Page 24 - December 2018

Both Houses honor Mercy Hospital victims and first responders
The Illinois House and Senate began their final week of session for 2018 by honor- ing Officer Samuel Jimenez and the other victims of the Mercy Hospital shooting.
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J.B. Pritzker and the rest of the statewide elected officials will take office on Jan. 14, 2019.
In 2018, the Chicago FOP had a successful working effort with the Illinois Legislature. Governor Rauner has y signed our bill, SB 3509, into law. It is now Public Act
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In the House, Lieutenant Governor-elect R
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and State Representative Juliana Stratton
led the memorial with comments praising
the victims as well as first responders. Sena-
tor Mattie Hunter called for prayers in the Senate for the victims, including Officer Jimenez. Mercy
Hospital is in their legislative district. Senator John Mulroe and Representative Michael McAuliffe represent the Jimenez fami- ly in the legislature, and they both expressed their sadness and concern for the victims. Both chambers paid beautiful tribute to our first responders.
The 100th General Assembly is scheduled to be in session in early January, before the 101st General Assembly is sworn in on Jan. 9, 2019. When the new General Assembly takes office, the Democrats will add to their current supermajority in the Senate by holding a 40-19 seat majority, in addition to taking a new supermajority in the House with a 74-44 advantage. The four legislative leaders have all been re-elected to their posts. House Speaker Mike Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton will continue to lead their chambers, while House Republican Leader Jim Durkin and Senate Republican Leader Bill Brady will lead the Republicans in the legislature. All four leaders have been helpful in our efforts for the Chicago FOP. Governor-elect
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100-1001. We thank our lead sponsors, Senator Bill Cun- ningham and Representative Fran Hurley, for their strong efforts in ensuring that this bill passed. This bill eliminates
the ticket quota system in Chicago.
The governor also signed HB 4467, which was sponsored by
Representative Hurley and Senator Kwame Raoul. This bill clar- ifies and expands the definition of children of police officers and firefighters who are eligible for education tuition grants. This important bill will help the kids of our officers who have become disabled while protecting the public.
While Governor Rauner chose to amendatorily veto Repre- sentative Kelly Burke and Senator Bill Cunningham’s HB 5177, which attempts to correct the Rosario ruling regarding service credits from other departments, we were able to achieve the rare victory of having the House and Senate accept the gover- nor’s amendatory veto. This is almost unheard of in Springfield. The legislature generally does not like to accept legislative sug- gestions from governors in this form. This success raised many eyebrows from veterans of the legislative process, as they could not remember the last time a group achieved this unusual path to a bill becoming a law.
God bless all our police and their families.
24 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ DECEMBER 2018