Sangamon Sun

A bipartisan Illinois House bill, whose sponsor shouted on the floor last week, is being stonewalled as part of the majority Democrat's continued efforts to stymie Republican legislation, GOP lawmakers said.

House Bill 2994 was sent back to the Rules Committee after an outburst by its lead sponsor Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield). The proposal already missed a Senate deadline to advance bills, despite already having passed second reading with 22 Democrat co-sponsors.

The proposal is not an especially controversial bill. It would allow Capital Township, which exists entirely inside Springfield, to become part of Sangamon County should township and county trustees pass resolutions for a ballot referendum, and voters approve the measure.

The legislation "important to my community," Butler thundered, standing at his seat on the House Floor April 22, as he brought his fist down atop of his desk, inches from his laptop.

Seconds earlier, he gestured with a paper copy of the House calendar and called out about H.B. 2994 "that is somehow 'under review'" and had already passed out of committee.

"And I'll tell you what, when I look at this calendar, I don't see the review calendar for third reading," Butler said. "So what the speaker said back in January, about this place being different and running in a different ... ."

The Springfield representative stopped in midsentence, stepped to one side and put his hands on his hips to someone in a dark blue suit approaching him from the speaker's area. The already palatable tension kicked up a notch.

The approaching man stopped behind a banister, and Butler returned to his comments, saying Democrat promises in January of "running in a different manner is a bunch of BS right now."

The Illinois House GOP posted a video of Butler's remarks on the House floor to YouTube the same day he made them.

Butler isn't the only Republican lawmaker in Springfield complaining about hundreds of GOP-backed bills, many of them with bipartisan support and of great importance to constituents are not being allowed to reach a vote.

Most of the anger is aimed at Illinois state House Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch (D-Westchester), successor to longtime and, for a long time, powerful Speaker Michael Madigan. Welch, who became speaker in January, after Madigan reportedly came up 60 votes short of holding onto the seat he wielded for 36 years, with promises to get along better with Republicans.

"Democrats promised to work together with Republicans in this session, but of the bills that were allowed out of committee, only 18% of them were sponsored by Republicans," Rep. Thomas Bennett (R-Watseka) said in comments posted to YouTube almost a week before Butler's outburst. "Thus far, the pledge to work together has proved to ring hollow."