by Dan Frey, Director of Government Relations

Though the Senate spent last week in recess, the House was in session in Springfield, and I wanted to provide a quick update on how things are progressing in our state capitol.

 

Budget Update

Unfortunately, there has been little public movement on a state budget in Springfield in either house since the Senate’s Grand Bargain was shelved by Gov. Rauner telling Senate Republicans to remove their support some weeks ago. Despite that stalling, the House and Senate continue to hold subject matter hearings with department leaders on the governor’s proposed budgets. 

 

Substantive Legislation

Initiatives AFC has been working on with our partners all moved out of committees in previous weeks, and now we await their call on the House floor.  We expect HB 2800 (Flowers-Chicago) to be called for a floor vote in the coming week, and hope to be able to provide updates on when our other legislation will be moving soon.

 

ACA Repeal Efforts

As you’ve likely heard, on Friday President Trump and House Republicans announced they would not be calling their Affordable Care Act (ACA, aka Obamacare) repeal and replace bill, the American Health Care Act (AHCA) and announced that they would be moving on from the issue for the time being. This is an amazing win for us, and I want to say a personal thank you to each and every one of you who called your legislators, went to rallies, marched or made your voices heard in other ways. You made this happen, and that is worth celebrating. We must be strong and vigilant, as this is a battle won, but we can assume that they will not be stepping away from this core campaign promise for too long.

 

Advocacy Days

AFC’s first Advocacy Day of the year is next week, April 4! We hope to be seeing you there, but if you can’t make it, please be sure to click here to register for our May Advocacy Day on May 17.

 

Up Next

Both the House and Senate reconvene in Springfield tomorrow, Tuesday March 28. The Senate will hold session through Thursday, while the House will remain through Friday.

 

About the blog

BudgetWatch is a weekly update from the AIDS Foundation of Chicago’s on-the-ground team in Springfield about the state’s longstanding budget impasse. Follow along at aidschicago.org/budgetwatch.