Rep. Paul Jacobs (R-Carbondale) | Photo Courtesy of Paul Jacobs website
Rep. Paul Jacobs (R-Carbondale) | Photo Courtesy of Paul Jacobs website
The Illinois House of Representatives recently voted 115-0 to pass legislation restricting the number of consecutive years a legislative can serve to 10 years at a time.
State Rep. Paul Jacobs (R-Carbondale) hailed the House Bill 642's passage in a post to his official Facebook page.
“The IL House passed HB 642 today,” he said in his April 22 post. “This bill term limits all legislative leaders to 10 years. This is a good reform that had bipartisan support.”
The bill comes in the wake of the Feb. 18 resignation of former Illinois Speaker of the House Mike Madigan. Madigan had served 36 years as speaker, making him the longest-serving state house speaker in all of U.S. history.
“I leave office at peace with my decision and proud of the many contributions I’ve made to the state of Illinois, and I do so knowing I’ve made a difference,” Madigan said in his resignation letter, which followed his failed bid in January to be reelected as speaker.
Madigan had faced mounting pressure even from within the Democratic Party related to his implication in a federal investigation into the alleged Commonwealth Edison bribery scheme. His time in power was not without other controversies either.
“Hundreds of politicians share blame for drowning the state’s government in billions of dollars of debt and unfunded pension liabilities,” Dave McKinney wrote in a Reuter’s special report. “But House Speaker Michael Madigan — a dominant political force for three decades — has been the constant in key decisions that created the mess.”
HB 642 would not prevent anyone from completing another 50-year stint in office, as Madigan did, but it would prevent them from also serving more than 10 consecutive years as speaker of the House, president of the Senate, or minority leader of either the House or Senate, according to the bill summary. The clock on those limits would not start until January 2023.
Notably, even Madigan didn’t serve all his years as speaker consecutively and served those terms over a span of 38 years.
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