Who or what was involved, House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) won’t say. But he described last week’s flap over a vote for $100 million for an Obama Presidential Library as “a misunderstanding of the rules.”
A House committee met two days last week — the first to hear testimony about gambling, the second for testimony about the proposed expenditure from a yet-to-be-assembled capital construction bill. With no minority Republicans present on the second day, the committee used the previous day’s “attendance roll call” to declare the bill passed, 9-0.
“We acknowledge that,” Madigan told reporters in Springfield this week, “and we’ll correct that when we come back into session.”
Republicans called shenanigans over the tactics; none were likely to vote on public money for the project, which could be built in Chicago. As Madigan put it, though, “It’s a second opportunity for Republicans to stand up and do the right thing” for a “son of Illinois.”