Peoria Standard

Senate Minority Leader Bill Brady (R-Bloomington) called for a discussion on safely reopening Illinois during a recent press conference.

"Although we are not in the majority, we represent a significant number of people in this state who are worried about our state," Brady said of the Senate Republican Caucus. "We care deeply about the safety of our citizens as well as their livelihoods."

Brady said Senate Republicans are calling for the governor and both the Senate and House to do what they need to do to fulfill their responsibility to the people who elected them.

"Over this week we’ve proven the General Assembly can meet in a safe way," Brady said. "It’s time for us to use our positions to have a discussion and come to a conclusion in a bipartisan way along with the executive office on how we move this state and its people forward safely."

Brady said it is time for the General Assembly to convene on reopening matters, as well as others.

"We’re calling on leaders of the General Assembly to have a discussion like we do on budgets and other programs we implement so that people can hear the legislature speak," Brady said.

Brady said the General Assembly needs to check the governor's authority.

"That is what we were elected to do," Brady said. "He leads from his podium and we need to lead from ours. No one has worked harder than the Governor through this pandemic."

Brady said Gov. J.B. Pritzker's press conferences have been a good thing, but there needs to be more than only daily press briefings.

"We need the legislature to come to terms in a bipartisan way with the governor about how to reengage this," Brady said. "If it was unsafe to meet, this would be a different matter but it is safe to meet so we need to do our jobs."

Brady said the General Assembly should not go home until a bipartisan plan has been implemented to help re-engage the state.

"The people of Illinois expect and deserve that," Brady said.

Brady said Senate Republicans want a meaningful budget that realizes the current crisis.

"We want it to be responsible," Brady said. "We’re going to continue to work on that. We know the only way to have fiscal sanity in this state is to re-engage this economy as quickly as we can and as safely as we can."