Sangamon Sun

State Rep. Mike Murphy (R-Springfield) no longer sees a need for a bill to establish a committee to monitor the Restore Illinois plan.

“The Restore Illinois Commission sounded like a great idea and I was very excited to be selected to be part of that,” Murphy said. “And that was because we were entering an uncharted area. We didn't know what this pandemic would look like and I wanted to make sure the General Assembly was engaged. We were AWOL for 224 days in 2020 until (the) lame duck (session) of 2021. We don't need that commission now – we're back to work.”

Murphy argues those resources could be put to much better use. He urged an investigation of the $4 million lease for Elgin Hospital that was recently purchased for $1 million. He also has questions about the hospital that was leased in Springfield and never used, and all the work that was done at that McCormick Center that ultimately served a couple dozen patients.

“We need hearings on those,” Murphy added. “We need hearings to be continued on IDES and their failure during COVID. We need hearings in regards to state police not abiding by the law and they're not living up to it. FOID and CCL applications are months and months and months behind.”

Murphy also sees more work needed on the pandemic challenges faced by K-12 schools and higher education.

“We have 45 committees to do this,” he said. “We don’t need one commission. We also need to continue hearings on the LaSalle Hospital tragedy. I’d also hope that we have hearings to help our Main Street businesses try to recover from the most disastrous year that they have ever had.”

Senate Bill 632 seeks to reenact the Restore Illinois Collaborative Commission within the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity so that it monitors the “actions taken by the Office of the Governor with regard to the Restore Illinois plan and to keep members of the General Assembly informed of those actions and any need for further legislative action.”