public no later than Wednesday.

10:00 a.m. - The Endangered Species Protection Board will meet in the Visitor Center Conference Room at 30239 S. State Route 53, in Wilmington. The body is slated to elevate the status of the Elfin Skimmer dragonfly from threatened to endangered. Agenda.

A busy week lies ahead for the state’s boards and agencies, while their chief executive vetoed a measure Friday which would have lengthened their terms. On the federal level, an Illinois senator splashes CNN with sharp criticism on the GOP’s new tax plan. State pensions, meanwhile, appear to have seen a slight uptick.

The final day of the Fall Veto Session was marked by another rapid-fire passage of concurrences with the House. Few words were spoken on most of the measures, which shot through the chamber toward the governor’s desk. The Senate stands adjourned until Jan. 30, 2018.

Sens. Toi Hutchinson (D-Chicago Heights) and Daniel Biss (D-Skokie) saw a disappointing drop in the roll call vote for HB2462, which failed to muster the constitutional majority needed to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of the Equal Wage Act. The move immediately followed the announcement of the formation of a bipartisan Senate Women’s Caucus, with the goal of promoting women’s issues.

The Senate Telecommunications and Information Technology Committee will meet today at 9:00 a.m. in room 212 of the Capitol. The panel will hold a subject matter hearing on SB1451 HFA 2, sponsored by Sen. Terry Link (D-Gurnee) regarding small wireless facilities. The bill has already cleared the House and is on its third reading in the Senate with a pending motion for concurrence most recently registered with the Assignments Committee. Link says he hopes to see the bill clear the Senate for final passage today.

The Senate moved at a furious pace Wednesday, passing dozens of bills with little or no debate. The following measures have passed into law notwithstanding the veto of the governor. They have received veto-override votes in the Illinois House, after which they received the same in the Senate Wednesday.

After more than a week spent scrambling to address widespread complaints of sexual harassment in the Illinois capital, a package of legislation aimed at stemming the complaints received unanimous passage from state lawmakers in both the House and Senate Tuesday.

Following the Saturday appointment of Legislative Inspector General Julie Porter by the ethics commission, Senate President John Cullerton has promised swift action during the second half of Veto Session. Cullerton intends to arm the office with new statutory authority.

We've compiled a list of the legislation moving this session. Below are a list of the committees, hearings and bills we are following.

More than 340 General Assembly candidates are lining up for the coming state elections. Before primary season kicks off, The Daily Line has examined the category likely to hold the most active legislative races.

Rocked by widespread allegations of sexual harassment, lawmakers in both chambers of the Illinois statehouse spent most of Thursday calling for accountability and demanding the haste of leadership and constitutional officers.

After a House panel heard testimony from victims of alleged sexual harassment by lawmakers, House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) committed to throwing his weight behind the search for a new Legislative Inspector General and equipping the office with the necessary authority to conduct independent investigations into lawmaker ethics breaches.

All eyes will be on the Bilandic Building today as the House’s first attempt at anti-harassment legislation makes its way before a committee hearing. Meanwhile, the governor is expected to return from abroad today with new trade contracts in the works.

A bill requiring sexual harassment training in the Capitol has already begun to move; a Republican challenger throws their hat in the ring against Gov. Bruce Rauner; and Crosscheck pushback is coming from Illinois’ top legislators.

Monday, October 30

11:30 a.m. - Director of Illinois Office of Tourism, Cory Jobe, will speak to the City Club at Maggiano’s Banquets in Chicago. Program.

With reports of sexual assault and harassment accumulating against lawmakers in the Capitol, the only office with the statutory authority to launch an investigation into the matter is the Illinois Legislative Inspector General. And that office has been empty since June 20, 2013.

In response to the mounting allegations, House Speaker Mike Madigan filed a bill which would require the august body to undergo a yearly “training program” reminding them not to sexually harass their colleagues and staff. Afterward, “proof of completion must be submitted to the applicable ethics officer” by each legislator.

In a unanimous vote of 112-0, the Illinois House of Representatives overrode Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of the Debt Transparency Act, HB3649.

The Illinois Senate voted Wednesday to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of SB1351, known as the Student Loan Bill of Rights.

Tempers flared yesterday during a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee as members wrangled with several gun control measures aimed at regulating the use of “bump stocks” in the state.

While all eyes are on the action of the General Assembly today, several state agencies are scheduled to meet. They are as follows.