Illinois lawmakers will return to Springfield next week for the first time since early March with a range of modifications in place aimed at preventing the spread of the new coronavirus.
Both chambers plan to be in session Wednesday through Friday of next week. The Senate plans to meet at the Capitol, in the Senate chamber, while the House will meet at the Bank of Springfield Center in downtown Springfield instead of the statehouse.
More Top Picks Buying Advice
In a statement Wednesday, Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan said the focus of the session will be “on passing essential legislation that protects our most vulnerable residents, including a responsible state budget that prioritizes all Illinoisans and provides some stability for our state’s economy.”
“I recognize there are many other important issues and initiatives that need the General Assembly’s attention,” Madigan said. “Members will continue to work diligently on those issues in order to take them up at a time when we can ensure members, staff and the public can again safely gather in a regular legislative session.”
The House will convene Wednesday “for a minimum of three days,” Madigan’s statement said.
The Senate will “address fiscal and COVID-19 related issues” when it reconvenes, Senate President Don Harmon said in a statement Wednesday.
Madigan said in a letter to House Republican Leader Jim Durkin that he will ask House Democrats to sign a pledge committing to a series of precautions approved by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
“We are all looking forward to a return to some semblance of normalcy — and certainly, as legislators, we are particularly interested in resuming normal operation of the House — but we must also recognize that these are not normal times,” Madigan wrote.
Weeks of session have been canceled this spring because of the pandemic, and it’s been unclear until now how or when the legislature would reconvene to vote on a state budget and address other pressing issues.
On Tuesday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker urged state lawmakers to “act expeditiously” on a relief package for families, small businesses and communities across the state. For weeks, Pritzker has said he would leave decisions about reconvening the General Assembly to legislative leaders.
“The legislature must convene so that we can begin to put our financial and economic house back in order, even as we battle this terrible virus,” Pritzker said during his daily briefing Tuesday. “The General Assembly needs to pass a comprehensive plan to support families, small businesses and small towns.”
Pritzker said Tuesday lawmakers should return to session by the end of May to address a state spending plan for the budget year that begins July 1, and to approve a COVID-19 aid package.
The package should include mortgage relief and rental assistance for families and businesses, and loans, grants and tax credits for businesses that have been affected by the pandemic and Pritzker’s statewide stay-at-home order, which took effect March 21, he said Tuesday.
Pritzker declined to give a dollar figure for the aid package, saying it would depend on whether another federal stimulus package is approved that could help states make up for losses of income and sales tax revenue.
“We have real challenges with the loss of revenue because of COVID-19, so we need to rely upon the federal government and its support for all the states,” Pritzker said.
Pritzker, who is self-isolating in his Chicago home after a senior staffer in his administration tested positive for COVID-19 and conducting his daily briefings via teleconference, did not answer a question Wednesday about when he would return to Springfield.
The General Assembly’s return to Springfield comes with a number of precautions. Lawmakers and staff will be asked to be tested for COVID-19 before returning to session, even if they are not exhibiting symptoms or have recovered from an infection. Everyone will be subject to temperature checks upon entering the building, and anyone with a temperature over 100 degrees “must leave and should submit to a test for COVID-19,” according to session plan documents.
Anyone at higher risk for coronavirus “should consider not traveling to Springfield for session.” Masks or facial coverings will be required and law enforcement will “limit the number of members of the public allowed in the building.”
The Illinois Department of Public Health last month issued guidance for how the General Assembly could meet and recommends those who participate isolate and social distance for seven days following session.
The House plans reflect that guidance, calling for members to be spread across the floor level of the convention center, and a limited number of staff present there and at the Capitol complex. Members of the public will have access to the mezzanine level “in a configuration that permits social distancing and in an area that can be sufficiently monitored.”
Members of the press will also have access to space on the mezzanine level, according to the House plan.
The convention center was chosen because it provides more space and allows for “medically guided public access to House proceedings while working to ensure members, staff and the public are at least 6 feet apart at all times,” Madigan’s statement said.
The pledge Madigan is asking lawmakers to sign says that they will commit to being tested for COVID-19; to wearing a face covering during session and when they are with fellow lawmakers and staff; traveling to Springfield alone and staying alone and “avoiding any unnecessary exposure by refraining from extracurricular activities like nonessential meetings, gatherings, shared meals or drinks with colleagues, lobbyists or others while in session.”
“Given your enthusiasm to resume normal operations of the House and the uncertainty of these times, I ask that you request the same of your members and encourage them to sign a similar pledge and commit themselves to these precautions,” Madigan wrote to Durkin.
Durkin and Senate Republican Leader Bill Brady have for weeks been calling on Democratic leaders, who control both chambers of the General Assembly, to reconvene the legislature in Springfield.
More Top Picks Best Noise Canceling Headphones For Sensory Overload
“After two months of inaction, it is about time we get back to the job we were elected to do,” Durkin said in a statement Wednesday.
The Republican leaders co-wrote a letter to Pritzker on Monday asking the governor to call a special session of the General Assembly and to modify some of the areas in the state reopening plan he rolled out last week.
In a statement Wednesday, Brady said he was “pleased the governor and Democratic leaders have heeded” calls to return to session.
“It is vital the legislature be a part of the decision-making process when it comes to maintaining the public’s health, reopening our state, moving our economy forward and overcoming a graduated income tax that would negatively impact Illinois families,” Brady said.
Officials are consulting the state Department of Public Health on “logistical details designed to minimize any health or safety risks to those attending and working at the Capitol.”