By State representative Jed Davis
Running for office last year, I knew Illinois was broken. But I have come to realize in just the few short months of serving as the State representative in the 75th District (Yorkville and Sandwich to the west, Morris to the south and Plainfield to the east) that the problems are much greater than I ever imagined as a candidate.
I have found that there are many good ideas that have both Democratic Party and Republican Party support, but these bills never see the light of day because the House leadership refuses to allow them to move forward. For instance, I am a co-sponsor of House Bill 1079, which ends the 35-year moratorium on new nuclear power plant construction in Illinois. This legislation has strong bipartisan support but it has never been called for a vote on the House floor despite overwhelming support in committee.
The reason legislation such as House Bill 1079 does not come up for a vote is because the House leadership won’t allow it. Power in Springfield is absolute and unfortunately wielded not by the body as a whole, but by the individuals who control the House and Senate chambers.
Former House Speaker Michael Madigan may no longer be in charge of the House, but the rules he used to control the process are very much intact. The rights of individual members are almost non-existent.
What has this top-down approach gotten us? Are we tackling the big issues? Are we solving the State’s problems?
We could not take a few moments to vote on important bipartisan legislation to end the moratorium on nuclear power plants and ultimately address the rising cost of electricity in Illinois and to ensure we do not have rolling brownouts. Instead, we spent time considering legislation to ban the use of pronouns “boy” and “girl” referring to children in statute (HB1596), require menstrual products be put in all public rest rooms (HB 3093), and ban cat de-clawing (HB 3093).
I talked to a lot of voters in the 2022 election cycle and not once did I hear anyone bring up the need to put feminine hygiene products in every public rest room. People want lower utility bills. They want better schools. They want more jobs and more opportunities. Instead of addressing these central core issues, our leaders are focused on banning cat de-clawing and other mind numbingly inane ideas.
It would be one thing to entertain legislation like this if we were considering the important issues facing our state, but we are not.
One of my bills (HB 2609) requires price transparency at hospitals. It has bipartisan support and would go a long way toward stabilizing the price of health care in our State. It never got called and was never even heard in committee.
I understand that time is a factor. There are thousands and thousands of bills introduced every year, and it is difficult to give them all a fair hearing. But why wasn’t a bill requiring price transparency at hospitals called for a vote when a bill banning cat de-clawing was called?
We wonder why we have the fifth- highest unemployment rate in the Nation. We wonder why we lost more than 100,000 people last year in the census and we wonder why we pay some of the highest taxes in the Nation.
Our State is in serious trouble, and it is being run by non-serious people. If I learned anything as a freshman legislator, it is that the go-along-to-get-along politics lead only to a permanent minority that constantly is forced to cede power to people who think the most pressing issue facing Illinois is the availability of tampons in the men’s room.
I may be a small voice in a big pond but all it takes to begin the process of change is for people like me to point out the obvious. There are some of us who are doing just that, and our numbers and influence are growing because the thing the political elites have forgotten is that they have built a house of cards that will all come crashing down once their incompetence and poor leadership are exposed. We deserve better. What we need is strong leaders who will stand up and declare the “emperor has no clothes” and that is exactly what I intend to do every day I am in Springfield.
State Rep. Jed Davis is a Republican from Newman who was elected to his first term in 2022.