Full Text of HR0054 94th General Assembly
HR0054 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, On October 20, 1960, Peter Gosselin Fitzgerald was | 3 |
| born in Inverness, a suburb northwest of Chicago, where he grew | 4 |
| up and has lived all his life; he went to St. Theresa's | 5 |
| elementary school in Palatine and Portsmouth Abbey, a secondary | 6 |
| school in Portsmouth, Rhode Island; he then attended Dartmouth | 7 |
| College, where he majored in Latin and Greek; he graduated from | 8 |
| Dartmouth Cum Laude and with "highest distinction"; in 1982 and | 9 |
| 1983, he studied at the Aristotelian University in Salonica, | 10 |
| Greece as a Rotary Foundation International Graduate Scholar; | 11 |
| he earned his J.D. from the University of Michigan School of | 12 |
| Law; he practiced corporate law for ten years in Chicago, first | 13 |
| in private firms and later as general counsel for a publicly | 14 |
| traded bank holding company; and
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| WHEREAS, From 1993 until his election to the U.S. Senate in | 16 |
| 1998, Peter Fitzgerald was an Illinois State Senator, | 17 |
| representing the northwest suburbs of Chicago, and serving as | 18 |
| the chair of the State Government Operations Committee; during | 19 |
| his time as an Illinois State Senator, his many initiatives | 20 |
| included the community notification law for child sex | 21 |
| offenders, PA 89-462 (HB 3670: Klingler/Fitzgerald); a law | 22 |
| requiring teachers to teach habits of discipline and respect | 23 |
| for others, PA 90-620 (HB 3793: Madigan/Fitzgerald); and a bill | 24 |
| banning insurers from using domestic battery as a reason to | 25 |
| increase charges upon any customer for property or casualty | 26 |
| insurance, PA 90-700 (HB 2860: Parke/Fitzgerald); and
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| WHEREAS, On November 3, 1998, Peter G. Fitzgerald was | 28 |
| elected to the United States Senate at age 38; he was the first | 29 |
| Republican in Illinois to win a Senate race in 20 years and for | 30 |
| several years he was the youngest member of the U.S. Senate; | 31 |
| while in the U.S. Senate, he served on the Commerce, | 32 |
| Governmental Affairs, Agriculture, Small Business, and Aging | 33 |
| committees; he chairs the Governmental Affairs subcommittee on |
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| Financial Management, the Budget, and International Security; | 2 |
| the Commerce subcommittee on Consumer Affairs and Product | 3 |
| Safety; and the Agriculture subcommittee on Research, | 4 |
| Nutrition, and General Legislation; and
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| WHEREAS, Having experience as a former commercial banking | 6 |
| director and general counsel, Senator Fitzgerald has chaired or | 7 |
| played a leading role in investigations of Enron and corporate | 8 |
| accounting fraud, mutual fund industry abuses, chronic | 9 |
| under-funding of employee pensions, the deteriorating | 10 |
| condition of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, | 11 |
| conflicts of interest in the insurance brokerage industry, high | 12 |
| fees in 529 college savings programs, and waste, fraud, and | 13 |
| mismanagement in various federal agencies; he has enacted | 14 |
| several measures to improve the financial accountability of | 15 |
| government agencies and departments by expanding audit | 16 |
| requirements and extending the reach of the Chief Financial | 17 |
| Officers Act; and
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| WHEREAS, In 2004, Senator Fitzgerald proposed | 19 |
| comprehensive, bi-partisan mutual fund reform legislation to | 20 |
| protect the household, college, and retirement savings of the | 21 |
| 91,000,000 Americans who invest in mutual funds; endorsed by | 22 |
| consumer groups and termed the "gold standard" of industry | 23 |
| reform, Senator Fitzgerald's legislation helped prompt the | 24 |
| Securities Exchange Commission to undertake a vigorous review | 25 |
| of mutual fund oversight and regulation; by mid-November 2004, | 26 |
| the SEC had promulgated final rules addressing 16 of the | 27 |
| provisions laid out in his legislation, including provisions on | 28 |
| director independence, fund governance, fee and compensation | 29 |
| disclosure, and a prohibition of directed brokerage; and
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| WHEREAS, During his tenure in the U.S. Senate, Senator | 31 |
| Peter Fitzgerald has built a reputation as an independent voice | 32 |
| for Illinois; he has consistently backed efforts to control | 33 |
| spending and reduce taxes, but at the same time voted for |
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| environmental and consumer protections; in early 2003, he | 2 |
| passed legislation temporarily extending federal unemployment | 3 |
| insurance benefits; furthermore, he has vigorously promoted | 4 |
| competitive bidding in government contracts and has opposed | 5 |
| taxpayer giveaways to politically connected interests; in | 6 |
| 2000, he sought to impose federal competitive bidding | 7 |
| guidelines on a large government-funded project in his own | 8 |
| State; for two days, in a Senate speech the Champaign News | 9 |
| Gazette called "a wake up call for Illinois taxpayers," he | 10 |
| brought national attention to numerous instances of cronyism | 11 |
| and corruption in Illinois State government; throughout his | 12 |
| service in the U.S. Senate, he has steadfastly fought political | 13 |
| corruption in both political parties; in 2001, with support | 14 |
| from President Bush, the Senator succeeded in installing | 15 |
| professional U.S. Attorneys, in each of Illinois' three | 16 |
| judicial districts, who were completely independent of the | 17 |
| State's politics; and
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| WHEREAS, From his perch on the Commerce Committee, Senator | 19 |
| Fitzgerald has been active on aviation issues, with efforts to | 20 |
| address the nation's air capacity shortage and promote greater | 21 |
| competition in the airline industry; Senator Fitzgerald has | 22 |
| helped lead the effort to build a south suburban Chicago | 23 |
| airport, as first recommended by the Federal Aviation | 24 |
| Administration in 1984; in addition, he stopped legislation | 25 |
| which would have impeded the south suburban airport and which | 26 |
| would have instead dictated the approval of a cost-inefficient | 27 |
| plan to tear up and re-build O'Hare; furthermore, in 2001, he | 28 |
| co-authored an amendment which made it difficult and | 29 |
| unattractive for air carriers to seek the federal loan | 30 |
| guarantees offered in the airline bailout bill; as a result of | 31 |
| his language, few airlines applied for the loan guarantees and | 32 |
| taxpayers saved billions of dollars; and
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| WHEREAS, As the first Illinois senator since 1986 to serve | 34 |
| on the Agriculture Committee, Senator Fitzgerald has worked |
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| closely with the futures industry in Chicago to modernize the | 2 |
| commodity trading laws and to allow the sale of futures on | 3 |
| individual stocks; he has also worked with Illinois farm groups | 4 |
| to open markets for Illinois commodities in the U.S. and | 5 |
| overseas, promote renewable fuels, and to provide tax relief | 6 |
| for family farmers; he has enacted legislation to better enable | 7 |
| low income citizens to access their food stamp benefits, as | 8 |
| well as legislation to require the U.S. Department of | 9 |
| Agriculture to make its program benefits available over the | 10 |
| Internet; the Senator has also called for reform of the federal | 11 |
| farm payment system to ensure that federal aid goes to family | 12 |
| farmers who most need assistance, and has helped pass | 13 |
| legislation to study potential improvements to farm aid | 14 |
| programs; and
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| WHEREAS, During his term in the U.S. Senate, Senator | 16 |
| Fitzgerald has also focused on consumer safety issues; in 2000, | 17 |
| he led a successful drive to modernize outdated federal testing | 18 |
| and safety standards for child car seats; in 2002, he drafted, | 19 |
| and President Bush signed into law, a follow-up measure, known | 20 |
| as Anton's Law, to upgrade federal testing and standards for | 21 |
| child booster seats and to require automakers to improve car | 22 |
| safety features; therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 24 |
| NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 25 |
| Senator Fitzgerald be honored for his distinguished record of | 26 |
| public service for the State of Illinois and all of its | 27 |
| citizens; as a true example of a public servant, Senator | 28 |
| Fitzgerald is recognized for fervently fighting for what is | 29 |
| right for the taxpayers and citizens of both the great State of | 30 |
| Illinois as well as each and every individual within this | 31 |
| nation; furthermore, Senator Fitzgerald's honesty and | 32 |
| integrity as a public servant were evident from his first day | 33 |
| in the U.S. Senate, and have become the standard to which every | 34 |
| public servant of Illinois should strive to achieve, and even |
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| though Senator Fitzgerald has removed his name from the U.S. | 2 |
| Senate, the U.S. Senate will never be able to replace his | 3 |
| knowledge, skill, tenacity, integrity, and the love he had for | 4 |
| all persons in this nation, and especially for the citizens of | 5 |
| Illinois he loyally and honorably represented; and be it | 6 |
| further
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| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 8 |
| presented to U.S. Senator Peter G. Fitzgerald and his family.
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