Working for Illinois Caucus

84th District State Representative Stephanie Kifowit has been working hard on getting legislation from the House to the Senate as the General Assembly enters the final five weeks of the spring session. Kifowit says she continues to fight to bring effective policies forward for residents in her district, especially active duty military and veterans.

One of those bills is House Bill 1362, which cleans up some technical language regarding the differential that is paid to active duty military members from their military pay compared to their regular wages in their other jobs. She says there was an error that would only offer 50 percent differential pay if a shift was split between two days versus a traditional one-day shift.

"They were getting shortchanged what’s called a differential. So, what it is is when they are called up on duty, if it’s active duty, they’re normally paid less than their salary. So what we do is give a little bit of a differential that difference between, let’s say your army pay and firefighter pay, and that differential goes to the employee so that their family doesn’t experience extreme hardship due to the service of their loved one."

Another bill that Kifowit got through the House was a bill that would ensure veteran organizations would get donations that are allocated when veterans are issued special license plates designating their veteran status.

Kifowit says as bills go from the House to the Senate, bills are making their way from the Senate to the House for consideration, so committees will begin meeting next week to go over senate bills for potential discussion on the House floor and possible action.