State representative Stephanie Kifowit, D-Oswego, will bring experience from her service in the U.S. Marine Corps and focus on public integrity to two key House committees this year. She has been selected to be the chair of the Veterans Affairs and State Government Administration Committees in the State House.
“I am excited about the work ahead of us, and the opportunity to use my chairmanships to advocate for better care for veterans and increased government accountability and transparency,” said Kifowit.
“As a veteran, I am passionate about addressing barriers to veteran employment, services and housing, in addition to ending veteran suicide. These are not easy goals to accomplish, but I am optimistic about the progress we can make in the coming months.”
Kifowit previously introduced and supported legislation to assist veterans and help restore accountability to state government. In response to mismanagement of the Quincy Veterans Home that led to the deaths of 13 residents, Kifowit helped to pass House Bill 4278, which requires public reporting of infectious disease outbreaks at Illinois’ Veterans homes.
Kifowit helped pass Senate Bill 3604 to prevent government entities from awarding severance pay to employees who were dismissed for misconduct, as well as limit the amount of severance pay to the equivalent of 20 weeks’ compensation. The legislation was introduced in response to at least two incidents at Illinois colleges and universities in which upper-six-figure severance packages were granted to former presidents dismissed for improper behavior.
“Disgraced administrators should not be taking hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars after being terminated from their duties,” said Kifowit.
“Eliminating these types of payouts is one example of my efforts to bring more accountability and transparency to how we are running our state agencies, and I am committed to weeding out additional instances of corruption.”
— State representative Stephanie Kifowit