(The Center Square) – With a Friday deadline to pass bills out of committees from the legislations’ originating chamber, the action is fast and furious at the Illinois Statehouse in Springfield.
Illinois lawmakers have filed about 6,500 pieces of proposed legislation during the 103rd General Assembly.
There are over 100 committees and subcommittees in the House alone, including appropriations, higher education, human services and labor and commerce.
In order to get a bill out of committee before the deadline, sometimes lawmakers promise to amend the legislation after it passes out of committee.
Hundreds of the bills filed and advanced are called “shell bills,” which is a maneuver that involves making changes to a bill in an effort to get it passed committee after the deadline. The move has been criticized by some as being less transparent and a way to hide the witness slips of those opposed to hastily passed controversial legislation. Others see shell bills as vehicles for any last-minute, necessary fixes to state law.
Once a bill advances out of committee, it heads to the Senate or House floor for debate. Once a bill is passes out of both chambers, it is onto the governor desk for his signature.
The legislature is scheduled to be in session through mid-May with a May 31 deadline to pass bills, including the state budget, with simple majorities.
Under the Illinois Constitution, since 1983, the Senate has had 59 members and the House has had 118 members. The Illinois General Assembly first convened in 1818 in Kaskaskia.
Two presidents of the United States, Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama, began their political careers in the Illinois General Assembly.
