Chicago City Wire

The fall veto session for the Illinois legislature was canceled this week after the majority of members voiced preferring to postpone the session to a later date with rising concerns over COVID-19. 

“There is a strong majority of members who would prefer the House delay convening to a later date; this is primarily motivated by concerns about the rising COVID-19 rates and proximity to upcoming holidays,” House Speaker Michael Madigan's Chief of Staff Jessica Basham said in a letter to legislature members, The Center Square reported. “I'm advised that there are similar concerns among Senate members, who were also surveyed over the weekend.”

Basham said the coronavirus situation and opinions of legislature members will continue to be monitored during this time. 

“House and Senate leadership will be announcing the cancellation of the veto session (currently scheduled for Nov. 17-19 and Dec. 1-3),” Basham wrote in the message, The Center Square reported. “We will continue to monitor the evolving conditions relative to the pandemic and keep members apprised of future session dates.”

While not all members were in agreement over the cancellation, Rep. Marcus Evans, Jr., said he thinks its important to let the legislature members decide how they want to handle the situation with rising coronavirus concerns. 

"I think that, you know, I'm a cancer survivor and the health advocate and I think that, you know, either Americans were used to having things our way. You want to know this country is built on freedom and liberty and do we want to do and making choices, but right now, COVID-19 it is in control," he said during a Zoom interview with Chicago City Wire. "And I just think that it's a lot for people to deal with it. Right now the priority is COVID-19."

Canceling the session is an opportunity to save lives, he said. 

"But we have an opportunity to save lives and when we go to Springfield, a lot that goes into this is the hotels is our apartments is the grocery stores is so many points of contact, and I think that, you know, focusing leadership just felt like let that we can eliminate some points of contact," Evans told Chicago City Wire. "Maybe we can stop the spread. So I think it was really all about code, but rather we were happy about. I'm always looking for an opportunity to improve legislation or passing legislation. So I think many of us want to go for sure."

But Gov. J.B. Pritzker expressed disappointment that the session was canceled. 

“We have so much work to do in Springfield, there’s no doubt,” Pritzker said, The Center Square reported. “With regard to the budget in particular, we have major efforts underway that will require the legislatures engagement.”

Evans still stressed the importance of preventing the spread of the coronavirus, stating many people in his community are dying from the virus. If there is anything that can be done to help prevent the spread, he said it should be done. 

"We must together battle COVID so that we can get back to normal [and] 2021 to be a fun year because I didn't have any fun this year," Evans told Chicago City Wire. "But in order to make that a reality, we have to stress [to] the people it's serious..."