The Illinois Senate advanced 40 bills on Wednesday, including a ban on “junk fees” and a bill allowing minors to consent to receiving birth control services without the need for a parent or other person’s consent.
Senate Bill 3341 passed 37-19 on party lines and now moves to the House for further consideration.
There are 24 states, plus the District of Columbia, that allow minors to consent to receiving contraceptives on their own, according to the KFF.
Bill sponsor Sen. Graciela Guzmán said it’s about ensuring young people can get contraceptives if they need them.
“This is about access, this isn’t about curtailing parental involvement,” she said. “It is certainly our hope that parents are able to be in the lives of young people in ways that facilitate access and these conversations, but as was noted in the previous testimony of someone here in the chamber, that’s not the case for every single child.”
During floor debate, Republicans objected to the bill and accused Guzmán of trying to cut parents out of important decisions concerning their children and raised the possibility that sex trafficking or abuse victims would go undetected.
Guzmán said she had specific experience from mentoring young people and from being a survivor of assault herself.
“When that happened to me, I would have wanted every single opportunity to have the help that I needed,” she said. “And in the instance that there was someone that was suffering trafficking and needed birth control or needed that kind of interaction with a provider, I wouldn’t want to limit that.”
Sen. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy, questioned whether minors are able to understand drug interactions and the potential side effects of contraceptives.
“It’s just disheartening that we continually think that government knows better than a parent knows about their children,” she said. “I recognize not all children have ideal home situations, but that’s not to say that most do, and so this bill addresses those that don’t, but it also affects those that do.”
Junk fees ban
Three years after the bill was initially introduced, the Senate passed a measure to ban “junk fees,” which are charges added to the total cost of ticketed events, hotels, tech and other goods and services.
House Bill 228 would make it unlawful for any business to advertise, display or offer a price for a good or service that does not include all mandatory fees or surcharges before taxes.
Gov. JB Pritzker says he’ll sign it.
“Illinois consumers have been nickel-and-dimed out of thousands of dollars per year by unnecessary and deceptive junk fees,” he said in a statement. “I am proud that the Illinois General Assembly has passed the Junk Fee Ban Act to put money back in the pockets of families and establish fair, honest pricing — from concert tickets to online shopping.”
Sen. Omar Aquino, D-Chicago, sponsored the bill in the Senate and said it was an important consumer protection measure.
It passed 46-12 with both Democratic and Republican support after passing the House in April 77-18. It still faces opposition from various retail and business groups, but Aquino said he incorporated some of their concerns.
“We did make changes to this bill a significant number of times to balance out the making sure that we have practices in this state that are fair, that are transparent, so that people — when they’re making this really important decision of how to spend their money — that it is done in a way where it is informed, they know what they’re paying for and there’s not any surprise charges coming after,” Aquino said.
Violations of the law would be subject to civil penalties laid out in the existing Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.
Breasted CPR manikins
Beginning in the 2029-2030 school year, secondary schools that teach CPR classes will have to provide both “breasted and non-breasted manikins” if Gov. JB Pritzker signs a bill that will soon head to his desk.
House Bill 4788, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Laura Ellman of Naperville, passed the Senate 43-13. It cleared the House 73-38 in April. The idea for the legislation began with a Naperville High School student, senior Ashlynn Goldstein.
Sen. Neil Anderson, R-Andalusia, cited his experience as a firefighter, EMT and 20-year holder of CPR certification in voting against the bill.
“I can tell you that whether someone has breast tissue or no breast tissue has no real-world application,” he said. “The process of CPR, despite the amount of breast tissue you have, does not matter.”
Supporters said its about stigma. Women are 27% less likely to receive bystander CPR than men because of hesitancy to follow protocol, fueled by fears of inappropriate touching, exposing the chest or drawing accusations of sexual assault, according to the Journal of the American Heart Association.
“If this can help bridge that gap, then I think we should move forward,” Ellman said.
The schools could comply with the law by putting chest covers on existing manikins.
Paid jury duty
Another bill that will soon head to the governor requires employers of more than 25 people to pay their employees for time spent on jury duty.
Sen. Rob Martwick, D-Chicago, said employers would be on the hook for the entire duty, even if the trial last months — though he added the “vast majority” of jury duty service lasts one day.
“This is an attempt to address the financial disincentive that exists for potential jurors to serve,” Martwick said, adding it was an initiative of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association.
House Bill 4844 passed 35-20, with Republicans arguing that its unduly burdensome on employers.
“It should not be on the burden of employers to fund our justice system. It’s certainly not fair, and many are not equipped to do this,” Sen. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy, said.
The measure previously passed the House 69-34 in April.
Solar-powered schools
Public schools may soon find it easier to incorporate rooftop solar generators into their buildings’ electrical systems under legislation that passed the Senate Wednesday.
Senate Bill 3273, sponsored by Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, would streamline the process for public schools to install rooftop solar systems and get them connected with their local power grids.
It would require electric utilities to give priority to interconnection requests from public schools and to complete evaluations, reviews and screenings of their proposed projects within 30 days after determining their request is complete.
It would also require utilities to disclose upgrade costs and construction timelines to schools as soon as possible after completing interconnection reviews.
“We know the kind of dynamics our school districts have to deal with when it comes to making a budget and sticking to a budget during the course of the year,” Cunningham said on the Senate floor. “It was hard for them to do that given the length of time it took for them to get an interconnection. This is set to make that an easier process, a more streamlined process because obviously school districts don’t have some of the resources that private renewable developers do.”
The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 56-0. It now awaits consideration in the House.
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