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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, The Honorable Representative Lee A. Daniels,
3 during his experience of almost 32 years as a member of the
4 Illinois House of Representatives, has served the Illinois
5 General Assembly in almost every position of honor known to the
6 House, including the responsibility of Speaker of the Illinois
7 House of Representatives; and
 
8     WHEREAS, The Honorable Lee A. Daniels has become a
9 nationally known advocate for persons with developmental
10 disabilities and their families, sponsoring many ground
11 breaking pieces of legislation designed to help persons with
12 developmental disabilities and their families, and tirelessly
13 advocating for their implementation and full funding; and
 
14     WHEREAS, Because of Lee A. Daniels' tireless work on behalf
15 of Illinois persons with developmental disabilities and their
16 families, Illinois has become a national model for successful
17 developmental disability care, with special reference to the
18 problem of adequate community care for persons with
19 developmental disabilities and their families, the problem of
20 providing adequate transition support for developmentally
21 disabled people who "age out" from their years of elementary
22 and secondary education, and the problem of respite care for
23 the families of persons with developmental disabilities who
24 selflessly care for their family members at home; and
 
25     WHEREAS, For these and many other reasons, the Honorable
26 Lee A. Daniels quickly attracted the esteem of his legislative
27 colleagues in other states, an esteem reflected in the
28 executive positions to which he was elected within the National
29 Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL); starting with
30 membership on the NCSL Executive Committee, a post to which he
31 was elevated in 1984, he rose to the rank of NCSL President in
32 1989-90, presiding over the NCSL Annual Meeting in Nashville in

 

 

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1 that year; and
 
2     WHEREAS, After only six years in office, Representative Lee
3 A. Daniels joined the ranks of House Republican leadership in
4 the Illinois House, becoming Minority Whip in 1981, and after
5 only eight years in office was elected House Republican Leader
6 by his colleagues in 1983, beginning an uninterrupted period of
7 twenty years as leader of the Republican Party in the Illinois
8 House of Representatives, the lineal successor of Abraham
9 Lincoln in this position; and
 
10     WHEREAS, As the undisputed leader of his colleagues,
11 Daniels was the unanimous choice of his party's caucus for the
12 position of Speaker of the Illinois House during the 89th
13 General Assembly, which met from 1995 through 1996; and
 
14     WHEREAS, During the term of the 89th General Assembly, the
15 Illinois House initiated numerous items of key legislature
16 effort for the good of all Illinois, including the passage and
17 signing into law of a comprehensive package of measures for the
18 reform of the Chicago school system, a system that had been
19 described by a federal secretary of education as "the worst
20 school system in the nation"; and
 
21     WHEREAS, As a result of the bipartisan efforts encapsulated
22 in Chicago school reform, this inner-city school district has
23 begun the task of renewing its excellence, increasing pupil
24 test scores, and keeping the promise to "leave no child
25 behind"; and
 
26     WHEREAS, The leadership of the Honorable Lee A. Daniels has
27 been characterized by a desire to increase the productivity and
28 excellence of all units of State and local government within
29 Illinois, and as a result Daniels has been a friend to the
30 Illinois taxpayer in every position in which he has served; and
 

 

 

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1     WHEREAS, Before and during his Speakership, Lee A. Daniels
2 pushed tirelessly for the enactment of property tax caps in
3 Cook County, in the suburban counties surrounding Cook County,
4 and in many counties in downstate Illinois, to limit the growth
5 of local governmental spending, and ensure that the units of
6 local government that depend on property tax revenue remain
7 units of high productivity and retain a sense of loyalty to the
8 taxpayers who elect them; and
 
9     WHEREAS, In these uncertain times, our national security is
10 measurably increased by the presence of almost inexhaustible
11 resources of coal under the ground of Illinois, but during the
12 1980's and 1990's, the Illinois coal industry was suffering
13 almost exponential decline in the volume and value of coal
14 mined; and
 
15     WHEREAS, In 2001 Lee A. Daniels, acting as House Republican
16 Leader, brought all of the interested parties to the
17 negotiating table and led the development of the "Empower
18 Illinois" program to re-establish the Illinois coal industry
19 and encourage the continued mining and burning, under
20 environmentally sound conditions, of Illinois coal for
21 electric energy throughout Illinois and the rest of the nation;
22 and
 
23     WHEREAS, In 1992 Representative Daniels drafted, and saw
24 enacted into law, a bill, that became Public Act 87-870, which
25 created the criminal offenses of stalking and aggravated
26 stalking, making Illinois the first State in the nation to make
27 stalking a felony criminal offense and thereby protecting
28 victims of stalking throughout Illinois; and
 
29     WHEREAS, Lee Daniels has made adequate health care for
30 seniors his top priority, and has been a principal legislative
31 champion of the Circuit Breaker program that provided
32 subsidized pharmaceutical drugs for lower and middle-income

 

 

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1 seniors to cover cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis,
2 Alzheimer's disease, cancer, glaucoma, Parkinson's disease,
3 and osteoporosis; and
 
4     WHEREAS, The Circuit Breaker program formed the foundation
5 of Illinois's current Illinois Cares Rx program to provide
6 necessary pharmaceuticals of many varieties to Illinois senior
7 citizens; and
 
8     WHEREAS, The preceding has not been a complete list of the
9 legislative accomplishments of the Honorable Representative
10 Lee A. Daniels, because a definitive list would take too long
11 to be recounted here; therefore, be it
 
12     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
13 NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
14 we acknowledge that the experience, lawmaking skill, and
15 accomplishments of the Honorable Lee A. Daniels have raised him
16 to a unique position among his colleagues in the Illinois House
17 of Representatives; and be it further
 
18     RESOLVED, that Representative Lee A. Daniels has been, is,
19 and will continue to be a tireless advocate for his district,
20 for DuPage County, and for all of the people of Illinois; and
21 be it further
 
22     RESOLVED, that the Honorable Lee A. Daniels could not have
23 accomplished a fraction of the considerable body of
24 accomplishments recounted here had it not been for the tireless
25 and loving support that he has received from his wife, Pamela
26 Daniels, and his five children, Laurie, Rachael, Julia, Tom,
27 and Christina; and be it further
 
28     RESOLVED, that the House of Representatives present a
29 suitable copy of this resolution to the Honorable
30 Representative Lee A. Daniels and his family, as a token of our

 

 

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1 continued affection and esteem.