August 10, 2009

To the Honorable Members of the

Illinois House of Representatives

96th General Assembly

Today I return House Bill 382 with my specific recommendations for change. I thank the sponsors for their hard work and the members of the General Assembly for passing this bill.  I agree that we all must work together to provide support to aspiring nurses and to provide assistance to students throughout our State.  However, there are aspects of this bill that I must address.

This bill creates a scholarship program for nurse educators. During this time of limited financial resources, we cannot create any new programs without available revenue to support the programs. We also cannot duplicate existing programs. Accordingly, I am conditioning this program on sufficient appropriations being available for its support and am removing language requiring the Department of Public Health to maintain a database of available nurse educator positions because such a database is already maintained by the Illinois Center for Nursing.

This bill also contains language conditioning the Department of Public Health’s rulemaking ability on compliance with the provisions of the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act.  This language is a remnant of the controversy surrounding certain rulemaking undertaken by my predecessor’s administration.  In approving House Bill 398, my administration is committed to upholding the law and respecting the constitutionally protected powers of each branch of government.  I approved House Bill 398 as a demonstration of this commitment. My approval of House Bill 398 renders the language related to rulemaking in this bill moot.  It is time to move past the battles between my predecessor and members of the General Assembly.  I am, therefore, deleting this language from the bill. 

Therefore, pursuant to Article IV, Section 9(e) of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, I hereby return House Bill 382, entitled “AN ACT concerning education.”, with the following specific recommendations for change:

on page 6, by deleting lines 15 through 20; and

on page 6, line 25, by replacing “provide” with “provide, subject to appropriation,”; and

on page 9, by replacing lines 20 and 21 with “nurse educator.”; and

on page 9, by deleting lines 25 and 26; and

on page 10, by deleting lines 1 through 5.

With these changes, House Bill 382 will have my approval.  I respectfully request your concurrence. 

Sincerely,

PAT QUINN

Governor