HR1567 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR1567 LRB096 24606 GRL 44479 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Richard C. "Dick" Edwards has retired from the Legislative Reference Bureau after 24 years of dedicated service; and

WHEREAS, The Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) was created in 1913 to offer legal assistance and information to the members of the General Assembly in the preparation of bills, resolutions, and amendments; and

WHEREAS, In 1941, the LRB was further tasked with continually recodifying and resolving statutory discrepancies in Illinois laws, such as those that inevitably occur when a given Section of Illinois Statutes is amended 2 or more times during the course of a single General Assembly; and

WHEREAS, The LRB took its modern form in 1984 with the passage of the Legislative Commission Reorganization Act, which consolidated the legislative support boards and commissions of the General Assembly; and

WHEREAS, Dick Edwards, after serving his country in the United States Navy, including 2 tours of duty in the Vietnam War theater, attended and graduated with honors from the University of Illinois College of Law, where he earned his Juris Doctor degree in 1974; and

WHEREAS, In 1991, for the 87th General Assembly, Dick Edwards became Deputy Director of the Legislative Reference Bureau; and

WHEREAS, 1991 and 1992 were extremely busy years for Dick Edwards and the LRB, as he led the Bureau in one of the most successful collective projects in its history, the recodification of Illinois law; and

WHEREAS, This was the first recodification since 1874; under this 1991-1992 recodification, the LRB was required to create a new organizational scheme for all of Illinois' statutory law, which at this time numbered 6 dual-column volumes plus an index; and

WHEREAS, As a result of the project and Dick Edwards' able leadership of the task, the recodification plan was approved by the General Assembly in Public Act 87-1005 and enacted during the 1992 spring session, thereby approving the transformation of the Illinois Revised Statutes into the Illinois Compiled Statutes; and

WHEREAS, The Illinois Compiled Statutes took effect on January 1, 1993; and

WHEREAS, Starting with the 88th General Assembly in 1993-1994, Richard C. Edwards became the Executive Director of the Legislative Reference Bureau; and

WHEREAS, During well more than one-half of the modern history of the LRB as a legislative support services agency, its executive director has been Dick Edwards; and

WHEREAS, Dick Edwards' monograph, "Organization of the Illinois Compiled Statutes (ILCS)" (1993) is a definitive guide to the process used to carry out the recodification of the statutes, including the principles used in organizing statutes into common chapters based on the concept of objectively defined major statutory topic areas; and

WHEREAS, Dick Edwards' monograph, "Researching [Illinois] Legislative History" (2008), available online at the LRB website, is a definitive guide to the legal professional who is searching for a chronological outline of the various possible stages during the process of an Illinois statute from bill to law, during which a paper trail may have been generated to provide textual evidence of the legislative history of a measure; and

WHEREAS, Dick Edwards has represented the State of Illinois on the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws; and

WHEREAS, Dick Edwards' leadership of the LRB, spanning 18 years, has been marked by significant continuity in the staff members who have worked with him and under his leadership; and

WHEREAS, The continuity of LRB's staff has been of immeasurable benefit to Illinois House and Senate members, who have been able to share their ideas for Illinois legislation with experienced professionals who are aware of many of the complex nuances of Illinois statutory lawmaking, and have used this knowledge to transform inchoate ideas into draft statutory language; and

WHEREAS, The patient, kind, continuity-minded guidance of Dick Edwards to his own staff, to partisan staffs operating under General Assembly leadership, to the 118 members of the Illinois House, and to the 59 members of the Illinois Senate, has been an inestimable resource of the Illinois General Assembly exerted for the benefit of the people of Illinois; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we thank Richard C. "Dick" Edwards, the retiring Executive Director of the Illinois General Assembly's Legislative Reference Bureau, for his service to the Illinois House and Senate and to the people of Illinois; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Dick Edwards as a token of our gratitude, esteem, and respect.