Prairie State Wire

House Republicans are calling for a return to session, saying Gov. J.B. Pritzker cannot continue to make all of the decisions for Illinois on his own.

Rep. Dan Brady (R-Bloomington) said, as a funeral director, he has witnessed the effects the COVID-19 pandemic has had on many families in Illinois.

"Since the pandemic, House Republicans have proposed regional plans that respect the data and safety of residents," Brady said during a press conference Wednesday. "We all know the stay at home order was the right thing to do. Thankfully, it has worked. Illinois has flattened the curve."

Brady said the most recent executive order reflected many reasonable suggestions by the Republican Caucus, including opening state parks and garden centers and allowing healthcare providers to perform testing for elective surgery procedures.

"House Republicans have been bringing plans to the governor to regionally reopen Illinois," Brady said. "Any reopening must be done safely and respect the data. We need to make sure residents feel safe to return."

Brady said Pritzker laid out plans that included things Republicans had been calling for, but the plan fails to recognize that local officials want the same thing he does. He said the order does not allow local governments to have any control of their own and continues to be a decree by one person—Pritzker.

"With this plan, it could be months or years before we fully reopened as we wait for a vaccine," Brady said. "Those looking to get back to work cannot wait months or years. If the plan continues, small businesses can't reopen when the time comes."

House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) said citizens worldwide are living and existing in unprecedented times. 

"House Republicans have always said if we respect each other's values and priorities we can find a compromise that will benefit all of Illinois," Durkin said during the press conference. "House Republicans have proposed ideas on how to get things back to work and some were accepted and some were not, but that’s life in the minority and we accept that."

Durkin said House Republicans cannot accept a plan that will essentially destroy all Illinois businesses, particularly in the hospitality sector, which he said has been a dynamic part of Illinois for so long, accounting for 10% of the workforce.

"The governor was right to implement the stay-at-home order," Durkin said. "It has saved lives. His changes for May were also the right thing to do and we commend him for that. We’ve proposed common-sense ideas for how to reopen our state. We’re all in this together."

Durkin said members of the General Assembly didn't see Pritzker's latest plans until the same time as the rest of the state when he released them earlier this week.

"I want to stress we agree with the stay-at-home order because it flattened the curve," Durkin said. "Since yesterday's announcement, the communications came in at a rapid pace from business owners. Our state cannot survive this way. Businesses and employers cannot survive this."

Durkin said under Phase 4 of the plan, bars and restaurants cannot return to work until the end of June at the earliest, with limited conditions.

"Quite frankly this will force bankruptcy and permanent closure of large and small restaurants in Illinois," Durkin said. "This plan does not work. Without a smart and well thought out plan to reopen, we won’t have anything to reopen. That can't be the path Illinois chooses to take."

Durkin said the latest plan presumes the governor will rule the state for the upcoming months and possibly much longer if a vaccination is not available.

"I took an oath to work in a co-equal branch of government," Durkin said. "I did not relinquish or abdicate my duties to the executive branch. We need to return to legislative session. It is the least we could do for our residents."

Durkin called for Madigan to set the calendar and get back in the game.

"Get your head out of the sand and let’s get back to work," Durkin said.

Durkin said the legislature needs to act quickly and deal with the problem at hand.

"Every hour of every day we’re seeing businesses close their doors, most of them permanently," Durkin said. "We need to give them immediate relief. It’s the independent retail business, which is the backbone of our economy."

Durkin suggested meeting elsewhere if they are unable to return to the capitol chambers.

"We don’t have to go back into the legislative chamber per-se," Durkin said. "We’ve served outside of the capital building before. We can do this outside of the complex."

Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon) said House Republicans have some input to offer regarding the Restore Illinois plan.

"Just because we have disagreements with how the plan is structured doesn’t mean we’re ignoring the science behind this," Demmer said in the press conference. "But, science can't tell us exactly when it’s safe to move from one step to another step. There are a lot of complexities."

Demmer said it's important to receive input from a variety of sources.

"We need to have input from a wide variety of people and consider how this is affecting livelihoods," Demmer said. "We need to understand how this plan affects others. The legislature needs to be involved."

Demmer said it's obvious that the restoration plan will extend Pritzker beyond his 30-day executive order authority.

"When we begin to talk about plans that are going to have an impact for months or years, that’s when we must restore the functioning of our democratic government," Demmer said. "We must have all three branches working together on plans that extend beyond the immediate future."

Demmer said each of the three branches has a specific job and it's important for them to work together.

"The legislature's job is to create law," Demmer said. "The executive branch is to carry out that law and the judicial branch’s role is to interpret that law."

Demmer said the legislature needs to be a part of a long-term plan.

"In a situation where we're setting important statewide policies that will govern the functioning of business, communities, local governments and nonprofits over the course of months or years, the appropriate place for those decisions to be made is in the legislature where the ability to craft law has been delegated by the Illinois Constitution," Demmer said. "Where voters have a direct stake in working with and being represented by their legislators. We should take the Department of Public Health up on the offer of how to safely reconvene the legislature."

Demmer said many complicated questions are at play with the current plan.

"We’ve seen different scenarios play out differently," Demmer said. "That’s why we believe the legislative process needs to be at play."

Rep. Avery Bourne (R-Raymond) discussed a letter House Republican women sent to the governor, saying the core purpose of the letter is the same as the core purpose of the press conference held by House Republicans.

"We need to be back in session," Bourne said during the press conference. "The governor really needs to consult the legislature on this."

Bourne said House Republicans also have ideas to discuss regarding the plan.

"We have ideas on how to implement a safe, responsible regional plan," Bourne said. "He hasn’t really made a real effort to consult the legislature. I was disappointed that out of this entire two-page letter of ideas, the only thing he plucked from that letter was that women in the legislature were concerned about mammograms."

Bourne said while House Republican women are definitely concerned about elective procedure accessibility, she was disappointed in him portraying their concerns as solely about mammograms instead of calling the legislature back and having a safe reopening plan. 

Rep. Ryan Spain (R-Peoria) said the governor's plan doesn’t work in Peoria.

"It’s not because I disagree with the plan, but the plan itself is not workable for the type of efforts we’ve been undergoing as a community," Spain said.

Spain said the healthcare data isn’t reflected in the zones in Pritzker's plan.

"These arbitrary designations create problems for communities trying to move forward and give further incentive for communities to just go it alone," Spain said at the press conference. "That’s the first problem."

Spain said regional plans need to be developed using very best scientific data and metrics.

"I agree with the governor’s metrics, but the problem is that we need to allow regions to move forward based on conditions in data sets," Spain said. "In Peoria, we’re already meeting data—we’re under 20 percent, we’re actually well under 10 percent."

Spain said in Peoria, hospital admissions are stable.

"While we’re meeting all these data markers, we’ve been meeting them for four weeks," Spain said. "That leads me to my third problem: the timelines. May 1 wasn’t a special day and shouldn’t be the day of set measurements."

Spain said Illinoisans need the data to drive how we reopen the state.

Spain said in Peoria, the plan they’ve been developing includes the different occupancy capacities.

"That’s something that makes a lot of sense for our region and one of the things suggested to the governor," Spain said. "This is why we need to work collaboratively. If you wish to go quickly go alone but if you wish to go far work together."