Bluestem summary for 2004-2005 legislative sessions

Since the Illinois General Assembly has adjourned for the summer, it seems a good time to update you on our successes and losses. Here is the rundown:

May 2004- Failure: Our wetlands bill, HB913, was not called for a vote in the Illinois Senate because it was believed to be five votes short of passage. Not only that, but Sen. Peter Roskam of Wheaton was one of two Senate Republicans who are credited with killing it (the other is Sen. David Sullivan). First Roskam bottled the wetlands bill up in committee and then he pressured Republicans to hang together to vote against it. By the way, Sen. Roskam has announced that he will seek the Republican nomination to replace Henry Hyde as District 6 US Congressman when Hyde retires at the end of this term.

July 2004- Success: With both the General Assembly and Congress adjourned, not much was happening legislatively. We put out a request for people who would be willing to call Sierra Club members in DuPage County who were not registered to vote and give them information on how to register. When the national Sierra Club office did not come through with the promised names of unregistered Sierra Club members, a dedicated band of 21 Bluestem members led by Julia Nephew and myself called all 2800 DuPage County Sierra Club members and told them how to register if they were not registered and reminded them that the Sierra Club had endorsed Barack Obama and John Kerry.

November 2004- Success: We beat back a strong attempt to allow Off Road Vehicles in our state parks. It was the first success that environmentalists had ever had against the lobby group ABATE. .

A bill did pass, however, of a bill that reduces the amount of money for enforcement of OHV laws.

January 2005- Success: We are extremely pleased to report some good news for open space and natural resource funding. We asked you to ask your elected officials to prevent a fund raid on Open Space Land Acquisition and Development (OSLAD), Natural Area Acquisition Fund (NAAF), and Conservation 2000 (C-2000). Last week these three funds were removed from a list of over 200 dedicated state funds that were slated to be raided and saved for their intended environmental purpose!

March - Success: We asked you to call Senators Durbin and Obama and ask them to filibuster the Bush energy bill. This is a hard political call for senators from Illinois because of the subsidies for coal, very popular in downstate Illinois. We are pleased to report that both Senators opposed this bill on environmental grounds and that the energy bill did not pass.

April 11 - Failure: HB 1628, (sponsored by Reps. Karen May, Barbara Flynn Currie, Harry Osterman, William Black, Sara Feigenholtz, Kathleen Ryg, Elizabeth Coulson, and Linda Chapa LaVia), the Mercury-Free Vehicle Act did not pass. It was referred to the rules committee which is a way of killing a bill without allowing a vote.

April 27, 2005 - Success: SB 241, the Environmental Right to Know bill passed both the Illinois House and Senate. It awaits the governor's signature. This bill grew out of the Lockformer incident in DuPage County in which people were bathing in and drinking contaminated water. The IEPA did not have the authority to quickly stop the Lockformer Company from contaminating the water and did not have the responsibility to inform the people of their peril. This bill remedies both those situations. Congratulations!!

To see how your senator or representative voted push control and click on: Illinois General Assembly - SB241Vote History

May 2005 - Success: On a bright note, S.B. 761 (introduced by Sen. James Clayborne, Jr. of Belleville), a bill termed "the Wetlands Destruction bill" by environmentalists, died in a House committee because of so many calls against it from environmentalists.

Thank you for your dedication. The calls you made affected the world in a positive way and changed the outcome of events.

Linda Sullivan