The Illinois House of Representatives leader, Jim Durkin, along with members of the House Republican caucus announced an ethics reform package Thursday to address what they feel is unacceptable practices through ongoing federal investigations. 

The ethics package includes House Bill 3954, HJRCA, House Resolution 588, House Bill 3947 and House Bill 3955. Representative Durkin said in a press conference today that this all stemmed from a House of Representatives Democrat, Louis Arroyo was arrested for trying to bribe a state senator.

House Bill 3954 will force full disclosure of potential conflicts of interest and provide transparency for members of the General Assembly. 

HJRCA 36 will prevent political powerbrokers from picking their preferred candidates for the vacancies.  

House Resolution 588 will allow a Chief Co-Sponsor of any bill with five cosponsors from each party to call it for an up or down vote in committee. 

House Bill 3947 would ban members of the General Assembly and their families from performing paid lobbying work with local government units. Right now it’s legal in local government units such as counties or municipalities. 

Finally, House Bill 3955 will create mandatory and publicly available documentation of communications within state agencies regarding contracts.

Representative Durkin says they need to change the culture of Springfield.

Deputy Republican Leader Tom Demmer agrees that this culture is no longer acceptable in Illinois.

The General Assembly is scheduled to begin the second week of veto session on November 12th.