* WAND…

State lawmakers are scheduled to adjourn in a month and budget discussions are already underway. The Illinois Secretary of State and Attorney General told the Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday that they are both prioritizing cybersecurity improvements in their budget requests.

Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias is proposing an $825 million budget for Fiscal Year 2025. Giannoulias explained his team spent $75 million to improve his office’s technology last year, but he believes there are still critical needs in cybersecurity. […]

Meanwhile, Attorney General Kwame Raoul hopes to receive an $8.5 million boost in funding for office general operations. Raoul told senators he is also requesting a $500,000 increase in general revenue funds to provide more grants for victims of violent crimes.

The Democrat noted that he is also committed to improving cybersecurity with a $1 million investment for FY25.

* Tribune…

A bill now making its way through the state legislature would prohibit health insurance plans from requiring step therapy for prescription medications and procedures, among other reforms.

“With this bill, we’re putting power back in the hands of doctors and patients,” Pritzker said last week at a news conference, shortly after the bill passed the House by 81-25. The bill now moves to the Senate.

Nationwide, at least 36 states, including Illinois, have laws in place requiring health insurers to make exceptions to step therapy rules in certain situations, according to the National Psoriasis Foundation, which tracks step therapy laws. If the bill prohibiting step therapy in Illinois passes, it will apply to health insurance plans regulated by the state (rather than the federal government), plans used by state workers, local government employees and teachers, as well as Medicaid, which is a state and federally funded health insurance program for people with low-incomes and disabilities. About 20% of Illinois residents are on Medicaid, according to KFF, a health police research organization. […]

Dr. Rodney Alford said that, for primary care doctors, step therapy is the “bane of our existence.” Alford has been practicing for 40 years and is now president of the Illinois State Medical Society. […]

Insurance industry representatives, however, say that eliminating step therapy entirely could create patient safety issues. Step therapy requirements give insurers a chance to pump the brakes when a patient is pursuing a treatment or medication that might be risky for them, said Laura Minzer, president of the Illinois Life and Health Insurance Council, which opposes the bill.

* Energy News Network…

An Illinois bill that started as a protection for solar-powered doorbells has developed into comprehensive proposed legislation to break down the barriers confronting rural electric cooperative members seeking to install solar.

Many residents and solar developers say the measure is sorely needed, since electric cooperative members often face arbitrary and changing interconnection, compensation and liability policies from the cooperatives.

Illinois HB5315, called a “Solar Bill of Rights” and introduced Feb. 29, would require the state’s more than 50 cooperatives and municipal utilities to allow net metering until a certain threshold of solar penetration is met, and develop “shared policy” on solar that must be approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission.

The bill would prohibit problematic requirements often reported by electric cooperative members, including complicated insurance requirements, lengthy interconnection processes and restrictions on system size, solar leases and power purchase agreements. People with solar would also continue under the same billing terms for 25 years after installing systems.

HB5315 was re-referred to the House Rules Committee this month.

* WTTW…

Black and Brown communities in Illinois are up to 200% more likely to live near a distribution warehouse than the overall statewide population, according to a new report from the Environmental Defense Fund on the state’s “warehouse boom,” most of which is clustered in the greater Chicago area. […]

“Studies have shown that exposure to air pollution increases the likelihood of strokes, pulmonary disease and various cancers,” state Rep. Dagmara Avelar (D-Romeoville) said. “It also exacerbates asthma, damages lungs and leads to lower respiratory infections. The toll it takes in human lives cannot be understated … but let’s make this clear: This is not just our health that’s at stake. Air pollution wreaks havoc on the environment around us as well.”

Avelar is co-sponsoring a bill in the General Assembly that would charge the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency with greater oversight of distribution warehouses, many of which are used by mega-retailers like Amazon, Target and Walmart. Among other anti-pollution incentives and transparency measures, the bill calls on the Illinois EPA to count how many trucks use the facilities, monitor emissions and publish annual data on the warehouses — including who owns the facilities and which companies operate in them.

Advocates said that final item is key since many companies lease warehouse space rather than owning and operating their own facilities. Currently, there is no comprehensive statewide information on where warehouses are located, who owns the properties and who uses them.

HB5013 has been re-referred to the House Rules Committee. Here’s the synopsis…

Amends the Environmental Protection Act. Establishes the Health and Equity Advisory Council. Provides that the Council shall make initial findings, conclusions, and recommendations regarding environmental justice to the General Assembly by no later than June 30, 2026, and shall make annual reports to the General Assembly no later than June 30 of each year thereafter. Describes the Council’s composition. Provides that the Environmental Protection Agency shall conduct truck counting and facility emissions monitoring. Provides that, no later than 12 months after the effective date of the amendatory Act, the Agency shall adopt rules providing for the facility-by-facility review of regulated facilities, along with a menu of measures to reduce the impact of air pollution. Provides guidelines for a fee and point system. Requires the Agency to disclose air pollution impacts on maternal, infant, and child health; educational attainment; and the economy. Establishes the Insights, Jobs, and Environmental Justice Grant Program. Outlines the purpose and application of the grant program. Establishes the Insights Analysis Program and details its purpose, function, and duties. Requires the Agency to conduct a public participation process in order to maintain transparency of the program’s progress. Requires the Agency to annually publish a list of warehouses and truck-attracting facilities and details the information that must be included on the list. Requires the Agency to conduct annual investigations of a random selection of at least 5% of all stationary and indirect sources in non-overburdened communities. Requires that the results of the investigation be made public and details the metrics to be included in the investigations.

* Rep. Patrick Windhorst…

As of Friday’s Third Reading deadline, a total of 324 House bills had been passed. Of that total, 291 were Democrat-sponsored bills and a mere 33 were Republican-sponsored bills (10.2%).

As the House Republican Floor Leader, I am responsible for directing House Floor debate and questioning from the Republican side of the aisle. There are more than 4 million Illinoisans who are represented by House Republicans. Those Illinoisans deserve to have their voice heard and their priorities and values represented in the legislature, regardless of the party of their elected State Representative. […]

HB 5433 is another example. The bill creates a “Prairie Lawns Program” under the Department of Natural Resources. The bill would provide grant funding to individual homeowners to plant native plants in residential lawns to attract and preserve pollinating insects like bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, and flies. As the House Republican Floor Leader, I study each bill that passes, and I have a strong grasp of the important issues facing our state. A “Prairie Lawns Program” that pays people money to plant native grasses in their yards to attract bugs doesn’t belong at the top of Illinois’ legislative ‘To-Do” list.

There were a few legislative victories during last week’s action. House Bill 4241, sponsored by Republican State Representative Amy Elik ensures that school employees who commit acts of sexual conduct or sexual penetration with a student, regardless of the student’s age, are held criminally liable. The legislation protects students who are between 18 and 23 years of age against acts of sexual conduct or sexual abuse by an educator or school staff member and establishes tough penalties for anyone who violates a student in this way.

* Scott Holland…

House Bill 4175 is a textbook example of legislation that can be used to advance multiple political narratives.

The House passed the proposal 79-26 April 15; it now sits in the Senate Assignments Committee. If enacted, it would amend the School Code to ban physical punishment at private schools, matching a public school rule on the books for three decades.

One possible spin is this plan represents a solution in search of a problem. That’s one thrust of recent Daily Herald reporting showing most suburban private schools already have their own corporal punishment bans in place.

But primary sponsor state Rep. Margaret Croke, D-Chicago, framed it as proactivity, or a zag countering the zigs of states like Missouri, where new laws expressly allow such punishment. That position fits in line with Gov. JB Pritzker’s broader agenda of defining what kind of state Illinois will be on his watch: if red states go one direction, he likes to double down with the blue marker.