General Assembly returns to Springfield with looming deadlines

After returning from vacation, Illinois lawmakers will operate under rapidly approaching deadlines to pass legislation.

The Illinois General Assembly on April 4 will return to Springfield from their spring break, which for the House of Representatives lasted almost the complete month of March. Few bills were considered before the break, meaning that upcoming deadlines will put pressure on how many pieces of legislation have a chance to be heard and considered this session.

The following deadlines provide a roadmap for the rest of session:

• April 8 is the deadline for both the House and Senate to pass any substantive bills originating in their respective chambers out of committee and to the floor. At this point in the process, the scope of bills that may pass this session is whittled down dramatically. Hundreds of bills have currently been assigned to committees for hearings, and the week of April 4 will see a hectic push for lawmakers to have their bills considered by this significant date.

Once bills get out of committee, they go to the floor of the House or Senate for a vote of the full chamber.

• By April 22^,, the House and Senate must vote on and pass their respective bills, and send them to the other chamber for consideration.
• May 13 is the deadline for bills that originated in the House to be considered by Senate committees, and vice versa.
• By May 27, the Senate must vote on House bills and send them to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s desk. Also by this date, the House must vote on Senate bills to send to Rauner’s desk. Bills that fail to make it to the governor’s desk by this date are dead.

Throughout April and May, the General Assembly will also be put to the task of passing a budget for fiscal year 2017, which is technically due on May 31, when session officially adjourns. However, with no fiscal year 2016 budget in place 10 months after last year’s May 31 “deadline,” and House Speaker Mike Madigan continuing to hold session throughout the rest of the year, it isn’t clear that this date holds much weight in the ongoing impasse.

Illinois Policy Action, or IPA, is preparing for aggressive advocacy of its agenda items in coming weeks, including bills currently assigned to committee next week on local-government transparency, local-government consolidation and criminal-justice reform. IPA will also be active in Springfield throughout the next two months to shepherd through bills promoting economic growth, reforms to Illinois status-quo politics and a balanced budget, while opposing growing government and tax increases.