In an open letter, openly gay Illinois state Sen. Mike Simmons (D-7th District) stated that he had nine House bills pass out of committee.
In addition, Simmons mentioned one more bill he authoredSenate Bill 689, legislation that prevents books from being banned in Illinois. According to Simmons, "SB 689, originally filed as SB1812, prohibits library systems, school districts, school boards, and trustees of a library or village library from limiting access to or prohibiting the purchase of books or materials related to autobiographies, biographies, memoirs, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, sexual and reproductive health, gender identity, religion, human rights activism, or any other subject."
A majority is needed to pass a bill out of committee. If a measure receives the necessary number of votes, it passes out of committee and proceeds to the entire chamber.
The nine state House bills that passed out of committee were:
HB 1591, which protects same sex marriages in Illinois by repealing the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution Act. This bill provides that same-sex couples can receive a marriage license in Illinois without requiring a signature from an official from their previous state.
HB 2464, which increases pedestrian safety by enabling crosswalks and intersections that lack traffic lights to use a traffic-control device like a Hawk signal.
HB 1596, which amends various public acts concerning children to contain more inclusive language, such as changing certain pronouns to general nouns or the nouns to which the pronouns refer, and replacing "biological" family or parent with "birth" family or parent.
HB 2131, which creates the Zero Traffic Fatalities Task Force, which will report a detailed analysis of existing practices around speed limits, reduction of speed limits, steps to eliminate vehicular, pedestrian, and bicycle fatalities on roads, and the impact of local bicycle and pedestrian plans.
HB 2297, which adds state employees who identify as non-binary or gender non-conforming to the list of women, minorities and persons with physical disabilities in regards to agencies tracking this information to help guide efforts to achieve a more diversified state workforce.
HB 2562, which ensures heating and cooling standards for properties that limit their ownership, rental and occupancy to people 55 years old or older.
HB 2776, which requires that community water supply operators must send a written notice via email to property owners and occupants of buildings affected by lead service line replacements, and requires the City of Chicago to publicly post data on their website on the progress of installing lead service lines.
HB 3414, which prevents minors who are survivors of human trafficking, or other factors such as sexual abuse, from being tried as adults in certain criminal cases. It reforms the criminal legal system and clarifies whether or not a minor should be tried as an adult if the crime the minor commits is against someone who was convicted of human trafficking or of a sex crime targeting the minor within the last three years. If that is the case, the court may transfer them to juvenile court.
HB 3631, which bans pharmacy benefit managers from retaliating against pharmacists who disclose information to a court, administrative hearing, a legislative commission or more, as long as the pharmacist reasonably believes the information they have disclosed is evidence of a violation.
Andrew Davis