No Major Ethics Package This Week
Indicted former House Speaker Michael Madigan looms over a charge to enact new ethics reform in Springfield, but a top legislator says there won’t be action in the final week of the spring session.
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Rep. Maurice West (D-Rockford), the Chair of the House Ethics & Elections committee confirmed Monday night he won’t be moving major action on ethics reform in the final week of the legislative session, but insists action will be coming.
West says he doesn’t want to rush a piece of ethics legislation in the wake of the “ComEd Four” bribery and corruption case and the looming trial of former House Speaker Michael Madigan.
“There is no appetite to rush an ethics package based on mainstream news,” West said. “Reaction to it compared to responding to it is not smart, either. We are obligated to respond instead of react and to get it right.”
West says there will be an ethics bill this week, but claims it will address “low hanging fruit” issues, technical changes, and some suggested changes from the Legislative Ethics Commission. But West says the heavy lifting will likely be handled over the summer by an ethics working group.
“Just another stall tactic to avoid the serious discussions,” quipped one Republican late Monday.
While Republicans have sniped at Democrats for a lack of progress on ethics changes since the conclusion of the ComEd trial, West says only one GOP member has asked him to move a bill in committee this spring.
We’re told there continues to be resistance among Senate Democrats to advance any sort of ethics package, even though four Senate Democrats have been charged or convicted of public corruption crimes since Don Harmon became Senate President, while a fifth is accused of abusing his wife.
West says he wants to have a “serious” discussion about legislation that is also practical, specifically mentioning a revolving door for legislators that doesn’t penalize them for having subject matter expertise or opportunities to make a living.