SPRINGFIELD — It felt unusually quiet in the Illinois Capitol last week as an important deadline week for state House legislators to advance their bills out of committee ended not with a bang but a whimper.

House committees wrapped up their work early Thursday, with House Speaker Chris Welch, D-Hillside, ultimately letting his members skip town a day early by canceling Friday’s scheduled session. The Illinois Senate was not even in session at all this week, taking an extra week off for spring break.

Both will be back next week, when bills passed out of committee will start to be considered before the full chambers. Once those bills pass either the House or Senate, they head to the other chamber where the process starts anew. 

It’s been slow rolling start to session. State lawmakers were only in for a combined six days in January and February, as there was little desire to do much legislative work prior to the March 19 primary election. 

But even after, there does not appear to be a sense of urgency for lawmakers to act on major legislation with eyes now fixed on the general election in November. They even plan to adjourn one week earlier than usual on May 24.

That is just part of the cyclical nature of the legislature. The first year, immediately following an election, is typically heavier on policy. The second year, with an election in the future, features more politics. 

That being said, there are some topics to keep an eye on over the next few weeks, including some bills that moved out of committee:

It is clear that Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s top legislative priority this session is a health insurance reform package that he and advocates claim will curb predatory practices in the industry. 

The proposal, House Bill 5395, would ban "step therapy," which is a common insurance industry practice of requiring a patient to try cheaper medications before they get the one prescribed by their doctor. It would also ban prior authorization for in-patient adult and children’s mental healthcare and tackle so-called "ghost networks."

The legislation, sponsored by state Rep. Anna Moeller, D-Elgin, cleared a House committee last month and awaits consideration by the full chamber.

Opponents in the healthcare industry say measures like prior authorization and step therapy are necessary cost controls and that if they are gutted, it could lead to higher insurance costs for employers and policyholders. 

But Pritzker dismissed the criticism, telling reporters last month that the bill contains language specific to certain situation and does not paint with a broad brush preventing companies from taking measures to keep costs down.

The opposition was expected. In first announcing the legislation during his 2024 budget address in February, Pritzker said he was aware  "how hard the insurance industry will fight me on this.

"But let me be perfectly clear," he continued. "I am willing to spend serious political capital and put my shoulder to the wheel to get this done."

Given that commitment, the measure stands a good chance of reaching the finish line despite the considerable clout of the state’s health insurance lobby.  

Is there enough legislative energy to address energy? 

The answer remains unclear, at least for the spring session.

One issue that’s been percolating underneath the surface is development of a state regulatory framework for carbon capture and storage projects.

Illinois’ geology is considered among the most favorable in the world for the storage of carbon. Federal incentives that encourage industry to invest in the relatively recent technology have made the state a focal point for potential projects.

A coalition of business and labor groups along with their legislative allies unveiled their proposal last month. Progressive lawmakers and environmental groups are also working on a proposal.

At issue is the scope of regulation — industry is content with standards on capture and storage while leaving pipelines to the federal government. Whereas environmental groups are insistent on all three. 

Last week, another bill moved out of committee that would place a moratorium on carbon pipelines until a framework is in place. But that will not move forward while discussions continue on how to merge the different proposals. 

"Negotiations are ongoing," said state Rep. Ann Williams, D-Chicago, chair of the House Energy & Environment Committee.

Applications for Illinois Commerce Commission approval of the two major pipeline projects proposed in Illinois were withdrawn last year, meaning it is not necessarily a pressing issue this spring.

Something could pass, though discussions could continue over the summer with the issue being brought back during fall veto session. 

Speaking of the ICC, there has been considerable rancor among the state’s powerful labor unions about recent decisions handed down by the body rejecting Ameren and ComEd’s grid plans and authorizing lower rate increases, which they claim will cost jobs due to lost work.

Three of members Pritzker has appointed to the ICC, including Chairman Doug Scott, still need to be confirmed by the Illinois Senate. The upper chamber has 60 session days to consider the governor’s appointees. Something to keep an eye on as session wanes down.

There has been chatter about a possible stadium bill that would authorize state assistance to the Chicago Bears to build a new lakefront stadium in Chicago, but nothing yet has emerged.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported last week that the team met for the first time with the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, the state agency that owns Guaranteed Rate Field and issued the bonds to renovate Soldier Field.

Also in the picture are the Chicago White Sox, who also want a public subsidy to build a new ballpark in the South Loop. The two teams have been discussing a possible joint financing package that would help both.

Even if a bill does drop, the level of skepticism that anything gets through the legislature this spring is high, to put it mildly. Quite simply, public funding for stadiums used by privately owned teams is not popular.

For an example, look no further than the referendum result in Kansas City last week, where voters resoundingly rejected a public funding scheme for a new Kansas City Royals ballpark and a renovated Arrowhead Stadium for the Super Bowl champion Kanas City Chiefs.

State Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, D-Aurora, this week moved several bills that would enhance the state’s Tier 2 pension system, which includes nearly all state employees hired after 2010.

While the measures are not expected to pass, they come amid robust discussion on reforms to that system. A bill that merges some of those proposals together could emerge either in the next few weeks or this fall. 

The worry is that the benefits will not be generous enough to meet "safe harbor," which is the requirement that pension payouts meet or exceed those of Social Security. There has also been concern about recruitment and retention with less generous benefits.

The concern on the flipside, however, is that reenacting more generous pension benefits could hurt the progress the state has made towards getting out from under its massive Tier 1 pension debt. 

Several discussions this session have centered around the role of artificial intelligence in society and ensuring that the state’s laws are keeping up.

Among them is House Bill 4623, sponsored by state Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, D-Glenview, which would ban the use of AI to create child pornography involving either real children or obscene imagery.

Another bill by Gong-Gershowitz, House Bill 4933, would allow victims of political "deepfakes" to sue perpetrators. 

Here are some other bills that have moved that are interesting:

House Bill 1168, sponsored by state Rep. Nabeela Syed, D-Inverness, would ensure that when a person’s DNA is collected after they’ve been a victim of a crime, it will not be entered into a DNA database.

House Bill 2093, sponsored by state Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville, makes sexual assault by deception a Class 3 felony. This occurs when a victim only consents to sexual activity under the belief that the person is someone else. It was inspired by a case where a college student unknowingly slept with someone who was pretending to be her boyfriend.

House Bill 4431, sponsored by state Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore, would remove the requirement that drivers 75 and older retake the driver’s test as a condition of renewing their driver’s license. Illinois is the only state in the country that mandates a regular senior road test.

House Bill 4446, sponsored by state Rep. Daniel Didech, D-Buffalo Grove, would add servals, kangaroos, wallabies and caracals to the state’s list of dangerous animals and prohibit ownership of any hybrid, intergrade or cross of these types of animals. The legislation passed out of committee in March.

House Bill 4567, sponsored by state Rep. Anne Stava-Murray, D-Downers Grove, would grant library workers the same protections against treats and harassments as public officials and human service providers. The bill is an initiative of Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who has embraced his role as the state’s librarian, most notably spearheading an effort last year to ban book bans.

House Bill 4592 would allow the Secretary of State’s office to issue mobile identification cards and driver’s licenses to people who want them. While sponsor Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, has been pushing this effort for the past couple of years, this is the first time that the bill includes both IDs and driver’s licenses. It’s also the first time Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias has backed these efforts. It passed out of committee in late March.

House Bill 5380, sponsored by Gong-Gershowitz, would require social medial companies to provide children’s social media data to third-party apps that parents could access.

Senate Bill 2606, sponsored by state Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, would make public colleges and universities adopt a student wellness day policy for every academic term. If passed, colleges and universities would have to create and implement this policy by the 2026-2027 academic year. The bill passed through committee in March.

Senate Bill 2643, sponsored by state Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, comes after a Carlinville funeral home allegedly mishandled the remains of close to 80 bodies. The bill would address significant criminal and regulatory gaps that have made it difficult to hold funeral home officials accountable for wrongdoing. If passed, it would establish a mandatory tagging system. The bill passed through committee in March.

Senate Bill 2662, sponsored by state Sen. Julie Morrison, D-Deerfield, would prohibit the advertising, marketing or promoting of an electronic cigarette in a manner that would likely cause an adult to mistake it for an object that is not a tobacco product. The aim is to crack down on vaping products that look like school supplies such as pencils, erasers and highlighters.

Senate Bill 3098, sponsored by state Sen. Meg Loughran Cappel, D-Shorewood, would ban those under 21 from purchasing vaping products online.

Senate Bill 3514, sponsored by state Sen. Seth Lewis, R-Bartlett, would make the calvatia gigantea, commonly known as the "giant puffball," the official state mushroom of Illinois. Similarly, state Rep. Matt Hanson, D-Montgomery, is back with House Bill 4645, which would make the soybean the official state bean of Illinois. An effort to pass it failed to sprout last year.

Kellie Foy contributed to this article.