Share the article: ICYMI: Lawmaker calls on Pritzker to finally protect veterans

Tragically, 36 veterans died of COVID at state-run LaSalle Veterans Home in late 2020 due to what an investigative report found to be massive failures within the Pritzker Administration which failed to protect the lives of our nation’s heroes.

Yesterday, State Senator Sue Rezin (R-Morris) introduced a few pieces of legislation to force improved and more timely responses from IDPH to disease outbreaks in veterans’ homes.

From Capitol News

Rezin is sponsoring Senate Bill 3170, which would require that a veterans’ home administrator provide written notification to IDPH and IDVA within 24 hours of learning of a second case of an infectious disease.

Another bill, SB1471, would require facilities licensed and operated by the state to conduct outbreak-related preparedness drills.

The Human Services’ department’s report found that the LaSalle home had not created a COVID-19 task force or committee for leadership and supervisors to establish responsibilities for managing and monitoring the virus. That, the report said, resulted in confusion among staff and led to tasks being left undone.

A third bill, SB1445, would provide the inspector general subpoena powers that ensure cooperation with state investigations after [the state VA Director] refused to cooperate with the investigation.

Rezin’s bills currently sit in the Senate Assignments Committee ignored by Democrats hoping to avoid a continued spotlight on the Pritzker administration’s outrageous abandonment of our veterans.

But Rezin is focused on whether the Governor himself will support her protective measures, saying, “If the governor truly wants to say that he has changed what has happened in the past and that he has corrected the problems, then he should publicly support my bills.”

So, Governor, will you?

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