Senator Melinda Bush's staff will be hosting neighborhood office hours in Antioch and Zion. Stop by to get help with a state-related issue or to share any concerns you might have.

SPRINGFIELD – A measure from State Senator Melinda Bush (D-Grayslake) to allow county boards that appoint their chairs to remove them passed out of the Illinois Senate today with unanimous support.

“If an appointed board chair fails to fulfill their duties or fails to meet ethical standards, the board members who appointed them as chair should be able to remove them,” Bush said. “This good-government, common-sense measure helps hold elected officials accountable and gives county boards the ability to take action, should the situation arise.”

Under current law, county boards that appoint their chairs cannot remove a chair until the next election. Last year, Lake County Board members were unable to legally remove the now former chair from his post after it was revealed that he had used taxpayer dollars for personal expenses.

Under Senate Bill 1218, removing a chair would require support from four-fifths of the county board members. The board would then be able to select a new chair.

“Elected officials must be held accountable for their actions,” Bush said. “This measure will provide more transparency and accountability to our government.”

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Lake County News-Sun - February 22, 2019 | original article

Joining a chorus of voices demanding air quality testing in Lake County areas near local two plants generating ethylene oxide emissions, state Sen. Melinda Bush on Friday sent a letter Friday to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and introduced a joint resolution in the General Assembly calling for the testing.

The Grayslake Democrat said in a letter to EPA officials that the major gulf between ethylene oxide (EtO) emission self-reporting results from Sterigenics in Willowbrook and subsequent ambient air monitoring by the federal EPA in the area around the company led to it being shut down by order of the Illinois EPA.

“Public health and safety must be the state and federal government’s overriding concern,” Bush said in the letter. “These reports prove it is unwise, and unsafe, to trust emitters of carcinogens to accurately self-report their emissions.

“The USEPA simply must conduct its own air monitoring to protect the public interest,” Bush added.

Bush also said a joint Senate resolution, calling for federal EPA ambient air testing for EtO in Lake County near the Vantage and Medline plants in Gurnee and Waukegan respectively, was filed Friday and expected to be heard by the Senate March 5.

Bush added she believes the resolution will pass both the Senate and House quickly and be forwarded to federal officials in the near future.

While Bush is carrying the resolution in the Senate, state Rep. Joyce Mason, D-Gurnee, will carry it in the House.

Although some resident groups are demanding “independent testing” near the Vantage plant in Gurnee and the Medline plant in Waukegan, Bush and other local officials stressed the need for federal EPA involvement.

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Capitol News Illinois - February 25, 2019 | original article

SPRINGFIELD – With more in the works for the new session, 12 bills became law last year as a result of a yearlong investigation by the Senate Task Force on Sexual Discrimination and Harassment Awareness and Prevention.

“Task forces many times meet, and many times there isn’t a lot of actual legislation that comes out and is signed into law,” said Sen. Melinda Bush, a Grayslake Democrat who co-chaired the task force. “So we’re really proud of the work that has been done here.”

Surrounded by several other members of the task force, Bush and fellow co-chair Sen. Jil Tracy, a Quincy Republican, held a news conference Tuesday to discuss the task force’s newly-released report, and to detail some of the legislation that resulted from its investigation last year.

The outcomes included, among other things, legislation that requires lobbyists, legislators and state employees to receive harassment training; extends the statute of limitations for sexual conduct offenses; gives assault victims more rights at medical facilities; and requires taxing bodies to notify the public if an employee is fired for sexual harassment or discrimination.

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