With just five scheduled days left of the spring legislative session, the Illinois Senate was busy at work this week moving through legislation to meet a Friday bill-passing deadline.
A few notable bills passed by Senate Republican members include:
- House Bill 3203 (Sen. Turner): Allows pharmacists and retailers to sell fentanyl testing strips over the counter to the public and allows county public health departments to distribute the testing strips at their facilities for free.
- Senate Bill 1160 (Sen. Fowler): Requires the Renewable Energy Component Recycling Task Force to consider the benefits of prohibiting a person from mixing renewable energy components with municipal waste.
- House Bill 1297 (Sen. Harriss): Seeks to address the teacher shortage by allowing private schools teachers the ability to buy up to two years of service credit from the Teachers Retirement System.
- Senate Bill 1115 (Sen. Rose): Allows university police to receive the same disability benefits as city police, and provides them with benefits based upon 65 percent of their pay if injured in the line of duty.
- House Bill 3172 (Sen. Bennett): Allows individuals who require sliding scale insulin treatments to be accepted for residency at an assisted living facility.
- House Bill 3202 (Sen. Lewis): Requires insurance companies to cover home saliva cancer screening tests every two years for at-risk individuals.
- House Bill 3456 (Sen. Bryant): Allows the Director of Natural Resources to enter into a public-private agreement to develop, finance, lease, manage, and operate the World Shooting and Recreational Complex located in Sparta, Illinois.