Local General Assembly members are saying that there is no real agenda heading into the Fall Veto session. State Senator Steve McClure held a 4 way Facebook Live with 13th District Congressman Rodney Davis, and State Representatives C.D. Davidsmeyer and Mike Murphy on June 23rd. McClure only believes one item is likely to come up in the State Senate when they return after the election in November: “According to what I’ve heard, I think we are going to potentially address some police reform legislation that we have not seen yet. It’s going to be drafted over the next few months. Aside from that, I have not really been told much about what we are going to do in the Senate.”
Davidsmeyer says that General Assembly members are not being allowed to the table to help make decisions at the State House: “We’ve pretty much been kept in the dark. I think we will probably be notified the week before we have to go back. The normal veto session, I don’t think we go back until November, after the election, which seems to be an abdication of our responsibility. I think that we need to be there making decisions, making positive changes that we can to affect the negativity that we’ve seen over the past few weeks. We should be there. We should be having discussions so that we can actually have real discussions and come up with real ideas on how to have a positive effect on everybody. We are just not being allowed to be part of that discussion.”
Murphy says he didn’t sign on to be a fair-weather legislator, even despite the risks that COVID-19 presents: “The checks and balances have gone away. We have one branch of government running the State of Illinois since March 13th, and that’s not right. We need to be there. I had a conversation with a constituent. I don’t want to sound over-dramatic, but this crisis is bigger than Mike Murphy’s personal safety. I need to be there to do my job. I didn’t say that I was going to be a state rep when it was convenient to be a state rep. I want to be a state rep to represent the people of the 99th District and everybody in Illinois. The only we can do that is be in the General Assembly. I think it’s shameful that we’re not scheduled to go back until November 17th.”
Murphy said that the General Assembly should have been involved in the decision on cancelling the State Fair because it’s codified in Illinois statute. He was also unhappy about the recently passed amended state budget.
Democrats have made no clear intentions besides possible police reform in the upcoming session scheduled after the November general election.