August
18, 2017
To
the Honorable Members of
The
Illinois House of Representatives,
100th
General Assembly:
Today I
veto House Bill 3376 from the 100th General Assembly, which restricts the
state’s ability to place a limit on the number of weekly hours a provider may
work in the taxpayer-funded Home Service Program that serves many of the
state’s physically disabled residents.
The bill
requires that the Illinois Department of Human Services allow in-home care providers
to work at least 15 hours of overtime per week. Last year, similar legislation passed
by the 99th General Assembly that would have required the Department to allow
home care providers to work unlimited overtime was also vetoed. While this
legislation is an improvement, it still places unreasonable restrictions on the
state’s ability to manage the Home Services Program, both to ensure the safety
of our residents and to control the program’s rising costs.
Since
last year, the Department has proceeded through the legislatively-sanctioned process
overseen by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, which is made up of both
Democratic and Republican members of the General Assembly. Through that
process, the Department has crafted a reasonable overtime policy that incorporates
many of the recommendations provided by legislators and stakeholders across the
home services community. Importantly, the policy allows for up to five hours
of overtime without the need for approval and also provides a clear and practical
process for obtaining authorization to work additional overtime in the appropriate
circumstances.
This
overtime policy safeguards individual providers from being unnecessarily
overworked and ensures that residents requiring long hours of care will have
more than one person who understands their needs and who is capable of caring
for them. In addition, the policy allows the state to limit overtime, and its
costly impact, to only those situations when it is truly necessary—just as
nearly every other employer in the country does.
As
stewards of the Home Services Program, the state must protect the safety of our
residents, as well as the long-term sustainability of the program. Unfortunately,
this bill leaves our residents less safe and impairs the Department’s ability
to control costs of the program.
Therefore,
pursuant to Section 9(b) of Article IV of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, I
hereby return House Bill 3376, entitled “AN ACT concerning State Government”,
with the foregoing objections, vetoed in its entirety.
Sincerely,
Bruce
Rauner
GOVERNOR