Illinois Valley Times

Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) has renewed her call to pass a series of bills designed to improve oversight of veterans homes that were spurred by the 36 deaths in 2020 at the LaSalle Veterans home.

"As we near the end of the legislative session, I'm renewing my call to pass a series of legislative bills I introduced last year in response to the deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans Home and Governor Pritzker's failure to implement critical recommendations from the Illinois auditor general's performance audit of the legionnaire's disease outbreak at the Quincy Veterans Home," Rezin said during a news conference on Thursday at the Capitol in Springfield.

The three bills that Rezin is pushing are Senate Bill 1445, which would provide the inspector general subpoena powers in state investigations; Senate Bill 3170, which would require that a veterans home administrator provide written notification to IDPH and IDVA within 24 hours of learning of a second case of an infectious disease; and SB1471, which would require facilities licensed and operated by the state to conduct outbreak-related preparedness drills.

“The residents of the veterans’ home served and protected our nation when we needed it,” Rezin said. “But when they needed us to serve and protect them, our state and our governor failed.”

The bills introduced by Rezin have remained stuck in the Senate’s Assignments Committee for the past year while they were waiting to be assigned to a substantive committee. Rezin said that she has written several letters to get the bills moving but has been left “shocked and frustrated.” 

“We must put these policies and procedures into state law ensuring proper and effective responses undertaking no matter who is in charge,” Rezin said. “It’s time we honor the obligation we have to our veterans and their families by solidifying these into law.”