Government Affairs Roundup
“Your Timely Roundup of Local, State, and Federal Updates”
Chamber members:
A vote to extend federal funding came down to the wire. Action continues in Springfield with Legislators still planning to wrap up on April 8. We had a very informative luncheon presentation this week with new President/CEO Doug Pryor from the Will County Center for Economic Development.
Next, please draw your attention to our March luncheon on the 9th as we welcome Joliet Mayor Bob O’Dekirk as he delivers his State of the City address. More information here: http://jolietchamber.chambermaster.com/events/details/2022-member-lunch-march-9-state-of-the-city-6381
*Government Affairs Roundup brought to you by CITGO & Silver Cross Hospital*
City Of Joliet Announcing Scheduled Bridge Work
The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) has provided an update on the re-opening of the Jefferson Street bridge as well as immediate proposed work on other downtown bridges:
Jefferson Street bridge
Scheduled to re-open Monday, February 21, after the morning rush, unless there is inclement weather.
Jackson Street bridge
Scheduled to be closed beginning February 21 after Jefferson Street re-opens for work on IDOT’s remote operation project. It is anticipated that the closure will last for 60 days.
Cass Street bridge
Scheduled to be converted back to one-way westbound on Saturday, February 26. The lane that currently is carrying eastbound traffic will remain closed for several days to allow drivers adjust to the new traffic pattern in an effort to avoid potential head-on collisions. Shortly after the bridge is converted back to westbound traffic only, there will be a temporary lane restriction down to one lane westbound to allow emergency structural repair work to take place. It is anticipated that the lane restriction will be for 30 days. All three lanes will be re-opened after the structural work is complete.
Senate passes bill to avert government shutdown
The Senate on Thursday passed a bill to avert a government shutdown ahead of a Friday night deadline, sending the legislation to President Biden’s desk for a signature. Senators voted 65-27 on the bill, which funds the government through March 11 at current levels. The bill now goes to Biden, who is expected to sign it, after passing the House last week.
The bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), buys lawmakers roughly three more weeks to try to work out a mammoth deal that would fund the government through the end of September.
The Senate’s passage of the funding bill comes after a days-long drama as senators tried to get a deal that would clear a path for the legislation. Because of the Senate’s rules, and the looming deadline, they needed buy-in from all 100 members to speed up the bill to meet the deadline.
Senators spent days haggling over what amendments would get votes. In the end they agreed on three: Two related to Biden’s vaccine mandates and a third from Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) on balancing the budget.
Another amendment from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that would block federal funding for schools and childcare centers that require coronavirus vaccination failed, along with one from Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and other GOP senators to defund vaccine requirements for medical workers, military personnel, federal employees and contractors for the length of the CR.
Despite ultimately agreeing on what amendments would be included, the Senate was stuck in limbo for hours on Thursday because of a basic problem: Math.
The chamber started the day with two GOP senators absent, Sens. Richard Burr (N.C.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.), along with three Democratic senators: Sens. Ben Ray Luján (Calif.), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) and Mark Kelly (Ariz.). That meant if the Senate had voted on the amendments on Thursday, or even Wednesday when Graham was the only GOP senator missing, the vaccine proposals would have had enough support to get added into the government funding bill.
Any changes to the continuing resolution would force it to go back to the House, which is in the middle of a two-week recess and where Democrats would likely balk over quickly passing a bill that defunds Biden’s vaccine rules.
Cruz and Lee sought to take advantage of the Democratic absences, urging their colleagues to stay in town in order to win the votes on the vaccine amendments. Cruz said that “NO REPUBLICAN SENATOR should leave town this afternoon.”
But GOP leadership indicated that they thought the logjam would eventually work itself out because enough Republican senators — eager to start their one-week break out of Washington, D.C. — would leave. In addition to Burr and Graham, GOP Sens. James Inhofe (Okla.) and Mitt Romney (Utah) missed the votes on the vaccine mandate amendments.
Senators also negotiated for days over a bill from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to block federal funding from going toward crack pipes and other drug paraphernalia. Rubio warned that he would block quick passage of the CR unless there was a deal to get a vote on his bill.
The issue spun up last week out of reports from conservative media that the Department of Health and Human Services was providing pipes for smoking crack as part of a harm reduction program. The Biden administration has dismissed the report as incorrect, and they’ve also been fact-checked by organizations including The Washington Post and The New York Times.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) had initially had a hold on the CR but dropped it earlier this week after she “received an answer in writing from the Health and Human Services Secretary committing that no taxpayer funding will be used to fund crack pipes.” But Leahy blocked quick passage of Rubio’s bill, arguing that it went further than crack pipes, which has gotten the bulk of the public focus, and that the Senate needed to move on to passing the CR.
“We actually have to go to the CR now. … A war is about to start in Ukraine in all likelihood, and what we’re saying is we will start putting all of these things, so the government will have to shut down tomorrow night and we can stand there and Putin can say, why should I listen to them?” Leahy asked. But Rubio said on Thursday that he wasn’t holding up the continuing resolution over his bill.
Rubio had narrowed his bill since he introduced it with Manchin last week. The revised bill dropped the inclusion of sterile needles and syringes and instead would prevent funds in a substance disorder program included in last year’s coronavirus relief bill from being used to “procure, supply, or distribute pipes or cylindrical objects that are used to smoke or inhale illicit narcotics.”
Reach out to Your Member of Congress about Employee Retention Tax Credit Reinstatement
On Feb. 10, the Senate joined the House of Representatives by introducing the Employee Retention Tax Credit Reinstatement Act. Its sponsors are Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA).
In the CARES Act of 2020, Congress created the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC), to aid small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ERTC aimed to incentivize employee retention by offering employers a quarterly credit for each qualified employee. According to NFIB’s January COVID-19 impact survey, 13% of small employers claimed the ERTC for wages in 2020 and another 12% claimed the ERTC for wages in 2021.
The ERTC was originally set to expire on January 1, 2022, giving employers the ability to claim it for all four quarters of 2021. Since the ERTC offered savings of $7,000 per employee per quarter in 2021, this meant employers were eligible to up to $28,000 per employee in tax credits last year.
However, on November 15, 2021, the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) was signed into law. This bipartisan physical infrastructure law includes a provision changing the ERTC’s timeframe to only apply for the first three quarters of 2021, and not Q4. In December, H.R. 6161 was introduced in the U.S. House, providing momentum for the U.S. Senate companion bill introduced last week S. 3074.
The Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) was a great resource for small businesses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and provided many businesses the financial support they needed to keep their employees on the payroll. By passing this legislation and reinstating the ERTC for the fourth quarter of 2021, owners who were planning on using the tax credit will no longer face a retroactive tax increase, something small businesses simply cannot afford right now. We encourage Congress to pass the Employee Retention Tax Credit Reinstatement Act as small businesses continue to work on their economic recovery.
If the early termination of the ERTC is harmful to your business, make sure your Members of Congress know that you also support the passage of the ERTC Reinstatement Act to return the ERTC to its originally planned timeframe instead of being subjected to an eleventh-hour shortening.
Visit our elected officials page on our website for Federal Representative contact information:
https://jolietchamber.com/advocacy/elected-officials/
Legislative panel suspends COVID-19 mitigations in schools
The governor’s latest school mask mandate rule was blocked by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR). The bipartisan committee of Democratic and Republican lawmakers from the Senate and the House voted 9-0 with two not voting to block Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s reissued emergency rules requiring schools to enforce his mask mandate despite a recent court ruling. Pritzker’s emergency rule was filed Monday.
“Today, the Joint Committee of Administrative Rules made it clear that we would not accept the Governor’s attempts to go above a court ruling made by a co-equal branch of government,” state Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, said in a statement.
School districts across the state have gone mask optional after a Sangamon County Circuit Court judge, ruling on a lawsuit brought by hundreds of parents, issued a temporary restraining order Feb. 4 against mask mandates in schools, saying the governor’s mandate is “null and void.” But there are other schools, including Chicago Public Schools, defying the judge’s restraining order. They’re set to appear before the Sangamon County judge later this month.
The Pritzker administration is appealing the judge’s ruling. After JCAR’s vote, the Fourth District Court of Appeals directed the attorney general, who represents Pritzker and the state, and attorneys representing the plaintiffs to explain by Wednesday afternoon how the appeal is affected by the vote.
“In his quest for power and control, Pritzker and his Administration was willing to further the chaos and confusion for schools throughout the state,” Rezin said. “With this bipartisan vote, I hope that the governor finally recognizes that his go-it-alone tactic is not in the best interest of our state or its people.”
None of the JCAR members voted against the motion to suspend the governor’s rule, but state Sens. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, and Tony Munoz, D-Chicago, voted present. State Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Chicago, was not in attendance for the vote.
Earlier in the day, tensions in the House flared over mask mandates, with one member’s microphone being cut off and another asking for maskless lawmakers to be ejected. As the House was coming to order for the first time since early January, state Rep. Natalie Manley, D-Joliet, announced from the speaker’s chair the House rule for members to wear masks. “We ask that all members take these directives seriously to help keep fellow members and staff safe,” Manley said.
State Rep. Blaine Wilhour, R-Beecher City, wasn’t wearing a face covering. “I could read [the rule] again for you, if you’d like me to,” Manley said. “That won’t be necessary, madam speaker,” Wilhour said. “So long as school districts continue to defy the court and force unwanted and unnecessary covering of the faces of children in the …” “You have not been recognized,” Manley said as Wilhour’s microphone was turned off.
Just before the House went into session, a joint statement from Wilhour and state Reps. Adam Niemerg, R-Dieterich, Brad Halbrook, R-Shelbyville, Dan Caulkins, R-Decatur, and Chris Miller, R-Oakland, said they “ditched their masks on the House floor.”
“Today we entered the House chambers without a mask,” their statement said. “So long as school districts continue to defy the courts and force the unwanted and unnecessary covering of the faces of children in schools, we will no longer comply with the mask theater that takes place here.”
“It’s over,” the group of Republicans said in the statement. “[Mask mandates have] gone on long enough.” Despite that, Manley insisted the House mask rule be followed, including wearing masks while speaking at the microphone.
Pritzker taking mask fight to Supreme Court
An Illinois appellate court dismissed Governor J.B. Pritzker’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling against his mask mandate in schools, calling the request “moot” after a legislative committee suspended the requirement’s renewal.
On Thursday, the Illinois Fourth District Appellate Court rejected the appeal, noting that the state’s department of public health on Feb. 14 had renewed the emergency rules, originally enacted in September 2021, but that a legislative committee had then suspended that renewal this week.
“Thus, none of the rules found by the circuit court to be null and void are currently in effect,” the court wrote in its ruling on Thursday. “Accordingly, for the following reasons, we dismiss defendant’s appeal because the expiration of the emergency rules renders this appeal moot.”
The Illinois General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, a bipartisan and bicameral group, voted on Tuesday against extending Pritzker’s mask mandate for schools as the state awaited guidance from the appellate court.
The dismissal comes after Sangamon County Judge Raylene DeWitte Grischow on Feb. 4 ruled in favor of a group of parents from across the state who sued over the masking requirement. Grischow issued a temporary restraining order, leaving school officials grappling with how to implement or ease masking policies. Pritzker, a Democrat who is seeking re-election in November, appealed the decision.
The language of the temporary restraining order “in no way restrains school districts from acting independently from the executive orders or the IDPH in creating provisions addressing COVID-19,” according to the appellate court’s ruling, referring to the Illinois Department of Public Health. “Thus, it does not appear the school districts are temporarily restrained from acting by the court’s TRO.”
Fresh off the Appellate Court’s dismissal of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s effort to keep his school mask mandate in place, his office plans to ask Attorney General Kwame Raoul to appeal the issue at the Illinois Supreme Court.
“The governor is disappointed in the Appellate Court’s decision and concerned for the health of those in schools—particularly vulnerable children and adults—and the ability to continue in-person learning,” spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said in an emailed statement. “The administration is working with the attorney general to request an expedited review of this decision from the Supreme Court.”
The lower court “made it clear that school districts can continue to keep their own mitigations in place,” the statement said.
Pritzker touts initiatives aimed at expanding health care workforce
Gov. JB Pritzker continued to promote his budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year Tuesday, outlining his plan for rebuilding the state’s health care workforce during a stop at a Peoria community college.
He joined local leaders at Illinois Central College to talk about the Pipeline for the Advancement of the Healthcare Workforce program, a proposed initiative modeled after an existing statewide grant program, the Workforce Equity Initiative.
The PATH program would run through the state’s community college system, providing financial assistance to students enrolling in courses to obtain certificates in high-need health care areas. The targeted programs include nursing and certified nursing assistant positions, respiratory therapists and emergency medical technicians.
Assistance would also be available to address other barriers such as transportation, childcare, food vouchers and tutoring.
Pritzker has asked lawmakers to invest $25 million in the program in the upcoming fiscal year.
New Legislative Inspector General
The Democratic-controlled state Senate made the surprise move of confirming former federal Judge Michael McCuskey as legislative inspector general yesterday, and the House is expected to act quickly and approve him today.
Republicans, who operate in the minority of both chambers, are complaining the process is being rammed through without following all the processes and procedures required for an appointment.
But Democrats are fed up with what they see as the GOP delaying the search process. Former LIG Carol Pope left office Jan. 6 and state law requires that a replacement be named within weeks or the state auditor general fills the position.
Call it a case of process vs. prudence. Once McCuskey emerged having top-tier bipartisan qualifications, Democrats ran with it.
The LIG job “is too important to stay vacant for as long as it has,” Senate President Don Harmon said in a statement after his chamber approved McCuskey. “An impasse is not an option, so we are taking decisive action to move forward with an excellent candidate.”
Harmon, who carried the resolution for McCuskey’s appointment, said the jurist “has an impeccable record” with a reputation for working in “a bipartisan manner.”
Even Republican Sen. Jil Tracy, who heads the bipartisan Legislative Ethics Commission charged with selecting a candidate, acknowledged McCuskey’s impressive credentials.
“He’ll be approved by the House and will be very good in the position,” she said in an interview with Playbook.
The problem, Tracy says, is that he didn’t go through the entire process of being vetted by the commission. Three days after putting his name in, he was approved, she noted. “It’s the kind of thing that the public questions because the process wasn’t followed,” Tracy said.
Other Republicans were less polite, saying it’s a case of Democrats just flexing their power.
Watch for Rep. Maurice Evans to carry the resolution for McCuskey’s appointment in the House today.
Once in office, he’ll be busy. There’s at least one new complaint that was made in December and left by Pope for the new LIG.
Pension Debt
Illinois lawmakers are weighing whether to sell $1 billion of debt to pay for pension buyouts, reports Shruti Singh. The bipartisan effort is aimed at reducing “the worst-rated state’s massive unfunded liability for its retirement systems.”
A bill introduced by Democratic state Rep. Bob Morgan “would approve borrowing to extend a buyout option for many employees of the state, its universities and school systems. The debt would be on top of a previous authorization from 2018 to issue $1 billion of so-called pension-obligation acceleration debt, most of which has been sold,” according to the Bloomberg story.
“It chips away at a much larger problem,” Eric Kim, an analyst for Fitch Ratings, said in an interview. “But you are paying for it with debt.”
Stay well,
Mike Paone
Executive Vice President
Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry
mpaone@jolietchamber.com
815.727.5371 main
815.727.5373 direct