In this issue:
- Welcoming students for Agriculture Legislative Day
- Hyundai announces factory re-opening in Will County
- Police mental health leave act would support officers after traumatic events
- Illinois headlines
Welcoming students for Agriculture Legislative Day
On Tuesday we celebrated National Agriculture Day and were visited at the Capitol by hundreds of students from across the state for Agriculture Legislative Day. Agriculture is Illinois’ number one industry and is crucial to the future of our state and its communities.
Seeing the sea of blue and gold jackets, with a few green and whites sprinkled in the mix, made my heart grow with great pride: pride of these young men and women as they passionately advocate for Ag issues and pride for the future of agriculture in the state of Illinois.
I owe everything I have and everything I have become to FFA and 4-H, with the friendships I made and memories I will never forget. These two powerful youth organizations set me on a path of success. Community engagement, leadership skills, a positive work ethic and the determination to see projects through are all priorities we should instill in the youth of today and that is exactly what these programs do!
Thank you to all who came to Springfield for Ag Day for providing my colleagues and I with the baskets of Illinois Products. But, more importantly, thank you for spending time with us discussing Ag legislation. From increasing the amount of ag education funding, to the need for giving farm families some generational stability in the form of estate tax reform: we see you, we appreciate you, and we will always fight for you. We will always be your biggest cheerleaders and strongest advocates.
THANK YOU!
Hyundai announces factory re-opening in Will County
Hyundai Translead has announced it will re-open two different factory complexes in Will County, creating up to 2500 new jobs.
The $450 million investment will be geared toward trailer manufacturing at existing facilities previously used by Caterpillar and Lion Electric. Geography played a major role in the decision, as the South Korean firm cited more than 500 customer locations within 100 miles of the facilities. Translead is based in San Diego.
Both of the facilities were previously operated by different firms but had closed their doors in recent years. Caterpillar closed its southern Joliet plant in 2019, and Lion Electric’s facility in Channahon was shuttered in 2024. The company did not immediately put forth a timeline for the project.
Police mental health leave act would support officers after traumatic events
I am a co-sponsor of legislation filed by Rep. Patrick Sheehan, one of the three law enforcement officers in the House Republican caucus, which would ensure Illinois law enforcement officers have guaranteed access to paid mental health leave following traumatic line-of-duty incidents.
Our law enforcement officers see things on a daily basis that many of us never have to experience in our lifetimes. The new legislation would establish a statewide standard granting officers five days of paid mental health leave within a 12-month period when they experience a mental illness resulting from a traumatic event. Every law enforcement agency in the state would need to adopt a clear policy on mental health leave. The bill would also apply to campus police officers, correctional officers and employees of the Department of Juvenile Justice and local correctional staff.
Some of the examples of traumatic incidents covered by the bill include officer-involved shootings, in-custody deaths, serious injuries or deaths of officers or civilians, multiple-casualty incidents and other events which cause significant emotional or psychological harm.
Our current bill backlog
When a vendor provides the state with goods and services, they submit the bill to the Illinois Comptroller for payment. The Comptroller processes the paperwork and pays the bill when funds are available in the state’s checking account. Currently the total amount of unpaid bills is $1,860,356,742. This figure changes daily. Last year at this time the state had $1.6 billion in bills awaiting payment. This only includes bills submitted to the Comptroller for payment, not unfunded debts like the state’s pension liability, which is well over $100 billion.
Illinois headlines
Illinois farmers can feed Illinois: State grant program offers assistance
Trump administration launches probe into IDOT over CTA safety
Business coalition warns against phasing out use of natural gas in Illinois
IL House GOP asks “Have you had enough yet” following student’s murder