A suburban lawmaker apologized on the House floor Tuesday for remarks he made last week during a heated debate over a bill. 

“Ladies and gentleman, last Friday, to not put too fine a point on it, I made a total ass out of myself on this floor,” state Rep. Steve Reick, R-Woodstock, said.

State Rep. Chris Welch’s bill – to require any publicly traded company headquartered in the state to have at least one woman and at least one African-American on its corporate boards starting in 2021 – led to intense debate Friday. 

“I don’t care whether you are offended or not by the fact that we are against this bill,” Reick said during that debate. ”The fact remains that you’re not going to get anything in this country in the way of being treated equally if you’re going to take offense at every damned thing that comes up.”

Welch’s bill passed the House. On Tuesday, Reick apologized for what he said. 

“I’m rising today to make several apologies,” he said. “The first one is to Rep. Welch because the bill that we were arguing should have been the focus of what our conversation was. I allowed it to become secondary to the kind of nonsense that I was a participant in. And to him, who deserved a better conversation on this bill, which frankly I did not support, he didn’t get it. And it was my fault. And I apologize for that. To the members of the rest of the House here and anyone who heard it, I also offer an apology.”

He made it clear that he was sincere in his remarks. 

“I’m not going to say I’m apologizing to those who were offended because if you weren’t offended, you’ve got a problem,” Reick said. ”I was offensive to everybody, including myself, and I’m sorry.”

Several people on the floor clapped after Reick’s apology.

Welch’s bill next goes to the Senate.

Brett Rowland is news editor of INN. Email him at browland@ilnews.org.