Legislative Veto Session Update – Week of November 22
The House and Senate spent the last week in Springfield conducting the first of two weeks of the annual “Veto Session.” The veto session is generally reserved for acting on bills that had some veto action taken by the Goveor. However, this session time also provides the General Assembly with an opportunity to take action on other issues that may have been left pending from the regular session or, are newly brought up as amendments to bills that are in a position to be acted upon and moved to the Goveor.
The Veto Session schedule brings both the House and Senate back to the Capitol November 29 – December 2, 2010. But, additional legislative days have been scheduled in January of 2011 prior to the inauguration of the new General Assembly on January 12th. The current General Assembly is now scheduled to meet on January 3 through 7 and January 9 through 11, 2011. The Senate has only added two (2) additional days at this point, January 5th and 6th.
Issues that will likely get at least some attention during November, December and/or January include: the state’s budget and spending for the current fiscal year, Medicaid and Pension reform, Worker’s Compensation reform, evaluation of cabinet members and Gubeatorial appointees, possible tax and revenue enhancements, and a host of other issues like the state’s smoking ban and civil unions. A number of bills that had been “stalled” have been moved out of the Committee on Assignments and Rules Committees and positioned as possible vehicles for action. Positioning these bills at least creates the appearance that there may be a great deal of action in the coming weeks. Additionally, the Senate President announced the formation of two (2) bi-partisan commissions to develop recommendations for reform of the state Medicaid program and the Illinois Worker’s Compensation program. These two groups are charged with making recommended changes to these two major programs by January 3rd of the coming year.