(CAPITOL CITY NOW) – With sexual harassment accusations touching the departures of two Illinois House speakers in a row, Gov. JB Pritzker (pictured) said Friday the chamber needs to firm up its procedures for reporting complaints and ensure members, staff, and others involved can feel safe.
“Every company, every non-profit, virtually everybody I know has developed a process for their institutions to deal with these things,” said the governor. “It should be no different for the House of Representatives.”
The comments, in response to reporters’ questions after an unrelated event in Chicago, came a day after Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch (D-Hillside) announced he would not seek a fourth term in January. Welch has spent 2026 buffeted by accusations that he mishandled alleged harassment by a then-member and that Welch himself behaved inappropriately. Among the problems ending Mike Madigan’s historic run as speaker were a chief of staff accused of making sex-tinged remarks to staff and a male staffer mistreating a female member whose campaign he was running.
Pritzker did emphasize that the choice of speaker does not involve him; it is up to House members. Other than his opinion that the House must solidify its procedures, Pritzker evaluated neither Welch’s performance nor Welch’s decision to end his speakership after six years.
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And could it be an encounter between Pritzker and reporters without at least one question about a new stadium for the Chicago Bears? The latest Illinois proposal stands to be for a “stadium authority” which could – conceivably in Chicago, on land the football team owns in Arlington Heights, or elsewhere in the state – be the vehicle for a new home. A bill could run in the fall veto session, which is scheduled for the week before and the week after Thanksgiving.
“This is up to the Bears,” Pritzker said Friday. “Obviously, there is a bill that’s being put together that gives the Bears the opportunity to choose where they want to build a stadium in Illinois, and then it’s going to be up to them where it goes. That’s going to be a discussion between the Bears and the legislators.”
The spring session came to an end with each chamber passing its own Bears-related bill but not considering the other chamber’s. And Pritzker has said the Bears have not expressed to the state what they want from it.
While Indiana leaders may be counting on the Bears to once and for all accept their offer to move to Hammond, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and team president Kevin Warren have continued to meet with Illinois lawmakers.
