Government Affairs Roundup
“Your Timely Roundup of Local, State, and Federal Updates”
Chamber members:
We’re about a week away (Wednesday 2/2) from Governor Pritzker’s combo budget address and state of the state speech that will cover priorities for the Illinois. Like usual, seems like a lot of movement to capture some of those funds. At the top of the list will no doubt be education. Many hope to see tax relief in some form or fashion and that can’t be counted out in an election year. In addition, also a good reminder of the number one priority of our platform for economic recovery, is the need to use funds to pay off the debt on balance of unemployment insurance trust fund. If this doesn’t get taken care of then not only will rates skyrocket, but those receiving benefits will be impacted as well with weeks being paid diminished as well as percentage received. This needs to be on your radar if not already.
*Government Affairs Roundup brought to you by CITGO & Silver Cross Hospital*
Funds Coming for Project at Brandon Road Locks
The federal government will contribute a major financial investment in a project aimed at keeping the invasive Asian carp species out of the Joliet area and the Great Lakes.
U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, announced that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has allocated $225 million for the Brandon Road Project to prevent the carp from reaching Lake Michigan, according to a news release.
Foster described the project to build an electronic barrier at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam as the “last line of defense” from preventing the invasive species from reaching the tributaries and lakes in the Great Lakes basin.
“That’s why supporting the Brandon Road Project has always been one of my most important priorities,” Foster said in a statement. “Thanks to the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Army Corps of Engineers finally has the resources it needs to finish planning and begin construction on this critical project that will help protect Illinois waterways and the entire Great Lakes region. I’m looking forward to seeing this project come to fruition.”
The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was signed by President Joe Biden on Nov. 15. In January 2021, Foster and the Great Lakes Task Force asked the Army Corps of Engineers to prioritize the Brandon Road Project. In a letter to the assistant secretary of the army, the task force explained that the Brandon Road Lock and Dam is a “critical chokepoint” for keeping the carp from Lake Michigan.
The Biden Administration announced that the Army Corps of Engineers will invest $14 billion in 500 projects across the nation that focus on strengthening critical supply chains. Foster argued that these investments will create jobs, strengthen key water infrastructure projects, enhance resilience to climate change and restore the environment.
State officials in recent years have touted the success in curbing the Asian carp population. As of 2018, the state said the species was about 93% eliminated in the Joliet area. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has partnered with commercial fishermen to capture and remove the carp on a regular basis.
“The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is pleased to hear this news from the federal government and looks forward to continuing our partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the Brandon Road Interbasin Project to prevent invasive carp from advancing to the Great Lakes,” Loren Wobig, director of the IDNR Office of Water Resources, said in a statement.
The state had already signed an agreement with the Army Corps in December 2020, along with input from the state of Michigan, on the project design, according to the IDNR. The state said it aims to award a construction contract for the first part of the project in 2024.
Governor Pritzker vetoes proposal to pay COVID-19 sick leave to all school employees, says only fully vaccinated should be compensated
Gov. J.B. Pritzker vetoed legislation Monday that would have guaranteed COVID-19-related sick leave for school employees, while signaling support for a “compromise” plan that would limit compensation to only those who are fully vaccinated.
Pritzker and leaders with the state’s two largest teachers’ unions have been huddling for weeks, with the unions urging Pritzker to sign the School Employee Benefit and Wage Protection bill after it passed with strong bipartisan support in October.
Proponents said the measure was needed to support educators, especially those with young families, who were being forced to use all of their sick days if they or their children contracted the virus or were required to quarantine. But the bill has languished on the governor’s desk for months, with opponents saying the measure could create a disincentive for those who are still unvaccinated to get the shot.
Officials with Pritzker’s office said in a statement Monday the governor and union leaders had “negotiated a compromise that will keep students and teachers safely in the classroom without penalizing vaccinated employees for taking COVID-required sick time.”
“This collaborative initiative will provide paid administrative leave for education employees who, despite doing all they can to keep themselves and their communities safe, continue to have their lives and livelihoods disrupted by COVID-19,” he said.
Officials with Pritzker’s office said the “joint initiative,” if passed, would provide paid administrative leave for every employee of a public school district who is “fully vaccinated or has received the required doses to become fully vaccinated within five weeks” of passage of the law. It applies to anyone “who is required, or whose child is required, to be excluded from school because of a positive COVID-19 test result or close contact with a person who had a confirmed case of COVID-19.”
If passed, the law would also provide pay for fully vaccinated employees who are required by “the school or school district policy to be excluded from school district property due to COVID-19 symptoms,” officials said.
While the proposed legislation would only benefit those who are fully vaccinated, the governor’s executive order on vaccinations for school employees issued last August included an option for those declining the vaccines to test weekly. Pritzker defended the move to critics last fall, insisting the testing option was “not a loophole.”
“You know there are people who are genuinely still afraid to get vaccinated for whatever reason,” Pritzker said at the time. “They need to be educated about the vaccine,” he said. “And so, we’re giving them a moment. We’re requiring that, but we’re also saying that, you know, if you’re not able to get vaccinated right now, you can get tested.”
Pandemic worsens hiring woes at Illinois schools, with 88% of districts reporting teacher shortages in new survey: “School districts also report more than 2,000 positions are either not filled or are assigned to someone who is not qualified — more than double the amount of unqualified workers school districts reported during the last school year,” by Tribune’s Karen Ann Cullotta.
Illinois Senate Republicans hope to pass ‘voter empowerment’ plans this spring: Illinois Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie says a package of proposed constitutional amendments would give voters a more active role in state government, by WGEM News’ Mike Miletich.
Biden administration withdraws OSHA employee vaccine requirement following Supreme Court decision
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Tuesday withdrew its November 2021 order that mandated U.S. workers at companies with 100 or more employees receive a COVID-19 vaccination.
“Job Creators Network and American small businesses have defeated the Biden administration’s illegal vaccine mandate that threatened to burden job creators with new costs and exacerbate the historic labor shortage,” said Alfredo Ortiz, president and CEO of the JCN, the first to petition the Supreme Court to block the rule.
The withdrawal follows a recent ruling by the high court that blocked the vaccine mandate for big businesses, though allowed the administration’s mandate for healthcare workers to remain in place.
The administration’s decision Tuesday to withdraw the mandate was announced in a Federal Register notice from the Labor Department that in part reads: “On January 13, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the Vaccination and Testing ETS, finding that challengers were likely to prevail on their claims.
” … After evaluating the Court’s decision, OSHA is withdrawing the Vaccination and Testing ETS as an enforceable emergency temporary standard … . Notwithstanding the withdrawal of the Vaccination and Testing ETS, OSHA continues to strongly encourage the vaccination of workers against the continuing dangers posed by COVID-19 in the workplace.”
Inflation hits 7.5% in Midwest, 6.6% in our Local Region
New national data confirms what American consumers are seeing at the grocery store, as they shop for cars and even what they pay for the roof over their heads — costs are soaring with inflation rising to a whopping 7% nationally.
A closer look at the Labor Department data released in recent days shows the Midwest, which includes Illinois, is at 7.5% while a more local region that includes Chicago, Elgin and Naperville is at 6.6%.
Experts say rising prices are squeezing already struggling low-income earners and could effectively erase wage hikes employers have turned to as they try to find staffing in a tight labor market.
Economists see more trouble ahead as we enter the third year of a pandemic and reflect on how we got here: Low interest rates and stimulus checks meant to move the country out of a COVID-19-fueled recession jump-started a spending spree that saw demand outpace supply, driving up costs. With a new age of wage hikes, demand continued adding to supply-chain problems, also driving up prices. But some finance experts are pointing the finger at the Federal Reserve, blaming the central bank for dragging its feet on raising record-low interest rates, a move that would at least begin to cool rising prices.
“It’s disastrous — it’s clearly an indication that the Federal Reserve has failed,” said Phillip Braun, clinical professor of finance at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. “The Federal Reserve policy during the pandemic, while good for economic growth, has really set inflation off. They put too much money into the economy, at too rapid a rate and now we’re going to suffer the consequences.”
Last week, Chair Jerome Powell told Congress that the Federal Reserve is prepared to accelerate the interest rate hikes it plans to begin this year if it deems it necessary to curb high inflation. Fed officials have estimated that they will raise their benchmark short-term rate, now pegged near zero, three times this year. Many economists envision as many as four Fed rate hikes in 2022.
Those rate increases would likely increase borrowing costs for home and auto purchases as well as for business loans, potentially slowing the economy. The rate hikes also mark a sharp reversal in policy by Fed policymakers, who as recently as September had been split over whether to raise rates even once this year. The Fed is also rapidly ending its monthly bond purchases, which were intended to lower longer-term interest rates to encourage borrowing and spending.
Food and energy prices, which tend to be more dynamic, soared in the last 12 months, though natural gas and gasoline prices have been falling in recent months, Labor Department data shows. Grocery prices rose 6.5% over the last 12 months compared with the 1.5% annual increase over the last 10 years, according to labor data. The cost of dining out rose 6% nationally over the last year, the largest jump since January 1982, the Labor Department says.
Two of the biggest drivers of surging inflation seem to be rent prices as well as the cost of used vehicles, according to Labor Department data. Used car and truck prices jumped more than 37% in the last year. With new car production restrained by shortages of semiconductors, consumers have snapped up used cars, forcing up their costs.
Meantime the price of renting an apartment or home went up 4%, a comparatively small increase but high when you consider the Federal Reserve’s annual inflation target is 2%.
It doesn’t seem like the public is flinching — for example, retail sales during 2021′s November-December holiday season hit record levels, growing 14.1% over 2020 to $886.7 billion, the National Retail Federation announced Friday.
However, increased prices at some point may prompt consumers to hit the brakes on discretionary spending, dealing another blow to the hospitality and other industries already hurt by the pandemic, said Michael Weber, an associate professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
Data issued by the Commerce Department showed that by the end of December, spending had trailed off sharply enough to catch economists off guard and raise doubts about the sustainability of retail sales in the face of omicron, inflation and persistent shortages of labor and supplies. Retail sales fell a seasonally adjusted 1.9% from November to December.
“And while we’ve seen robust consumer spending over the last couple of months with continued inflation, chances are at some point we could see a hard stop in spending — if consumers become pessimistic, they stop actually going out and splurging” at restaurants or on bigger-ticket items like vehicles.
“So, suddenly, these inflation numbers are something many, many people haven’t seen in their own lifetime, and for them they’re uncertain what it means for optimal consumption-savings decisions,” Weber said, noting that inflation is the highest its been since 1982. “And oftentimes, you see that high inflation, especially numbers like that, actually leads ordinary households to start a downward adjustment on their outlook — they expect bad economic times ahead, so they become pessimistic,” he said.
Jobless Claims Rise
Filings for jobless claims increased at the start of the year as businesses contended with Omicron-related disruptions and adjusted workforces following the holiday hiring season, Gabriel T. Rubin reports.
Initial claims for unemployment benefits, a proxy for layoffs, rose by 55,000 to 286,000 during the week that ended Jan. 15, following an increase in the week ended Jan. 8.
Jobless claims hit their highest since October, but economists cautioned that fluctuations in the numbers are likely in the coming weeks. While the surge in Covid-19 cases is leading economists to cut 2022 growth forecasts, few expect it to change labor market fundamentals.
Latest on a Revival of the Build Back Better Act
In the wake of a failed effort to pass voting rights legislation, Democrats are turning their attention back to reviving President Biden’s stalled Build Back Better Act, which hit a wall in December when Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) announced he couldn’t support it.
President Biden gave the legislation new momentum this week when he announced he’s willing to sign whatever ‘chunks’ of the climate and social spending bill can get through Congress. From a Democratic senator – “I think we should tell Sen. Manchin, ‘You won, write the bill and tell us what you can support.’ That way he would stop dancing around.”
Where does Senator Manchin stand? Senator Manchin on Thursday told reporters that he’s ready to rip up the Build Back Better Act. “We’re going to start with a clean sheet of paper and start over,” he said.
New Election Reform Topic
Senators are taking the Democrats’ bruising (and predictable) loss last week on election reforms and voting rights legislation and turning it into momentum for a narrower bipartisan effort to reexamine the 1887 law that governs how Congress counts Electoral College votes from each state. It came under scrutiny in the wake of last year’s January 6 attack on the Capitol, which was aimed at disrupting that process.
A bipartisan group of senators, led by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), met to talk about potential reforms to the Electoral Count Act, according to a person familiar with the matter. Members of the group are considering updating the 1887 law to clarify that the vice president’s role in overseeing Congress’ certification of election results is ministerial (i.e. they can’t overturn the results.) In addition, the group is looking at potentially raising the threshold for challenging election results. Other ideas for broader elections reform include giving poll workers additional protections from harassment and expanding the use of grants from the Election Assistance Commission, which provides guidance to state and local election officials.
Senate and House GOP leaders are signaling they’re open to the concept but the group is in its early stages and it could be weeks before a concrete proposal comes together. In addition to Collins, the group includes Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).
Tech Platforms Targeted in New Bill
A Senate panel approved antitrust legislation forbidding the largest tech platforms from favoring their own products and services over competing ones, in an incremental victory for backers of stricter Big Tech regulation, Ryan Tracy reports.
The American Innovation and Choice Online Act now moves to the Senate floor, where senators of both parties have said they wanted to see additional changes before voting in favor of the measure.
The bill targets tech platforms including Amazon.com Inc.’s ecommerce site, Alphabet Inc.’s Google search engine, Apple Inc.’s App Store, and Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook. Those companies oppose the measure and have warned that the bill could disrupt popular services.
Stay well,
Mike Paone
Executive Vice President
Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry
mpaone@jolietchamber.com
815.727.5371 main
815.727.5373 direct