The Illinois House adopted new rules on Wednesday that Democrats say are intended to make the legislative process more transparent, but Republicans argue they don’t go far enough in reforming how the General Assembly operates.
The new rules represent one of the first attempts by newly-elected House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch to break from the practices and traditions of his predecessor, former Speaker Michael Madigan. Madigan’s opponents claimed he exercised vast authority to decide which bills would be assigned to committees, which ones would come to the floor for a vote, and which ones would not.