With the start of the Illinois House’s lame duck session just a few days away, State Representative Brad Halbrook today stressed that working to fix the persistent failures at the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) must take priority. Rep. Halbrook (R-Shelbyville) today joined his House Republican colleagues in calling for the Pritzker Administration to finally take responsibility, and to work with legislators on long overdue solutions.
“In April, when it became apparent that the department was failing to get COVID-impacted workers the assistance they needed, we began calling for additional help through new hiring or temporarily reassigning employees from other agencies to meet the demand. And we called for public hearings to work on long-term solutions. Both requests were denied, and the Governor began to deflect blame,” Rep. Halbrook said. “Here we are nine months later…many families still haven’t received the help they need, and to add insult to injury, the Administration is now attempting to ‘claw back’ money from families that are still without work, but received a few dollars extra through IDES error. It’s mind-boggling.”
“When we return to Springfield at the end of this week I will be pressing hard for solutions. Doing all we can to help families we represent get through this crisis must be our number one priority now,” Rep. Halbrook said.