Working for Illinois Caucus

Artificial Intelligence…or AI is holding sway over more of our lives. That has gotten the attention of Representative Amy Murri Briel. Briel has introduced a bill that will limit the use of AI when determining a patient’s priority in a hospital emergency room. 

Briel’s House Bill 4233 seeks to address the rapid adoption of AI in healthcare by limiting hospital emergency departments from using “health care kiosks” or digital check-ins to determine a patient’s place in line for emergency treatment. 

The Ottawa Democrat’s initative was influenced by OSF Healthcare’s recently released plans to integrate AI to predict patient diagnoses and treatments through gathering diverse data. Her bill ensures a patient’s intake priority is reviewed and assessed by medical professionals, and specifies that health care kiosks may only be used to identify patient contact information and replace paper billing.

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) – State Representative Dave Vella (D) introduced the Combating Health Misinformation Act, which would create a Health Misinformation Response Unit within the Illinois Department of Public Health.

“What it does is, it really is creating a rubric to combat medical misinformation as it comes up,” said Vella. We’re creating a unit within the state of Illinois that really focuses on making sure that when people get misinformation, either from the internet, or from other sources in government, that we are there to make sure that they know what’s the true facts.”

Vella said recent public health concerns motivated him to introduce the legislation.

“I think before COVID, during COVID and after COVID, we’ve gone through a lot of misinformation about medical stuff, and I think people have gotten hurt,” said Vella.
“Whooping cough is up. We’ve had measles outbreaks. People are not getting the medications they deserve or need because they’re being either being lied to or misinformed.”

The Health Misinformation Response Unit would monitor and counter health misinformation, offer public health literacy grants and recruit and train trusted messengers to communicate accurate health information.

“I think this is going to help people physically, because, again, if you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything,” said Vella.

The proposal would also require certain entities that distribute or communicate health-related information in Illinois to disclose funding sources and provide citations for alleged facts. Organizations that knowingly violate provisions of the act could face penalties under the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.

“There’s been a lot of misinformation not just about vaccines but also just everything else. We’ve seen measles outbreaks which we haven’t seen in many, many years,” said Vella. “The federal government has kind of devalued the value of vaccines.”

Vella said the bill focuses on empowering communities rather than telling people what to believe.

“It’s a lot easier to trust your neighbor, right? You trust your local health department,” Vella said. “All this bill really does is empower the people to understand what’s true and what’s not true on their own.”

The bill would also revise the School Code to require health literacy instruction as part of comprehensive health education.

“We are going to be going into schools and teaching kids, not what’s true and what’s not true, but how they can figure out what’s true and what’s not true,” Vella said. “It’s just a commonsense way of education people across the state.”

State Representative John Cabello (R) opposes the proposal; calling it unnecessary.

“It’s more tax and spend, and democrats trying to spend more of the taxpayer’s dollars for something that’s not needed,” said Cabello.

Cabello said people already have access to information without state involvement.

“You can research all that stuff online without having a state agency having to put this together,” said Cabello. “This is not the state government’s job. I would not support really anything on that. We need to start reducing the size of government. We don’t need to be increasing it.”

Cabello said he does not believe medical misinformation poses a threat to public health.

“I do not in any way, shape or form,” he said. “People are pretty smart and they have the internet, so they can look at it themselves.”

The bill has been filed and will be reviewed by the rules committee in the house and then sent to a committee.

“I’ve talked to some health providers across the state, county health departments, and there’s a lot of interest in this, because a lot of people feel, I think, the same way I do, which is, we want people to be able to have the power to decide for themselves in the right way,” said Vella.

Copyright 2026 WIFR. All rights reserved.

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) – State Representative Maurice West of the 67th District opens up about the critical need for blood supply in Illinois and discusses a House resolution to encourage community members to give back.

For more information on local blood centers, you can visit the Rock River Valley Blood Center.

Copyright 2026 WIFR. All rights reserved.

Illinois will see more investment into renewable energy, based on a new bill Gov. JB Pritzker has signed into law.

The Clean and Reliable Grid Act [CRGA] is intended to expand the state’s energy capacity in hopes of lowering energy prices. Opponents say it’s unclear if the measure will do that.

CRGA created a commission called Integrated Resource Planning [IRP] to research lowering energy prices and making a more efficient grid. The bill will also lift the moratorium on new large-scale nuclear power plants.

CRGA will invest in solar and wind energy and battery storage. This is a continuation of Illinois’ goal to use more renewable energy, and aims to meet the goals of the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act [CEJA]. The 2021 law set a goal using only clean energy in the Illinois electrical grid by 2050 and investing more in clean energy jobs.

State Rep. Sharon Chung, a Democrat from Bloomington, said there is a finite amount of coal and natural gas, and CRGA will make Illinois less reliant on non-renewable energy.

“It’s just trying to figure out the balance between looking forward … maybe also balancing that with past technologies, trying to figure out how we can also, at the same time, keep costs down,” Chung said.

She said the bill might not bring down costs for consumers but it will prevent more price increases.

Chung said McLean County has been at the forefront of building wind farms and battery storage that can help distribute energy more efficiently.

“Taking that energy that we’re getting from wind and solar, harnessing it and then to be able to use it to meet higher demand periods,” she said.

Chung said she supports an expansion of nuclear energy and she still has concerns about the power usage of data centers.

Chung said there is only so much Illinois can do to lower energy costs and it is up to the federal government to also provide relief for consumers.

Pritzker, when signing the bill, said soaring energy prices in Illinois are directly attributable to President Trump’s tariffs on products needed for clean energy construction.

“More fossil fuels will be used to produce electricity, and that drives property insurance bills up. It threatens our agriculture industry. It pollutes the air that we breathe. It’s a reckless energy agenda that’s taking us backward,” Pritzker said.

State Sen. Sally Turner, R-Beason, who voted "no" on CRGA, said she is concerned about the reliability of wind energy, solar energy and battery storage technology.

“There’s going to be shortages and reliability risks, and those risks are out there, and they’re not going to be met with what we presently have and it’s not going to be met with simply wind, solar and battery power backup,” Turner said.

Turner said Illinois should invest more into natural gas because it is more reliable and cost effective.

Turner said this bill will give money to energy companies instead of lowering energy costs for families.

“When it comes to ‘I need assistance with my energy bill,’ because we know that’s out of control right now, a lot of what I think we see that it’s going to special interests,” Turner said.

She said the creation of a research process to help slow rising costs is a good idea but thinks it might be too late for it to effectively lower energy costs.

Turner said the legislature should look to increase taxes on solar, wind and data centers. She said they are not paying their fair share now.

Sen. Chris Balkema, R-Channahon, also voted against CRGA. He said the Illinois government should not be giving incentives to any energy companies.

“I would support energy providers being able to provide energy on their own dime, investing their own capital, and then being able to turn a profit,” Balkema said.

Balkema said since CEJA is moving toward only relying on clean energy by 2050, there is no incentive for companies to build new coal or natural gas plants.

“I think that we are in an OK spot in that we have to be careful to not regulate ourselves back to the point where we drive prices even higher than we anticipate now,” Balkema said.

Turner and Balkema said they agreed with allowing more nuclear plants to be built.

“The opportunity to install small nuclear power plants, or micro plants, to provide additional energy around the state is a wonderful thing,” Balkema said.

Turner and Senate Republicans want to give more local control when building energy infrastructure.

The Senate GOP is pushing to repeal the state’s self-imposed mandate to be 100% reliant on renewable energy, in hopes that the state would see more investment by all energy companies, which could lower prices.

They also introduced a measure to get data on how current energy laws are affecting energy prices.

An environmental advocate who supports the energy bill pointed out there is no stipulation preventing fossil fuels from being factored into the state’s short-term energy plan, as the state ramps up investment in renewables.

“What is the right grid mix to ensure both reliability, so that the lights are staying on for folks and not creating an outage front, but also that utility bills are manageable and not skyrocketing?” said Samira Hanaessian, director of policy for the Illinois Environmental Council.

Hanaessian said the process can lower costs for consumers and continue building on Illinois’ climate goals.

She said the next step is to regulate data centers by making them build their own electrical infrastructure.

PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — A member of the Illinois House of Representatives urged people within Central Illinois to continue to document and track reported sightings of Immigration and Customs agents within the area.

State Rep. Sharon Chung, a Bloomington Democrat, issued a statement on Thursday after she said she received “confirmed reports of ICE presence in Bloomington.”

“We have received confirmed reports of ICE presence in Bloomington, as well as several unconfirmed allegations of ICE sightings. Thank you to those who documented and shared these sightings, keeping our community informed and aware. I urge you to continue to document any potential ICE activity you see, while prioritizing your own personal safety.”

Chung said she was a proud daughter of immigrants and stood with others to support the “constitutionally protected rights of immigrants in Bloomington-Normal and throughout our state.

“We own businesses, work and participate in our community; we raise our children to be kind and compassionate,” she said. “We are not a demographic to be used as a political ploy for the Trump Administration or anyone else.”

Last month, Chung-backed House Bill 1312 was signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker. The measure barred ICE from targeting hospitals, public higher education institutions, courthouses and daycares, she said. Additionally, the bill allows for lawsuits against ICE agents impeding someone’s rights. 

“I vehemently condemn the violence committed by ICE officers and vow to continue to fight for
everyone in our community— no matter their immigration status,” she said.