Civil Unions on Second, Medical Marijuana Passes Senate

Civil Unions Legislation on Second Reading in the Illinois House

SB 1716, amended to become the Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Unions Act in the House Youth and Families Committee yesterday, is stalled on second reading in the House due to a request by Rep. David Reis for a Fiscal Note, a States Mandate Fiscal Note, a Home Rule Note, a Judicial Note, and a Pensions Note. Before a bill can be moved from second reading (where it goes when it is passed out of a committee), all notes must be filed before moving to third reading. The only note which has been filed at this point is the Pensions Note, meaning that the earliest the bill can be moved from second to third reading is tomorrow (if all the notes are filed). This continues to buy time for Illinois citizens to call their state legislators asking them to vote NO on SB 1716, the Civil Unions legislation. As mentioned yesterday, this legislation states that a "Party to a Civil Union" means..."spouse". This is same-sex marriage by a different name, and will be challenged in the courts as being discriminatory. If you have not done so, please call your state representatives and senators, asking them to vote NO on SB 1716, the Civil Unions legislation!

Medical Marijuana Passes the Illinois Senate

This afternoon, SB 1381, the Medical Cannabis legislation, passed the Illinois Senate by a vote of 30-28-1. While the Senate sponsor has amended to legislation over and over to answer concerns of the opponents, this is still a bad piece of legislation. Recently, the California Medical Marijuana legislation has been in the news for all of its abuses and problems. In Illinois, we will now recognize the Medical Marijuana cards from California which have had problems.

Following are the legislators who voted YES on SB 1381:

Calyborne (D), Crotty (D), Dahl (R), DeLeo (D), Delgado (D), Haine (D), Harmon (D), Hendon (D), Holmes (D), Hutchinson (D), Jacobs (D), E. Jones (D), Koehler (D), Katowski (D), Lightford (D), Link (D), Martinez (D), Meeks (D), Munoz (D), Noland (D), Raoul (D), Sandoval (D), Schoenberg (D), Silverstein (D), Steins (D), Syverson (R), Trotter (D), Viverito (D), Wilhelmi (D), President Cullerton (D).

If your legislator voted for this legislation, please contact him/her, and let him/her know that you oppose this legislation. Ask them to vote NO if this comes back to the Senate after being amended in the House. The House is not expected to do anything with this legislation this Spring. The earliest it can be moved is in the Fall Veto Session.

Rumors Abounding

No one really knows what the status of the state budget is, although there seems to be somewhat of a consensus that if an agreement is not reached on increasing taxes, the legislature will do a six month budget, which will bring them to January. This will help identify which legislators have primary races, and will not be able to vote for a tax increase, and which legislators are "safe", so they can vote for a tax increase. What a horrible way to run a state--according to the political concerns of the parties rather than what is best for the people of Illinois. Rumors do abound that the number of legislators willing to vote for a tax increase is getting close to the number needed for a tax increase. Before considering raising taxes, Illinois should honestly look at all options for cutting state spending.

Please pray for wisdom fof the legislators, because they do face a very difficult situation with a $12 billion budget deficit. Thank you for your continued prayers for us as we work with the General Assembly. God has certainly blessed us with this opportunity to serve Him.

In His Service, Rev. Bob