Grundy Reporter

In week five of “Springfield in 90 Seconds” State Rep. Jed Davis (R-Newark) describes the practice of Illinois politicians being substituted out of legislative committees.

Committees serve a crucial part of the lawmaking process as most bills must go through the committee process before being moved to the full legislative body. Davis said, since joining the General Assembly earlier this year, that at critical points the committee structure in Illinois was undermined by legislative leaders substituting legislators in and out of committees and that Illinois stands alone among state legislatures in its reliance on this practice.

“Let's chat committees. As a freshman rep, I just kind of assumed that subbing people in out of committees is what we do, but I've also learned never assume anything in Illinois,” Davis said. “Because let me tell you, it happens all the time in Springfield. So I started calling other states and lo and behold, we are the only state in the union that allows substitutions to the degree that we do here in Illinois. In fact, a lot of states were like, 'What are you talking about? We don't even do substitutions.' So why are they so pervasive here in Illinois?”

He stated the answer is “really simple and it's really sad. It provides the majority party control through the legislative process so that they can get their desired outcome."

"They're manipulating the process," Davis said. "And here's what I mean. You can always maintain a majority structure if you can sub people in and out. It doesn't matter how many people are sick, how many people are on vacation. Just plug people in and you'll always have the majority vote at the community level. Now, let's say members shouldn't take a vote on an issue because it could hurt them come election, pull them out plug somebody else in, protect the members so that they can get reelected. Nonsense. We need to stop this. What are we doing? We need to be transparent with the people. If you're on a committee you're assigned, you show up and guess what? You vote and you go on record. Let's be transparent.”

Illinois Policy has reported the committee substitutions were part of the reason former House Speaker Michael Madigan was able to control the legislative body for 36 years.

“Committee votes may even be held up until substitutions can be made. With these substitutions, the speaker can tailor the committees for each vote to maximize political benefit,” Illinois Policy reported. “This means no one but the speaker can be sure who will vote in committee or how they will vote.”

The group also noted in 2016 alone there were 600 such substitutions.

A full list of House and Senate Committee is available on the Illinois General Assembly website, ilga.gov.

Davis is a member of the Illinois Freedom Caucus which is also comprised of GOP State Reps. Blaine Wilhour, Adam Niemerg, Dan Caulkins, Chris Miller, Brad Halbrook and David Friess.