February 13th, 2008
A committee of lawmakers decided Wednesday to put off consideration of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s latest health care plan until after his big speech next week. The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules decided against voting on the governor’s request to make his “emergency” healthcare program permanent.
The governor’s top healthcare aides were all dressed up, but with nowhere to go. The committee refused to hear testimony from Barry Maram, director of the state Department of Healthcare and Family Services, and other department officials.
The impending vote stems from the governor’s decision in November to sidestep and implement the health care plan — a component of the governor’s larger push for universal health care — by declaring an “emergency” rule.
The committee, who under state law has the power to review the governor’s administrative rules, rejected the so-called emergency in a 9-2 vote, and Blagojevich responded by claiming its ruling was not binding.
On Wednesday, the governor’s department asked the committee to consider rules that would make the program permanent. The commitee, which includes Republicans and Democrats of both chambers, voted 10-0 to take up the issue again on Feb. 26, after the governor gives his budget address on Feb. 20.
One committee member said after the vote that lawmakers are eager to hear how the governor intends to pay for the health care expansion.
February 13th, 2008
The feud between Gov. Rod Blagojevich and House Speaker Michael Madigan all but consumed state government last year, dragging out consideration of major initiatives from the state budget to a bailout for mass transit systems.
If action on Wednesday was any indication, when Madigan opened a new front in the political war, posturing and gridlock will continue well into this year too.
Madigan on Wednesday spread word to House committee chairs that certain bills will not advance unless they include a provision effectively pre-empting the governor’s authority to craft rules around those bills once they become law.
It was a direct assault on the governor, who in November used an “emergency” rule to sidestep the Legislature and unilaterally implement a phase of his plan for universal health care. The governor first tried to maneuver his plan through the Legislature — the conventional route for major spending initiatives — but lawmakers rejected it.
A special committee of lawmakers, who under state law have the power to review the governor’s administrative rules, rejected that “emergency” rule. The governor responded that he believed the committee’s role is merely advisory and that it did not have the power to reject his rule.
A suburban attorney filed a lawsuit challenging the governor’s decision to ignore the committee’s decision, and a court is reviewing the matter. The legal controversy is not new. Former GOP Gov. Jim Thompson argued in 1980 that the committee’s power to reject a governor’s rules is unconstitutional.
Madigan’s new strategy apparently is intended to kill the governor’s rule-making authority altogether, or at least when it comes to certain bills, by requiring such bills to cover all the details that the governor might otherwise cover in the course of an administrative rule.
A rule sought by the governor cannot conflict with the law it is linked to. If the Legislature addresses every conceivable detail in the actual bill, there would be nothing left for the governor to address with a rule.
The governor’s rule-making authority would be effectively neutralized.
Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said all “appropriate” bills must now include an amendment requiring lawmakers to include details that have been traditionally left for the purview of the governor’s rules.
“Our interest is to help (the administration) implement their policies, and so bills that would require rules, we will amend them so that’s prohibited,” he told me. “It will spell everything out in the legislation.”
He added, “The administration wishes those to all be in the law, and that’s what these amendments will require the agencies to do.”
But will Madigan succeed in implementing his new strategy, thereby prompting wholesale change in how Illinois laws are made, or will he succeed only in aggravating the governor?
It’s not clear. Senate President Emil Jones Jr., a Chicago Democrat like Blagojevich and Madigan, sided with the governor during last year’s protracted battle of wills. If Jones continues to watch Blagojevich’s back this year, it’s unlikely the Senate will sign off on bills stuffed with all the additional language Madigan intends to stuff them with.
If Jones balks at Madigan’s strategy and the speaker refuses to budge, there will be more gridlock at the Capitol.
The development came the same day lawmakers returned to Springfield after a month-long break. Committee hearings were thrown into flux as legislators tried to figure out what this meant to bills already drafted and ready for a vote.
In Illinois, laws are built on three levels. The state Constitution is the foundation and basic framework. Statutes approved by the Legislature speak to the details left out of the Constitution. And rules implemented by the governor speak to the details left out of statutes. Through rules, the governor’s agencies implement law.
Madigan’s strategy would effectively morph certain bills to cover the nuance typically covered in rules. This, in effect, would make bills much, much longer. And, amid gridlock on top of gridlock, the lawmaking process would become even more convoluted.
February 13th, 2008
Flooding in the Capitol caused by burst pipes, and which has shuttered the building’s main door all this week, apparently was thanks to open doors in the governor’s office.
The State Journal-Register reported today that guards walking the Capitol Sunday night discovered it was particularly cold near the governor’s second floor office.
On Tuesday, Henry Haupt, spokesman for Secretary of State Jesse White, gave this account of what happened:
Between 11:30 p.m. and midnight Sunday, a Capitol security guard was making rounds in the building. He realized it was “really cold” on the north end of the second floor, where there are offices for the governor’s staff and others.
However, the guard did not have a key to get into the area. The guard inquired with Illinois State Police officers stationed at the Executive Mansion about getting into the office suite.
“In the meantime,” Haupt said, “Capitol security was able to gain access without damaging the door.”
Once inside, they saw that doors leading to a balcony over the Capitol’s north entrance were open.
“They said it was extremely cold in there,” Haupt said.
Officers also discovered some ceiling tiles inside the office had been blown off. Capitol maintenance staff replaced the tiles, and state police officers secured the office. The work was finished about 1 a.m.
The governor’s staffers use the balcony to smoke. I once saw the governor’s buddies out there drinking beer at the end of session. Must be nice to have a balcony. Maybe in the future, they’ll securely close the door after they use it.
