SR0357 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0357 LRB098 12297 JDS 46594 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Section 4 of the Executive Reorganization Implementation Act sets forth procedures and requirements regarding Executive Orders issued under Section 11 of Article V of the Illinois Constitution; and

WHEREAS, Section 3.2 of the Executive Reorganization Implementation Act provides that reorganization occurs when, among other circumstances, an Executive Order abolishes any agency that does not have or will not have, upon the taking effect of reorganization, any functions; consolidates the functions of an agency; or establishes a new agency to perform all or any part of the functions of an existing agency or agencies; and

WHEREAS, Section 3.1 of the Executive Reorganization Implementation Act specifies that the term "agency directly responsible to the Governor" includes, subject to limited exceptions, any office, officer, division, or part thereof, as well as any other office, nonelective officer, department, division, bureau, board, or commission in the executive branch of State government; and

WHEREAS, The Governor issued Executive Order 13-05 with the stated purpose of abolishing or consolidating entities whose functions are obsolete or redundant; and

WHEREAS, Executive Order 13-05 purports to: (1) abolish gubernatorially-created entities without contravening a statute; (2) abolish statutorily-created entities in contravention of enabling statutes; (3) consolidate several councils with oversight over rivers into one Rivers of Illinois Coordinating Council in contravention of several statutes; and (4) provide a list of entities that already have been abolished either by statute or expiration; and

WHEREAS, Executive Order 13-05 qualifies as an executive reorganization order and is subject to Article V, Section 11 of the Illinois Constitution and the Executive Reorganization Implementation Act because it attempts to abolish or consolidate entities that are directly responsible to the Governor in contravention of various statutes enumerated in the Order; and

WHEREAS, Executive Order 13-05 was delivered in its entirety to the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives on April 1, 2013; and

WHEREAS, No executive reorganization order delivered to the General Assembly may take effect until the 60-day period has expired; and

WHEREAS, The 60-day period for the General Assembly to disapprove Executive Order 13-05 expires on May 31, 2013; and

WHEREAS, The introductory paragraphs of Executive Order 13-05 claim that the portions of the Order that do not contravene a statute are effective immediately and do not need to be delivered to the General Assembly for consideration, regardless of the fact that the Executive Order in its entirety was delivered to the General Assembly; and

WHEREAS, Executive Order 13-05 contains a severability clause that purports to preserve the portions of the Order not found invalid or not disapproved by the General Assembly, thereby relying on the notion that the General Assembly does not have jurisdiction over Executive Order 13-05 as a whole, but, instead, has the authority only to disapprove the portions that contravene a statute; and

WHEREAS, Section 11 of Article V of the Illinois Constitution requires an Executive Order that proposes a reassignment or reorganization in contravention of a State statute to be delivered to the General Assembly and authorizes either house of the General Assembly, by record vote of a majority of the members elected, to disapprove the Executive Order; and

WHEREAS, The General Assembly has the constitutional and statutory authority to consider each Executive Order that contravenes a statute; and

WHEREAS, The reorganization proposed by Executive Order 13-05 contravenes the statutes that create the affected entities, which are enumerated in that Executive Order; and

WHEREAS, The Executive Reorganization Implementation Act requires each executive order that proposes a reorganization to be transmitted to the General Assembly by the Governor; and

WHEREAS, The language of the Constitution and the Executive Reorganization Implementation Act give the General Assembly the authority to consider and disapprove any executive reorganization order that contravenes a statute; and

WHEREAS, Executive Order 13-05 is structurally defective because it attempts to draw a distinction between the effectiveness of provisions that contravene a statute and those that do not in a single Executive Order, when the Constitution and the Executive Reorganization Implementation Act make it clear that any executive order that contravenes a statute in any manner is subject to disapproval by the General Assembly; and

WHEREAS, An executive reorganization order may abolish an agency directly responsible to the Governor, but Executive Order 13-05 attempts to abolish entities created by Press Release of the Governor, including the Governor's Agriculture Advisory Council of Farmers and Farm Families, the Asian Advisory Council, the Education Accountability Task Force, the Racial Profiling Task Force, and the Visual Media Task Force, which never had the force or effect of law; and

WHEREAS, Executive Order 13-05 seeks to consolidate the listed Rivers Councils into a single "Rivers of Illinois Coordinating Council", a new entity created by the Order; and

WHEREAS, The provisions related to the consolidation of the Rivers Councils fail to provide for the transfer or other disposition of personnel records, documents, books, correspondence, and other property, both real and personal, affected by the reorganization in violation of subsection (d) of Section 4 of the Executive Reorganization and Implementation Act; and

WHEREAS, The provisions related to consolidation of the Rivers Councils further fail to provide for the transfer of unexpended balances of appropriations and other funds available for use in connection with any function or agency affected by the reorganization, in violation of subsection (e) of Section 4 of the Executive Reorganization and Implementation Act; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that pursuant to Article V, Section 11 of the Illinois Constitution, the Senate hereby disapproves Executive Order 13-05 in its entirety; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the Executive Order 13-05 shall not become effective; and be it further

RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be delivered to the Governor and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.