HR1552 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR1552 LRB094 22065 KXB 60660 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The Honorable Representative Lee A. Daniels, during his experience of almost 32 years as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives, has served the Illinois General Assembly in almost every position of honor known to the House, including the responsibility of Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives; and

WHEREAS, The Honorable Lee A. Daniels has become a nationally known advocate for persons with developmental disabilities and their families, sponsoring many ground breaking pieces of legislation designed to help persons with developmental disabilities and their families, and tirelessly advocating for their implementation and full funding; and

WHEREAS, Because of Lee A. Daniels' tireless work on behalf of Illinois persons with developmental disabilities and their families, Illinois has become a national model for successful developmental disability care, with special reference to the problem of adequate community care for persons with developmental disabilities and their families, the problem of providing adequate transition support for developmentally disabled people who "age out" from their years of elementary and secondary education, and the problem of respite care for the families of persons with developmental disabilities who selflessly care for their family members at home; and

WHEREAS, For these and many other reasons, the Honorable Lee A. Daniels quickly attracted the esteem of his legislative colleagues in other states, an esteem reflected in the executive positions to which he was elected within the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL); starting with membership on the NCSL Executive Committee, a post to which he was elevated in 1984, he rose to the rank of NCSL President in 1989-90, presiding over the NCSL Annual Meeting in Nashville in that year; and

WHEREAS, After only six years in office, Representative Lee A. Daniels joined the ranks of House Republican leadership in the Illinois House, becoming Minority Whip in 1981, and after only eight years in office was elected House Republican Leader by his colleagues in 1983, beginning an uninterrupted period of twenty years as leader of the Republican Party in the Illinois House of Representatives, the lineal successor of Abraham Lincoln in this position; and

WHEREAS, As the undisputed leader of his colleagues, Daniels was the unanimous choice of his party's caucus for the position of Speaker of the Illinois House during the 89th General Assembly, which met from 1995 through 1996; and

WHEREAS, During the term of the 89th General Assembly, the Illinois House initiated numerous items of key legislature effort for the good of all Illinois, including the passage and signing into law of a comprehensive package of measures for the reform of the Chicago school system, a system that had been described by a federal secretary of education as "the worst school system in the nation"; and

WHEREAS, As a result of the bipartisan efforts encapsulated in Chicago school reform, this inner-city school district has begun the task of renewing its excellence, increasing pupil test scores, and keeping the promise to "leave no child behind"; and

WHEREAS, The leadership of the Honorable Lee A. Daniels has been characterized by a desire to increase the productivity and excellence of all units of State and local government within Illinois, and as a result Daniels has been a friend to the Illinois taxpayer in every position in which he has served; and

WHEREAS, Before and during his Speakership, Lee A. Daniels pushed tirelessly for the enactment of property tax caps in Cook County, in the suburban counties surrounding Cook County, and in many counties in downstate Illinois, to limit the growth of local governmental spending, and ensure that the units of local government that depend on property tax revenue remain units of high productivity and retain a sense of loyalty to the taxpayers who elect them; and

WHEREAS, In these uncertain times, our national security is measurably increased by the presence of almost inexhaustible resources of coal under the ground of Illinois, but during the 1980's and 1990's, the Illinois coal industry was suffering almost exponential decline in the volume and value of coal mined; and

WHEREAS, In 2001 Lee A. Daniels, acting as House Republican Leader, brought all of the interested parties to the negotiating table and led the development of the "Empower Illinois" program to re-establish the Illinois coal industry and encourage the continued mining and burning, under environmentally sound conditions, of Illinois coal for electric energy throughout Illinois and the rest of the nation; and

WHEREAS, In 1992 Representative Daniels drafted, and saw enacted into law, a bill, that became Public Act 87-870, which created the criminal offenses of stalking and aggravated stalking, making Illinois the first State in the nation to make stalking a felony criminal offense and thereby protecting victims of stalking throughout Illinois; and

WHEREAS, Lee Daniels has made adequate health care for seniors his top priority, and has been a principal legislative champion of the Circuit Breaker program that provided subsidized pharmaceutical drugs for lower and middle-income seniors to cover cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, glaucoma, Parkinson's disease, and osteoporosis; and

WHEREAS, The Circuit Breaker program formed the foundation of Illinois's current Illinois Cares Rx program to provide necessary pharmaceuticals of many varieties to Illinois senior citizens; and

WHEREAS, The preceding has not been a complete list of the legislative accomplishments of the Honorable Representative Lee A. Daniels, because a definitive list would take too long to be recounted here; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we acknowledge that the experience, lawmaking skill, and accomplishments of the Honorable Lee A. Daniels have raised him to a unique position among his colleagues in the Illinois House of Representatives; and be it further

RESOLVED, that Representative Lee A. Daniels has been, is, and will continue to be a tireless advocate for his district, for DuPage County, and for all of the people of Illinois; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the Honorable Lee A. Daniels could not have accomplished a fraction of the considerable body of accomplishments recounted here had it not been for the tireless and loving support that he has received from his wife, Pamela Daniels, and his five children, Laurie, Rachael, Julia, Tom, and Christina; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the House of Representatives present a suitable copy of this resolution to the Honorable Representative Lee A. Daniels and his family, as a token of our continued affection and esteem.