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Legislative Update
Per our lobbyist, Michelle Gentry-Wiseman: “ The legislature concluded their business for the session on Saturday night by passing a budget and sending it to Governor Blagojevich for action. It appears, by a number of accounts, that the budget sent to the Governor is out of balance by some $1 – 2.5 Billion dollars, so cuts by the Governor are expected. “ Per the Chicago Tribune, the governor will be meeting with leaders in both the House and Senate to balance the budget in accordance with Illinois law.
Per Michelle Gentry Wiseman: “It should be noted that the General Assembly’s budget did include $500,000 in General Revenue Fund dollars for newborn hearing screening in the Department of Public Health budget. I did not identify any new money added for the DSCC component of the program. This is new money that has not been in the Department’s budget previously and is likely due to the efforts of the Academy and our partners. While we did not see the entire $2 Million we had been looking for, this is a huge “win” for this effort. Having said that, the budget is not balanced and the Governor will be taking action on it – either through vetoes or other action to reduce the spending without increases in revenues to fund the budget. There is definitely the potential that this new money will be cut since it is an add-on and was not included in the Governor’s introduced budget. “No matter what happens, the Illinois Academy of Audiology should consider this a victory.
“We will have to continue our work in assuring that the legislature continues to see the importance of these dollars and, try to impact the thinking at the Governor’s office as well as the summer continues. While we cannot be totally sure, the fact that these dollars were included was likely due to the support of Representatives Hamos, Feigenholtz and Senator Steans. Thank you to all who contacted legislators and got the word out about the needs of this program.”
“Substantively, the legislation regarding insurance coverage of cochlear implants (HB 4824 - Coulson) was re-referred back to the House Rules Committee because no final action was taken on the measure prior to the 3rd Reading deadline. While technically the bill could be discharged from the Rules Committee, the likelihood of that is small. Representative Coulson had suggested to us that she would be working on the issue over the summer and we will likely see a new bill introduced at a later date. The legislation that would have required coverage for habilitative services (HB 5595 -Coulson) passed the House and the Senate but, still needs concurrence of the House on two amendments adopted in the Senate. This action could occur later during the summer or in the fall. This legislation is not “dead” at this point and we would expect to see action at some point to send it to the Governor.”
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