Will County Gazette

House Republican Floor Leader Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) said the rules adopted by new House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch (D-Hillside) don’t go far enough to bring about the level of reform he believes that’s needed in Springfield.

“I think the new rules do the same thing as before in that they keep the citizens of the state in the dark about what their lawmakers are doing,” Batinick told the Will County Gazette. “It still stands to be one man making all the decisions and not having to answer for any of them.”

Democrats back Welch’s changes, which include a 10-year limit on the time an individual can serve as the speaker or as minority leader and a policy that establishes the Rules Committee to refer House bills “to a substantive committee” before the deadline for committees to act expires, as examples of his political independence. Batinick said the regulations set the state up for more of the suffering residents were forced to endure during Mike Madigan’s nearly 40-year run of power.  

“The biggest issue is there’s still no transparency,” he added. “Being the minority party, we’ll still have little time to study major bills before being forced to vote on them on the spot. I was definitely hoping for more.”

Batinick argues even the term limit rule change isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.

“With it just being a rule, it can still be changed every two years when there’s a new Congress,” he said. “Until you put something like that into a law, it’s really quite meaningless.”

Lawmakers decided that a change was needed from Madigan after he was implicated in a still-unfolding federal corruption probe involving a purported pay-for-play scheme. He has not been charged and insists he engaged in no wrongdoing.