As of now, the deadline for passing bills is Friday, May 22nd. So this is the week.

There’s a lot of stress on both sides of the aisle, which is normal for the last two weeks of session. IFI is trying to hold off final passage of the below bills that we’ve been fighting. We give thanks to God that other bad bills have fallen by the wayside, and we ask His grace and mercy as we try to stop these.

While the Megaprojects bill (Bears bill) and other budget issues continue to take most of their time, there are other “packages” of bills, called “omnibus bills,” that haven’t taken shape like they were supposed to. That’s because of the lack of communication between the House and Senate, which is operating in their own silos on housing legislation, AI legislation, and Worker’s Comp legislation. But we’ve seen this movie before, and many times it ends with a glut of legislation at the end of May, hastily put together, papering over differences between the House and Senate versions, and called for a vote in the middle of the night.

IFI is concentrating on what is going on in broad daylight.

Last week, HB 5295 (see details below) stalled because the Illinois Hospital Association told the sponsor there’s no way this legislation could be implemented without…..killing people and causing lawsuits for medical providers. That apparently was just a speed bump for the far left. Word is out that the far-left is going to steamroll lawyers on this one and try to pass HB 5295 anyway. Actually, lawyers on both sides of the aisle are warning that, if passed, HB 5295 is a lawsuit bomb waiting to explode since in-state medical facilities will be super-legally exposed for hiding medical information of Illinoisans who doctors need to treat in another states. And since about 100,000 people leave Illinois each year, that’s a lot of exposure.

HB 4966 (see details below) did pass a Senate committee so IFI is going to try to stop it on the floor. It’s clearly unconstitutional because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in March. With an unprecedented 8 to 1 decision in Chiles v Salazar, the Court declared that a state cannot stifle one point of view and only allow another point of view in counseling. That’s exactly what HB 4966 does. It mandates an “affirm-only” posture with DCFS caregivers, caseworkers, medical professionals, and foster parents regarding a child’s chosen gender identity.  They have to ignore reality and the law to pass this bill. Granted, that’s their specialty, but we have one more shot at it before it should wind up in court.

Flood Their Inboxes

The following bills are up for a vote this week; then on to the Governor.

HB 4966 – Celina Villanueva (D-Chicago): embeds the left’s LGBTQ ideology into DCFS policy as it pertains to caregiver conduct, placement decisions, case planning, interstate placements, “lawful healthcare access,” and restrictions on conduct considered harmful to youth, specifically as it related to gender identity and sexual orientation. Essentially, if the children think they’re the opposite gender or sexually prefer their own gender, they are handled by and placed into homes that give positive affirmation ONLY. No other viewpoints allowed, including parents.

Click HERE to email your state senator to OPPOSE HB 4966.

HB 4536 – Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago): another piece of the school-based mental-health puzzle where teachers and administrators are trained to view students, families, discipline, identity, and social conditions through their own state-approved therapeutic/equity lens.

HB 4536 re-classifies school “trauma-informed practices” to make it anything the left wants. It broadens the definition of trauma to include early relational trauma, caregiver separation, disrupted attachment, prolonged instability, racism, discrimination, lack of supports, identity development, and “systemic and historical oppression.”

Click HERE to email your state senator to OPPOSE HB 4536.

HB 4714 – Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago) & SB 3138 – Kimberly Du Buclet (D-Chicago): Determined to pass one of these bills for the Governor for him to sign into law, they contain the same language.

Both bills add another nail in the coffin toward a statewide mental health system that increasingly shapes how children are evaluated and treated — both in schools and through State-connected services.

Both bills expand the Children’s Mental Health Partnership in public schools so it focuses more on needs reviews, policy monitoring, and use of statewide BEACON data. The bills require that the Partnership’s membership shall include public members who reflect a diversity of sexual orientation and gender identity. These are the people that will oversee your child’s mental health and make sure your child’s mental health aligns with theirs – the same people that are determined to instill LGBTQ ideology into your child.

Click HERE to email your state senator to OPPOSE HB 4714.

Click HERE to email your state representative to OPPOSE SB 3138.

HB 4606 – Cristina Castro (D-Elgin): the universal newborn home-visiting bill. In plain English: the State is building the framework for government-supported home visits after birth, tied to mental health, lactation, substance use, social determinants of health, community referrals, and future data systems.

It also creates a permanent DHS administrative home and statewide infrastructure for newborn home visits, screening, referrals, data collection, future funding priorities, and coordination with public-health/social-service stakeholders. Big Brother wants to make sure you raise your child the way they see fit.

Click HERE to email your state senator to OPPOSE HB 4606.

HB 4834 – Adriane Johnson (D-Waukegan): removes transgender hormone and abortion drugs (testosterone, mifepristone, misoprostol, GnRH analogues, and estrogen) from the Prescription Monitoring Program, a state-run system that lets doctors and pharmacists see what drugs a patient has already been prescribed, mainly to prevent abuse and dangerous interactions. But in this case, to remove all records of transgender hormone therapy and medical abortions. These prescriptions will no longer be tracked or visible to other providers plus it requires deleting some existing testosterone prescription records.

This is a dangerous bill, according to medical doctor and State Representative Bill Hauter, MD, who said doctors need this critical information because it can be a matter of life or death in some instances.

Click HERE to email your state senator to OPPOSE HB 4834.

HB 5095 – Laura Ellman (D-Naperville): changes State ID and driver’s license law to allow individuals to select “male,” “female,” or “X” as their sex designation and establishes a formal process to change that designation through –a form they fill out to say what sex they themselves say they are.

Click HERE to email your state senator to OPPOSE HB 5095.

Please File a Witness Slip for This Bill

Witness Slip Instructions

• Click on the witness slip link for each bill.
• Fill out your personal information.
• Under Firm/Business/Agency, Title, Representation, type “self” or “NA” if you are not representing an organization and do not have a title.
• Under Position – Add Legislation, select Original Bill, unless otherwise noted.
• Under Add Position, select Opponent or Proponent. Then click on Add Position. (Your position will then appear in the box to the right with a red circle and an x inside of it.)
• Select Record of Appearance Only.
• Check that you agree to the ILGA Terms of Agreement.
• Check that you aren’t a robot.
• Click Submit Witness Slip.

HB 5295 – Celina Villanueva (D-Chicago): prohibits electronic health networks and exchanges from disclosing abortion-related information, especially with out-of-state entities. This is a dangerous bill that prevents healthcare providers from having full access to patient health information, and could be a matter of life and death in some cases.

From a criminal perspective, this bill is a predator’s dream come true. It would cover the crimes of sexual predators and human traffickers, allowing them to bring under-age girls to Illinois for abortions and no one would be the wiser. Not the parents nor law enforcement. The bill is scheduled for a hearing on Wednesday, May 20th at 2:30 PM in the Senate Executive Committee, Room 212 Capitol.

Click HERE to file a witness slip in OPPOSITION to HB 5295.

Click HERE to email your state senator to OPPOSE HB 5295.