CHICAGO – State Senator Heather Steans applauded news Friday that $140 million in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act payments will be distributed to crucial hospitals throughout the state to offset the costs of fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

This first round of funding will help Medicaid providers cover COVID-19-related costs, such as hazard pay for direct care workers, personal protective equipment purchases and other previously unbudgeted expenditures.

“One of the most important things we can do right now is ensure the long-term viability of Medicaid and our hospital system, which is why I sponsored Senate Bill 2541 earlier this year to increase provider rates for hospitals serving low-income communities,” said Steans, D-Chicago.

In the first wave of funding, $58.8 million was set aside for providers serving communities across the state with disproportionately higher cases of COVID-19, and many Medicaid providers, like safety net hospitals and federally qualified health centers, will receive the first-round CARES payments automatically. Of the total funding, $68 million in payments went to long-term care facilities, $50 million to federally qualified health centers, and $23.5 million to safety net hospitals. 

Future rounds of funding will require providers to complete an application. HFS is set to launch an online portal next week where providers can apply.

“I am also urging all providers who qualify to apply through HFS for future rounds of funding,” Steans said. “These are the health care providers, clinics and other services that are on the front lines of the pandemic every single day, and they’ve never needed more support than they do right now.”

CHICAGO – Under a new law in effect today, Illinois schools will be required to include in their curriculum history about the contributions of LGBT people.

“As we move forward from a Pride Month marked by protests against injustice, it’s as fitting a time as ever to remind everyone that LGBT people must not be erased,” said State Senator Heather Steans, who sponsored the legislation in the Senate. “LGBT people have fought for our country, crafted enduring works of art, and produced great inventions. We need to honor their lives, their works, and their identities.”

Under the new law, Illinois public schools would be required to include the relevant curriculum in U.S. history courses.

The measure was House Bill 246, which passed the General Assembly last August.

CHICAGO – State Senator Heather Steans issued the following statement on news the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of extending Title VII employment protections to LGBT workers:

“This decision represents long-overdue acknowledgment that LGBT people deserve protection against arbitrary discrimination on the job,” Steans said. “I hope this decision also serves as the basis to undercut the president’s cruel move last week to deny trans Americans the right to medical care. This decision is justice for the LGBT community.”

The Supreme Court’s decision applies to two sets of cases. One involved a pair of lawsuits from gay men alleging they were fired because of their sexual orientation, and the other involved a suit from a transgender woman, Aimee Stephens, who alleged she was fired when she revealed her gender identity to her employers.

The ruling explicitly establishes that workplace discrimination against LGBT people violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a conclusion first drawn by federal courts in Chicago and New York.

“In Title VII, Congress adopted broad language making it illegal for an employer to rely on an employee's sex when deciding to fire that employee,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in his ruling for the majority. “We do not hesitate to recognize today a necessary consequence of that legislative choice: An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law.”

State Senator Heather Steans issued the following statement in response to Gov. JB Pritzker’s signing of the state’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year:

“These budget negotiations were challenging in ways we could not have imagined even a few months beforehand,” Steans said. “This is a preservation budget, one aimed at maintaining our funding levels in the most important areas at a time when these services have never been more crucial.”

While making $1 billion in cuts in comparison to the governor’s proposed Fiscal Year 2021 budget, Senate Bill 264 increases funding to the Dept. of Children and Family Services and programs that help seniors and the developmentally disabled live independently in their homes – especially crucial as the state responds to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Funding for schools and public safety are preserved at their current levels under the plan, while programs that are truly crucial in responding to COVID-19 will see increases, including senior meals programs, home care and respite services, DCFS, and other programs that help the developmentally disabled and their families.

Included in the budget this year:

• $8.9 billion for P-12 education, an increase of $12.7 million when compared to what was enacted in FY 20, including an increase of $6.77 million to evidence-based funding to ensure all schools’ funds are level and an additional $11 million over the previous year for mandated categoricals such as transportation.
• Level funding for early childhood education.
• Level funding for higher education.
• An increase over FY 20 of $43 million to public safety agencies, including increases to violence prevention and reduction programs, two new classes of State Police cadets, and 280 additional staff and equipment, commodities, and supplies to improve operations at the Illinois Veterans’ Home at Chicago.
• A $438 million increase to human services, with funding that includes:
  • Increases to the Community Care Program and similar home care services like Home Delivered Meals, Adult Protective Services, Senior HelpLine and area agencies on aging.
  • $299.5 million increase to DHS to cover Rehab Services, the Mental Health Division, the Developmental Disabilities Division, substance abuse prevention, and Child Care Assistance, among others.
  • $178.5 million increase to DCFS to hire 123 additional direct service staff, with the goal of improving the state’s caseload ratios. Includes step pay for union employees.
• $19.1 million increase to the Dept. of Public Health, as well as $600 million in new federal funding to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
• $447.4 million increase of state funding and a $780 million increase in federal funding to HFS, covering increased Medicaid liability.
• Most state agencies will remain at or very near level funding compared to the previous year. Overall, a total of about $1 billion in cuts to the governor’s original proposed FY 21 budget are reflected in the final plan passed by the General Assembly.

The budget also makes the state’s full pension payment.

“Failing to meet this obligation, even in light of our current circumstances, was not an option,” Steans said. “As we adjust to severely reduced revenues from nearly all sources, it’s our duty to protect our state’s bond rating.”

Steans also said the budget’s $5 billion in borrowing was necessary in light of the devastation wrought by COVID-19-related business closures.

“I stand behind this decision as we look forward to a year where our state will be reeling from historically unprecedented hardship,” Steans said. “It is true that borrowing now costs money later, but we’ve seen, very recently, what happens when the state simply abandons its obligations. If we were to see the same indolence we did during the Rauner years now, in a pandemic, it would be a true humanitarian crisis.”

The governor signed the budget Tuesday, contained within Senate Bill 264 and House Bill 357.

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