State lawmakers approved ethics reforms Monday and early Tuesday morning that advocates said would bar elected officials from lobbying other units of government and interrupt the “revolving door” of lawmakers leaving and then returning to lobby the General Assembly.
The package, which received bipartisan support in the Illinois House and Senate, also would give the legislative inspector general the power to initiate investigations of lawmakers without first receiving approval from a bipartisan commission of lawmakers.
“This legislation takes the first steps in addressing some of the most egregious scandals in our state’s history,” said Sen. Ann Gillespie, D-Arlington Heights. “It offers bipartisan solutions to re-establish public trust in our institutions.