South West Illinois News

As the deadline for advancing bills out of committees in the Illinois House arrives, Representative David Friess and fellow Republicans expressed their frustration over ethics reform proposals being blocked by the majority Democrats. Rep. Friess highlighted that no Republican-led ethics reform bills have progressed to be considered on the House floor.

“Today is our final day to pass house bills out of committee…and how many of our ethics reform bills have made it out of committee to even be considered on the House floor? Zero. With indictment after indictment, not a single ethics reform proposal we’ve introduced will even be debated in the chamber this spring. It’s shameful,” said Rep. Friess (R-Red Bud).

Rep. Friess is co-sponsoring several bills this spring, including HB 1382, which empowers the Legislative Inspector General's office with subpoena authority without prior approval from potential subjects of investigation; HB 1384, addressing local government lobbying reform; HB 1385, closing loopholes in revolving door policies between legislators and lobbyists; HB 3115, enforcing a three-year lobbying ban for former members of the General Assembly; HB 3121, focusing on representation case and recusal reform; HB 1554, prohibiting public officials from using campaign funds for legal defense; and HB 2813, mandating a 72-hour budget review before voting.

“With approximately 500 House Bills making it out of committee this spring 89% have been Democrat-sponsored. Only 11% have been ideas put forward by those on our side of the aisle,” Rep. Friess said. “We’ve introduced the strong reforms we need to begin turning around our state’s reputation for corruption. Speaker Madigan is about to be sentenced following his corruption convictions. How many more indictments and convictions will it take for Democrats to stop playing partisan games and start working with us to solve these serious problems we’re facing?”