* Stateline…

Illinois state Sen. Mark Walker already was working on legislation to bolster the state’s protections for consumers. But now that President Donald Trump has attacked the federal government’s consumer watchdog, Walker said it’s even more important for Illinois to act.

Walker, a Democrat, sponsored a bill to bolster the state’s existing bank regulator to help fill the void left by weakening of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which Trump and billionaire Elon Musk have targeted for elimination.

Congress created the independent agency in 2010 in response to fallout of the Great Recession, when many people lost their homes, jobs or savings. It takes up individual consumer complaints, aims to protect against unfair banking practices and helps educate consumers. Weeks into Trump’s second term, the administration shuttered the bureau’s office, dropped pending cases against companies and ordered employees to stop work. […]

Walker says the state attorney general and the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation have expertise in enforcing consumer protections. His bill, modeled after a previous successful effort in California, would give more authority to the state regulator to enforce state and federal consumer laws. But Illinois leaders already face a $3.2 billion budget deficit and are bracing for federal cuts to social service funding.

* The Illinois Primary Health Care Association…

As state legislators debate prescription drug reform this spring, the Illinois Primary Health Care Association, on behalf of Illinois’ 56 community health centers, is proposing legislation to end unnecessary and unfair restrictions on prescription drug discounts through the 340B program. During IPHCA’s annual lobby day at the Capitol, members from across the state will be discussing this vital program that benefits uninsured and low-income patients at no cost to taxpayers.

The proposed Illinois Patient Access to 340B Pharmacy Protection Act is Senate Bill 2385, sponsored by Sen. Dave Koehler, and House Bill 3350, sponsored by Rep. Anna Moeller.

Since the early 1990s, the federal 340B program has allowed participating community health centers to purchase drugs at steeply discounted rates from pharmaceutical manufacturers. Health centers then pass those savings onto their patients in two forms. First, the roughly 300,000 uninsured Illinoisans who receive their care at health centers can obtain medications at affordable prices. Second, for patients with healthcare coverage, savings are generated from insurer payments for patient drugs, that health centers are then required by federal law to reinvest back into unfunded or underfunded services and supports. Examples include providing free colonoscopies and mammograms, offering free transportation for medical appointments, and bringing mobile clinics closer to meet patients where they are.

Recently, pharmaceutical companies have imposed dangerous restrictions on the 340B program that hurt patients and the centers where they receive care. The Illinois Patient Access to 340B Pharmacy Protection Act legislation is modeled after efforts that have passed in eight other states, including Arkansas, which saw its law upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The legislation has no cost through state or federal funding, but simply prohibits drug companies from prohibiting, restricting, or interfering with local pharmacies’ participation in 340B programs. Supporters say the change is simple and necessary to ensure 340B can continue to provide a lifeline for patients and the health centers that serve them.

* Center Square…

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources says it’s going to take $19 million to restore Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site in Petersburg.

State Sen. Steve McClure’s Senate Bill 1496 appropriates $5 million to site improvements. McClure’s Senate Bill 1417 would set up the New Salem Preservation Commission to determine the true renovation cost. […]

IDNR awarded a Chicago-based construction company, Premier Contractors, Inc., nearly half a million dollars in 2021 to replace a roof at the Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site. The Capital Development Board’s database shows $447,000 of taxpayer funds went toward a roof replacement.

But of the several other buildings on the historic location, McClure said one roof is “caved in.”

* IPM Newsroom…

Champaign-Urbana will benefit most from the People Over Parking Act, according to Adani Sanchez, a volunteer for the statewide advocacy group Abundant Housing Illinois.

The bill would prevent local governments from enforcing minimum parking requirements on a development project within half a mile from a public transit stop.

Right now, every housing unit that’s built in Champaign County is required to have its own parking spot for every two hundred square feet of floor area. But for many people who don’t have a car, these parking spots aren’t necessary, and they take up space that could be used to construct more housing.

“The measure would mean that housing developers would not be given an arbitrary number of parking spots to build, but rather “can decide for themselves what the market need is,” Sanchez said. “This is going to be another way to encourage people to use the transit that we already have.”

* WGLT…

State Rep. Sharon Chung of Bloomington is pushing a bill to expand the reach of the community’s wastewater treatment facilities to boost economic development.

Chung said she would like to see the Bloomington-Normal Water Reclamation District accept wastewater from a 50-mile radius and sell treated water to any private entity in McLean County.

This would amend a more than 100-year-old law that allowed only Decatur to send treated wastewater and receive wastewater for treatment within a 50-mile radius to the private sector. [….]

Chung said the new bill would help the community save on drinking water, as it wouldn’t have to put as much of it into construction and other projects.