Rideshare driver unionization, human composting bills among 264 to advance

SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois House passed 264 bills out of committee this week ahead of Friday’s deadline, kicking the legislative session into high gear with two months to go before adjournment.

The legislation included a bill allowing rideshare unionization and human composting, regulating prison mail and setting standards for determining a juvenile’s fitness for trial.

While the committee passage of bills marks early progress, most bill sponsors said they’re still working on amendments before their measures head to the full chambers for a vote. All bills will need approval from the House, Senate and governor to become law.

Rideshare unionization

Rideshare drivers would be able right to unionize under House Bill 4743, sponsored by Rep. Yolonda Morris, a Chicago Democrat. It passed the House Executive Committee with a partisan vote of 8-4.

“This is really life-changing legislation for these workers. … It sets a standard for the entire industry,” said Genie Kastrup, Service Employees International Union Local 1 president. “It creates a framework for workers to be able to join the union. It also gives drivers the power to select who that union is.”

But Morris said she’s working on a compromise amendment to the bill. The Illinois Labor Relations Board and Illinois Department of Labor had concerns about provisions involving a charge on rides that would go toward grants for union members.

An identical version in the Senate had a subject matter hearing on March 10 but was not voted out of committee before the Senate deadline.

Composting as burial option

The House Energy and Environment Committee on Tuesday passed a bill to allow composting of human remains as a burial option.

The Natural Organic Reduction Regulation Act, introduced by Rep. Mary Beth Canty, an Arlington Heights Democrat, would grant cemeteries, crematories and other funeral service providers permission to operate facilities and equipment to compost human remains. It also establishes rules around the practice.

“What we are trying to do is give the people of Illinois the freedom to have the burial they choose, the funeral that they choose,” Canty said. “We find that deeply respectful.”

Canty committed to hold the bill and return to the committee with a “substantive amendment” to address concerns about regulation and liability. Some Democratic committee members hung their support for the bill on the promise it would be amended.

The bill passed the House in the previous General Assembly with three Republicans joining 60 Democrats in support, but it was not taken up in the Senate.

David Goebel of the Illinois Cemetery & Funeral Home Association spoke against the bill, highlighting philosophical concerns and impracticalities like how long it takes to compost a human body, whether that time would cause a backlog, and how to transport the resulting soil.

“Our association members uniformly feel this process lacks the dignity traditionally afforded to the dead,” he said, though he acknowledged other people have different opinions.

The bill passed the committee 18-9, on partisan basis.

Prison Mail

House Bill 4235 would prohibit the Department of Corrections from charging inmates and their correspondents more than the U.S. Postal Service rate for mail and mail scanning services. It passed a House judiciary committee unanimously.

The bill’s approval comes months after a separate legislative committee allowed new rules permitting the department to scan and digitize mail as it seeks to crackdown on drugs and other substances finding their way into state prisons. The rule makes some exceptions for photographs, books and legal mail.

But some lawmakers don’t think that rule or the bill, sponsored by Rep. Rita Mayfield, a Waukegan Democrat, will solve the contraband issue.

“We know that everywhere that they’ve done this, contraband is still coming into these facilities,” said Rep. Kelly Cassidy, a Chicago Democrat. “This is not the answer. This is some company making money on the backs of the people that we are incarcerating.”

In many circumstances, the exact source of the contraband has been elusive, but physical mail has been largely blamed.

“The introduction of contraband into a facility can be multicausal,” said Rep. Patrick Windhorst, a Metropolis Republican. “Just because you cut off one cause doesn’t mean there aren’t other causes. And just because the other causes occur doesn’t mean that we start the one cause that we stopped.”

School foods

House Bill 5507 would ban “ultraprocessed” foods in schools. The bill passed out of a public health committee on a partisan 6-2 vote.

Bill sponsor, Rep. Sonya Harper, a Chicago Democrat, said she plans to bring an amendment to more clearly define “ultraprocessed foods” and move the implementation of the bill from the Department of Public Health to the Illinois State Board of Education.

“This bill does not make immediate changes, but it creates a multiyear timeline that includes rulemaking, reporting and training before any restrictions take effect,” Harper said. “We all know that diet-related illness, obesity and other health issues are tied to food quality, and schools should be part of the solution, but we also want to make sure that implementation is practical.”

The bill would require schools to begin removing ultraprocessed foods by July 1, 2029, and finish phasing out by July 1, 2032.

Juvenile trial fitness

House Bill 5270 would create a new evaluation to determine if juveniles are fit for trial. Bill sponsor Rep. Justin Slaughter, an Orland Park Democrat, said current state law evaluates child and adults the same way on if they are fit to stand trial.

“This one size fits all approach fails to recognize the natural limitations in functional, social, adaptive and intellectual abilities that are inherent to our youth,” he said.

Juveniles would be evaluated on factors such as traumatic stress, substance abuse and relative immaturity. Slaughter said the bill is partially driven by concerns that President Donald Trump wants Washington, D.C., residents as young as 14 to be charged as adults for crimes.

The bill passed out of committee on a partisan 10-5 vote.

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