SPRINGFIELD – Following unprecedented job losses and economic hardship due to the pandemic, Assistant Senate Majority Leader Linda Holmes (D-Aurora) sponsored a bipartisan reform package to address challenges faced by the Illinois Department of Employment Security during the unemployment surge, which has now passed the House of Representatives and is one step closer to becoming law.

“IDES, Democratic and Republican lawmakers, and business and labor groups worked together to craft this omnibus approach,” Holmes said. “It targets the weaknesses revealed in a system that wasn’t designed to address the wave of job losses, phone calls and fraudulent claims all hitting the department at once.”

House Bill 2643 revises the Unemployment Insurance Act, allowing IDES to communicate with legislators’ offices about specific constituent cases, and requires IDES to give more information to those issued overpayments and their right to appeal.

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SPRINGFIELD — Assistant Majority Leader Linda Holmes (D-Aurora) applauded investments in pensions, local governments and the Illinois workforce in the upcoming fiscal year budget, which passed the Senate Monday.

“This is a balanced budget. I believe the most important part of what we passed tonight is that we will make our full pension payment as planned,” Holmes said. “This is such a cornerstone of our ongoing efforts to address our underfunded pension system.”

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SPRINGFIELD – A measure to compel pet stores to get their animals from animal shelters or animal control facilities passed the Senate Monday, co-sponsored by Senator Linda Holmes (D-Aurora), in an effort to discourage the sale of pets from unscrupulous breeders and puppy mills and instead provide loving homes to animals who need them most.

“I’m proud to join in House Bill 1711 to push legislation on a pet store business model that has been growing across the U.S.,” Holmes said. “Puppy mills are a major source of animals for many pet stores, but their breeding practices result in sick and sometimes terminally ill animals, which can result in heartache for families.”

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SPRINGFIELD – Senator Linda Holmes (D-Aurora) moved legislation this week that would expand workers’ compensation for firefighters and EMTs to cover a potentially deadly, antibiotic-resistant staph infection that poses a particularly high risk to first responders.

House Bill 3662 would amend the Workers’ Compensation Act. It presumes that these professionals would be exposed to MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) in the course of their employment.

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