UCDI's Citizen Bulletin for January 8–14

Good morning. Our highlights from this week include: Governor Rauner vetoed a bill to distribute state education funding under a new formula, citing a technicality involving private school scholarships; Senator Dick Durbin confirmed that President Trump referred to Haiti and several African nations as “shithole countries;” President Trump nixed the prospects of a comprehensive bipartisan immigration deal that would have shielded young immigrants from deportation.

CHICAGO CITY GOVERNMENT

Alderman Leslie Hairston (5th Ward) ~ call your alderman! (773) 324-5555

• Jan 12—Abstained from a City Council Finance Committee vote to allow the city to subsidize a Catholic health system that has an “anti-abortion policy”

Alderman Willie Cochran (20th Ward) ~ call your alderman! (773) 955-5610   

• [No News]*

Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) ~ call your mayor! (312) 744-3300

• Jan 7—Announced that 53 new police officers have been deployed as part of a plan to eventually add 1,000 new officers to the police force
• Jan 8—Finalized a labor contract with unionized city workers in the building trades, agreeing to pay them the “prevailing wage” in their respective private industry, while cutting their healthcare benefits
• Jan 9—Confirmed that the city is engaged in talks with Google to open a new center of operations in Chicago

COOK COUNTY BOARD

President Toni Preckwinkle ~ call your Cook County board president! (312) 603-6400

• [No News]*

ILLINOIS STATE GOVERNMENT

Representative Barbara Flynn Currie (D–District 25) ~ call your state rep! (773)-667-0550

• [No News]*

Senator Kwame Raoul (D–District 13) ~ call your state senator! (773) 363-1996

• Jan 11—Expressed outrage at the President’s recent description of Haiti and several African nations as “shithole countries,” citing his Haitian heritage

Governor Bruce Rauner (R–IL) ~ call your governor! (312)-814-2121

• Jan 9—Vetoed a bill to distribute state education funding under a new formula emphasizing high-poverty schools, citing a technicality that would have prevented private schools from being eligible for state scholarship programs
• Jan 10—Announced plans to replace the plumbing and other utilities in the Quincy Veterans’ Home, which suffered a Legionnaires bacterial outbreak that killed 13
• Jan 12—Expressed support for the Trump administration’s guidance allowing states to require able-bodied Medicaid recipients to be employed

U.S. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Representative Bobby Rush (D–IL1) ~ call your representative! (773) 779-2400

• Jan 10—Spoke at a press conference urging economic investment in South Side neighborhoods to reduce gun violence

Senator Tammy Duckworth (D–IL) ~ call your senator! (312) 886-3506

• Jan 8—Criticized Governor Rauner’s response to the Quincy veterans home Legionnaires’ outbreak, urging the administration to do more
• Jan 10—Condemned the recent ruling on net neutrality, saying the FCC’s reversal of the protection will hurt students and small-businesses

Senator Dick Durbin (D–IL) ~ call your senator! (312) 353-4952

• Jan 8—Filed a legal brief, along with 11 other senators and 33 members of the House, over the DOJ attempt to deny some federal funds to local law enforcement violence prevention efforts in “sanctuary cities”
• Jan 12—Condemned President Trump’s remarks about “shithole countries,” saying he heard them in person

President Donald Trump (R) ~ call your president! (202) 456-1414

• Jan 9—Banned oil and gas drilling off the coast of Florida after the Florida governor pleaded to protect the tourism-reliant coast
• Jan 11—Allowed states to adopt Medicaid work requirements, which means states will be able to use work requirements as a condition for able-bodied adults obtaining health insurance through Medicaid
• Jan 12—Extended waivers of economic sanctions against Iran, while also delivering an ultimatum to America’s European allies to “fix” the Iranian nuclear deal or face a U.S. withdrawal from the agreement
• Jan 13—Resumed accepting renewal applications for individuals eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program
• Jan 14—Nixed the prospects of a comprehensive bipartisan immigration deal that would have shielded young immigrants from deportation

*Our research process involves searching for press releases from the elected representatives, Google News stories, and any Twitter and Facebook posts. If no information is displayed in the Citizen Bulletin, then our research process turned up nothing new from this past week.

The Citizen Bulletin is a product of the University of Chicago Democracy Initiative (UCDI). UCDI is proudly supported by Andrew Goodman Foundation’s nonpartisan Vote Everywhere project. In addition to the UCDI website, you can find past versions of the bulletin here. For news closer to campus, subscribe to the twice weekly newsletter produced by our partners at the Chicago Maroon.

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