Illinois lawmakers return to the Capitol on Tuesday with Democrats fresh off sweeping election victories that will give them their largest legislative majorities in modern history but no settled answer on who will lead them in the House.

Legislators will have six days of the fall veto session to work with: three this week and three more in the first week of December. In that time, they face a short list of big unfinished business. They need to decide how to try to keep the Chicago Bears from leaving for Indiana, how to regulate power-hungry data centers and whether to find more money for public schools.

That work has to fit into the time left before the current two-year General Assembly ends in early January and a new one, with fresh faces in both chambers, is sworn in.

Other issues, including ethics reform and Gov. JB Pritzker’s plans to build more housing, are expected to wait. “Generally speaking, we don’t get a lot done in a veto session just because it’s so, so short,” Pritzker said in October when he was asked about ethics legislation.

Although it’s called a “veto session” and is designed to give the legislature the opportunity to override a governor’s vetoes, the legislature isn’t expected to tackle any high-profile vetoes by Pritzker.

That’s largely because Democrats rule Springfield across the board. Indeed, Democrats expanded their supermajorities in the Nov. 3 election. Their 78-40 advantage over Republicans in the House could grow by about a half dozen seats once all votes are counted, and their 40-19 edge in the Senate will grow by at least five seats.

Uncertainty over the House’s leadership next year, however, hangs over the Democrats’ success.

House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch was pushed into announcing on Nov. 5 that he would not seek a fourth term with the gavel. His decision followed an outcry over his handling of sexual harassment allegations against a former member of his caucus and other complaints about his leadership. Welch, of west suburban Hillside, said he plans to remain a state representative, and House Democrats are expected to keep discussing a successor during the veto session.

Pritzker has said the turmoil won’t affect the session’s priorities.

Bears in primetime

Pritzker has said he expects lawmakers to act during the veto session on a proposal to incentivize the Bears to stay in Illinois, and that it could be introduced as soon as this week.

As it stands, separate proposals to keep the Bears in Illinois are pending in the House and Senate, as negotiations with the team have continued through the summer and fall. Both proposals deal with one of the top issues holding up an Illinois stadium deal: property taxes.

The House-passed bill would let the Bears and developers of other major projects in Illinois negotiate an annual payment to local governments in lieu of property taxes. The Senate-passed bill would allow some Cook County municipalities to create a local stadium authority to enable a privately funded, publicly owned stadium that would be exempt from property taxes.

“The legislation that is being discussed now would give the option for the possibility that there would be a stadium built in the city (of Chicago) or in Arlington Heights, and that’s a decision the Bears get to make,” Pritzker said. “They’re a private company, and that way they have the option — we want to keep them in the state of Illinois. If we give them those two options, I think that would be satisfactory.”

All year, Illinois has been playing catch-up with Indiana. The Republican-led legislature in Indiana and GOP Gov. Mike Braun passed and signed a measure in February to help the Bears move to a site in Hammond, just over the state line. Afterward, Bears Chairman George McCaskey and CEO Kevin Warren announced the team would focus on a new stadium there.

In August, McCaskey and Warren called the team’s talks with Illinois officials “minimal.” Since October, however, Pritzker and legislative leaders have met with Bears leadership, including minority team owner and billionaire businessman Pat Ryan, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, to discuss keeping the team in Illinois.

State Sen. Bill Cunningham, a Chicago Democrat, said a version of the Senate-passed stadium bill was being worked on ahead of veto session.

“Can we move forward with a proposal built around the idea of a privately financed and public-owned stadium and a bill that is location neutral (within Illinois)? That is the effort that is underway right now,” Cunningham said. “I would say that there’s a possibility that something like that could come together before the end of the current General Assembly (in January), but we don’t know that until we have a concrete proposal on the table that all the members of the legislature have an opportunity to review.”

Cunningham’s bill passed the Senate in the final hours of the spring session. It would allow Cook County municipalities with more than 70,000 residents, most notably Arlington Heights and Chicago, to create stadium finance authorities. The bill would let the Bears build on land that is or would become publicly owned, sparing the stadium from property taxes. The House declined to take up the bill before adjourning in the spring, saying members needed more time to evaluate it.

Earlier in the spring session, the team had focused on the former Arlington International Racecourse site it owns in Arlington Heights. The team pressed lawmakers to pass a measure that would freeze the site’s property tax assessments for 25 to 45 years in exchange for negotiated payments to local taxing bodies. The proposal, sponsored mainly by Democratic state Rep. Kam Buckner of Chicago, passed the House in April but lacked votes to pass the Senate.

The anticipated movement in Springfield has reenergized developers hungry for a high-profile deal to pitch various locations around Chicago as the next site for a new Bears stadium, regardless of whether the Bears have expressed interest in those spots. Just in the past few weeks, developers have unveiled elaborate plans and renderings for new Bears stadiums at Rate Field, where the White Sox play baseball; the old U.S. Steel South Works site; and the former site of Michael Reese Hospital. All are on the South Side.

The Bears have not publicly pursued any of those spots and, in a statement earlier this month, kept their cards close to the vest. The team said it is still talking with officials in both Indiana and Illinois about building a stadium and mixed-use district in “the Chicagoland community,” which, of course, would include all of Chicago, the suburbs and Hammond.

“We expect productive dialogue with both leadership teams in the coming weeks. We have a responsibility and obligation to explore every option available to the club, and we look forward to developing a transformational project that will attract global events and deliver jobs and economic growth to all of Chicagoland,” the team said.

Pritzker pushes data center regulations

Pritzker has also called on lawmakers to regulate data centers, the sprawling facilities that house the computing infrastructure behind artificial intelligence. He has said he is disappointed regulations weren’t passed sooner.

Data centers use so much electricity that consumers worry their utility bills will soar. Pritzker has not called for a moratorium on construction, but he has frozen state tax incentives for data centers for now.

The freeze is part of a broader framework Pritzker has outlined for regulating the industry. Under that framework, data centers would have to supply their own electricity and water to keep them running; be assigned interruptible electric service, based on how much of their own clean energy they provide; obtain comprehensive water permits, because they use large amounts of water; meet clean air standards; and tell the public how much energy they use.

The POWER Act, which takes a similar approach, could get a hearing during the session. Short for the Protecting Our Water Energy and Resources Act, it would require large AI data center developers to supply their own power and infrastructure in order to operate one. The bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Ram Villivalam of Chicago and Democratic Rep. Robyn Gabel of Evanston, stalled in the General Assembly in the spring.

As members of the General Assembly have been considering new restrictions this year, tech companies that rely on data centers have poured at least $590,000 in contributions to state candidates, lawmakers and party organizations, state campaign finance records show. That includes more than $200,000 from Anthropic, maker of the AI chatbot Claude, since mid-October.

Google contributed more than $300,000 to Democrats and Republicans this year. Amazon gave at least $44,000 to state lawmakers this fall, mostly to Welch and Democratic Senate President Don Harmon of Oak Park. And committees associated with Microsoft made $11,000 in contributions and transfers to state lawmakers this year, primarily to members of leadership in both parties.

An Anthropic spokesperson said the company supports policymakers who back “sensible industry guardrails.” A Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment, while spokespeople for Google and Amazon did not respond.

None of those figures include the $750,000 that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, set aside this spring for independent expenditures on behalf of its preferred Illinois candidates.

Many labor organizations also oppose stringent restrictions on data centers because of the jobs they generate, and the union political operations have continued long-running contributions to state lawmakers this year.

Cunningham, who also works on energy issues in the Senate, said the legislation is difficult because Illinois depends on multistate grids that control the flow of electricity, even though lawmakers want to address how much energy data centers use.

“We could overregulate data centers. We could, for instance, pass a bill tomorrow making them illegal, and it wouldn’t necessarily solve the problem because they will build in neighboring states and be on the same grid we’re on, and use the same water sources we use,” he said. “So we have to figure out a way to put commonsense regulations in that protect consumers. But we can’t cut off our nose to spite our face, either. So, you know, I think there is a middle ground.”

Republican Sen. Sue Rezin of Morris spoke last week in a webinar about the upcoming veto session as well as the lame-duck session, which hasn’t been scheduled but typically occurs in early January before the new General Assembly is sworn in. She said the data center discussion should focus on giving residents property tax relief based on a portion of data center revenue and ensuring local governments have a say in how the facilities are regulated.

“They’re significant revenue generators,” said Rezin, who pointed to a data center in her district that she said provides $30 million in new revenue every year. “However, other communities in my district have chosen to pass moratoriums on building data centers. I respect both. That’s why you need to make sure … you have local control.”

CPS funding questions

Lawmakers might also take up — or ignore — an additional $150 million Chicago Public Schools is counting on to balance its budget as part of a broader discussion about public school funding.

So far, Pritzker has poured cold water on the extra $150 million, especially without additional funding for other schools.

The CPS board passed its roughly $10 billion budget over the summer as part of a high-stakes gamble that Welch and other Democrats would help the district after it delivered a spending plan that allocated $150 million more than the district projected it would bring in. If the district doesn’t find the funding, officials have said it could face midyear cuts, which could mean layoffs, furloughs or even a midyear spending freeze. At an event in late October, Pritzker said there “hasn’t really been an ongoing discussion” about supplemental funding this year.

“To the extent that someone wants to propose something, they can in veto session,” he said. “I am not certain that midyear we’ll be able to do something that will meet only one school district’s needs.”

Instead, Pritzker said, the state should be discussing next year’s budget.

Rep. Edgar Gonzalez, a Chicago Democrat, said that while some might not object to CPS getting $150 million, “the rest of the state needs to see something.”

“The discussion isn’t dead,” he said. “But I do see it as very difficult because … where are we going to get the money?”

That discussion could see new life after Pritzker’s budget office on Friday announced the state is on track to bring in about $1 billion more in tax revenue this year than was expected when he signed the current budget in June.

While CPS supporters immediately began pushing for some of that money to be directed to the city’s schools, the governor’s office wants to set aside much of the “one-time surplus” to soften the blow of federal reductions to food, healthcare and disaster relief assistance.

As it stands, the state is facing an estimated $2.4 billion deficit for the budget year that will begin July 1, according to the governor’s budget office.

Leadership in flux

Welch’s announcement came a day after 26 Democratic House members signed a short statement calling for a new speaker. Members of his own caucus had criticized his leadership style, as well as how he handled sexual harassment allegations against former Rep. Harry Benton of Plainfield.

A Tribune investigation this summer found that three years ago, Welch knew of Benton’s reported sexual harassment of a former Benton staffer but did not discipline him at the time. Welch later steered $1.4 million to Benton’s campaign to help him win reelection in 2024. Benton resigned his seat July 3 and withdrew from the Nov. 3 ballot. Shortly afterward, a legislative inspector general investigation found Benton had engaged in a “pattern and practice” of sexual harassment toward the former staffer and two other women. Benton has denied wrongdoing.

Welch also knew the ex-Benton staffer through her previous roles in state government. The Tribune reported Welch used heart-eye emojis to react to images of her on her Instagram posts, which she told the newspaper made her “uncomfortable.” Welch has since publicly apologized for his actions.

In the fallout, Welch’s office formed a working group on workplace culture, including ways to better protect legislative staff from harassment.

In an August email to House members, Welch’s chief of staff, Clayton Harris, said he anticipated the group would update the caucus on its progress during veto session. He added that “the goal is not to complete the work simply to meet that timeline” and that “meaningful reform should not be rushed.”

Last month, Rep. Dagmara Avelar of Bolingbrook, who chairs the working group, told the Tribune in a statement, “there are several efforts underway to inform this broader work” of the group.

Speaking at the same webinar as Rezin, Gonzalez said the response could also include changes to House rules or “hiring of some folks that could help shore up our internal departments.”

As lawmakers debate possible changes, some Democratic lawmakers will undoubtedly be positioning themselves to be picked by their colleagues as Welch’s replacement. Among those said to be under consideration: Reps. Eva-Dina Delgado, Ann Williams and Buckner, all of Chicago, as well as Jay Hoffman of Swansea and Jehan Gordon-Booth of Peoria. Rep. Mary Beth Canty of Arlington Heights, who chairs the House Democratic Women’s Caucus and has been critical of Welch, said in a social media post last week that she was not running for speaker.

Among the items neither chamber is expected to address is Pritzker’s ambitious package to build more housing, including broadly allowing multifamily homes on lots currently zoned for single-family homes statewide. The governor expressed doubt that any of the bills tied to the legislative package will get a vote during the veto session.

At the same time, advocates for other housing legislation said they made progress over the summer and will keep pushing those bills this fall, though passing major legislation outside lawmakers’ most urgent priorities is typically difficult during a short session. Those proposals include one to expand housing and other services for people leaving prison, and another to remove hurdles to building housing on church-owned land.

The governor has also tempered expectations that the legislature will tackle any ethics-related legislation in response to the Benton controversy.

“We frequently raise issues around ethics legislation. It’s not a recent development but a longstanding development that we’re always looking for — what can we get through the legislature and get into law that makes sense for us to move forward on that?”