A Medicaid omnibus bill approved by Illinois lawmakers will remove eligibility for thousands of residents as the state adjusts to new federal requirements. Advocates warn the change could expand the uninsured population while lawmakers cite legal and budget constraints.
by Peter Hancock Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD – A bill that will soon head to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk will officially remove an estimated 10,000 people from the state’s Medicaid program, leaving them without any form of health coverage.
That group is made up mainly of people who are not U.S. citizens but who are in the country legally, according to the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. That includes refugees and asylum-seekers, many of whom came to the United States with pre-existing health conditions.
“If they are enrolled, then they still have Medicaid up until Oct. 1,” Edith Avila Hesser, ICIRR’s health justice and policy director, said in an interview. “This adds to the number of uninsured populations that we have here in the state of Illinois, and so obviously we will be working to educate this community about the resources that are available to them through community clinics like FQHCs (Federally Qualified Health Centers) and free and charitable clinics available throughout the state.”
Medicaid is a public health coverage program that is jointly funded by the federal government and the states.
In 2025, Congress amended the federal eligibility rules for Medicaid with passage of H.R. 1, commonly known as President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” It removed eligibility for nearly all noncitizens except lawful permanent residents, Cuban and Haitian entrants, and migrants from certain Pacific island nations known as the Compact of Free Association.
Illinois’ Medicaid bill
In order to comply with that change in federal law, Illinois lawmakers included language in this year’s annual Medicaid omnibus bill, Senate Bill 3365, removing most groups of noncitizens from eligibility under state law.
They include, among others, immigrants who are honorably discharged U.S. veterans and their families, refugees and asylees, noncitizens identified as victims of trafficking, Amerasians from Vietnam, and American Indians born in Canada.
“We had to make that change to comply with H.R. 1 so that we didn't put our entire Medicaid program in jeopardy,” Rep. Anna Moeller, D-Elgin, who chairs the House working group that wrote the omnibus bill, said in an interview.
Although Illinois also provides health coverage outside the Medicaid system that is funded entirely with state dollars, the language in this year’s bill specifically states that it “shall not require any category of non-citizens or part thereof to be funded at state-only cost.”
For example, in 2020, Illinois launched a program to provide Medicaid-like coverage known as Health Benefits for Immigrant Seniors for noncitizens age 65 and over, regardless of their immigration status. The following year, it expanded that program with Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults, which covered adults age 42 to 64, regardless of immigration status.
But the latter program was closed in 2025 amid budget and political pressure and enrollment in the seniors program has been limited while many of its enrollees have been shifted to other subsidized coverage programs.
Stalled programs
Illinois also participates in a limited program that provides health benefits to asylum applicants and victims of torture, trafficking and other serious crimes. And to minimize the impact of the upcoming change in eligibility rules, immigrant rights advocates introduced legislation this year to expand that program.
House Bill 4824, sponsored by Rep. Dagmara Avelar, D-Romeoville, and Senate Bill 3462, sponsored by Sen. Graciela Guzmán, D-Chicago, would have extended coverage under that program to several additional categories of noncitizens who are in the country for various humanitarian reasons. But neither of those bills was ever assigned to a substantive committee.
Moeller said budget pressures were the primary reason the bills were not considered this year, and she said that is not likely to change anytime soon.
“We're looking at enormous budget pressures next year because of the cuts in H.R. 1 to the Medicaid program, which is going to affect our overall budget,” she said. “Hopefully, at some point we can get many of the provisions that were contained in H.R. 1 overturned federally.”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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Illinois Medicaid eligibility changes 2026, Illinois immigrant health coverage legislation, Senate Bill 3365 Medicaid Illinois, federal Medicaid rule changes Illinois, Illinois health coverage for noncitizens
One of the nation’s most popular types of firearms could be subject to a new Illinois ban as Illinois lawmakers considering ban on guns like Glocks. Lawmakers unveiled a new bill that opponents say would focus on Glock pistols and other guns that have certain trigger bars.
Terrance Barksdale/PEXELS
Chicago police have recovered 1,300 modified Glocks used in crimes and argued that banning its easily modified design is paramount to protect public safety. A “consumer product safety measure” proposed by Illinois lawmakers does just that.
by Ben Szalinski Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD — Illinois lawmakers are considering legislation that a major gun rights organization says would effectively ban one of the nation’s most popular types of firearms.
The House Gun Violence Prevention Committee voted 9-5 along party lines on Wednesday to pass House Bill 4471, which seeks to ban the sale of any semiautomatic pistol with a cruciform trigger bar in Illinois. Supporters say that design can be altered to install an already illegal switch, ultimately turning the pistol into a machine gun.
John Weber, the Illinois director of the National Rifle Association, said banning that design would ban Glocks from being sold in Illinois. But like the state’s ban on assault weapons, it would not apply to people who currently own that type of gun.
Bill sponsor Rep. Justin Slaughter, D-Orland Park, called the bill “a consumer product safety measure” that “continues to support smart, sensible gun ownership.”
Slaughter said consumers still have other pistols to choose from that do not use the same firing mechanism design as Glock, such as Henry County-based Springfield Armory.
Advocates said the goal is to put pressure on Glock to change their design to make it impossible for their guns to be modified with a switch. Lawmakers in California banned the sale of guns with the design beginning July 1, while legislators in Maryland and Connecticut have approved similar policies in recent weeks.
“The Responsible Gun Manufacturing Act will go to the root cause of the source by holding the gun industry accountable,” said Kathleen Sances, president of the Gun Violence Prevention PAC. “By requiring the industry to put a safer design, we can prevent convertible (guns) from being made in the first place.”
Slaughter said it's a change Glock should easily be able to make since the company sells a model in Europe that would comply with his bill, though it is not sold in the United States. Glock did not respond to a request for comment.
Photo: Dan Galvani Sommavilla/PEXELS
Slaughter said Chicago police have recovered 1,300 modified Glocks used in crimes and argued that banning its easily modified design is paramount to protect public safety. The bill’s appearance in Springfield comes nearly two years after Chicago sued Glock, alleging the company makes guns that it knows can be easily modified with illegal switches. The lawsuit is still making its way through the courts.
Republicans argued Democrats are misplacing their blame on gun owners for violent crimes.
“As a legal gun owner, there’s nothing I want more than for gun violence to stop because every time some criminal goes out with a gun, you all threaten to take away my rights to protect my family,” said Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, R-Murrayville.
Weber said he doubts the bill would meaningfully reduce gun violence and it raises legal questions since Glocks could be considered “common use” guns. The NRA has already filed a lawsuit challenging California’s law under that basis.
Mental health checks
A separate bill also approved by the committee on Wednesday seeks to streamline mental health evaluations to determine whether a person can have their Firearm Owner Identification returned after receiving mental health treatment.
House Bill 5209, which also passed on a partisan 9-5 vote, establishes new training requirements for providers that make evaluations about a person’s mental fitness to get their FOID card back. It also establishes new requirements people must follow to complete the mental heath evaluations.
But gun rights groups raised broader concerns about existing state law, which restricts people who have been a patient at a mental health facility from having a FOID card for five years. Illinois State Rifle Association lobbyist Ed Sullivan said the bill takes steps to rectify broader problems with the law, but lawmakers should consider further amendments.
“A woman commits herself for postpartum depression. She goes in for evaluation; she goes in for treatment, and you know, two-three months later — clean bill of health,” Sullivan said. “Why should that person lose their FOID card for five years?”
Davidsmeyer said he’s concerned the law scares people away from seeking mental health treatment over fear they will lose their permit to own a gun and have to give up a hobby like hunting.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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TAGS: guns that can be modified, Illinois proposes bill to make gun with certain parts illegal, guns easily converted into “machine guns” to be outlawed in Illinois, gun law not applicable to current owners of the firearm
Illinois transportation officials are launching a student loan repayment program to attract and retain new engineers amid a nationwide workforce shortage. The initiative offers up to $60,000 in repayment assistance over four years for eligible employees.
Photo: ThisisEngineering/Unsplash
The Rebuild Illinois program along with other workforce initiatives, including internships and apprenticeship partnerships with private industry, will repay up to $60,000 in student loans for selected engineers through a new IDOT pilot program aimed at young engineering talent.
by Aidan Klineman Medill Illinois News Bureau / Capitol News Illinois
SPRINGFIELD - The Illinois Department of Transportation announced this week it will soon repay up to $60,000 in student loans for eligible employees over four years as part of an initiative to lure recently graduated engineers in an increasingly competitive job market.
The Higher Education Student Loan Repayment Assistance for Engineers Pilot Program will reimburse 50 Illinois-educated engineers up to $15,000 annually after four years of service at the agency. IDOT hopes to incentivize young talent to remain in the state and the field, citing data from the American Council of Engineering Companies that shows a national shortfall of approximately 20,000 engineers per year due to retirements or departures from the field.
“At a time when workforce challenges continue to impact the engineering industry and public sector alike, this initiative will help attract and retain the next generation of transportation professionals needed to deliver critical infrastructure projects across Illinois,” Kevin Artl, president and CEO of ACEC Illinois, said in a statement announcing the initiative.
The student loan repayment program is the latest effort by Gov. JB Pritzker and the state to spur economic growth by retaining young talent. In February, the Illinois Retail Merchants Association launched an apprenticeship program for emerging Illinois retailers, and late last month, Pritzker announced public and private partnerships with computing giant IBM that will bring 500 apprenticeships to the company’s new innovation hub located in Chicago’s quantum park.
The program is funded by IDOT, with funds allocated as part of the Pritzker administration’s ongoing Rebuild Illinois efforts and paid out as bonuses. Rebuild Illinois has made significant investments in Illinois infrastructure projects since fiscal year 2020.
State-employed engineers are needed to support the Rebuild Illinois infrastructure program, passed in the first year of the Pritzker administration in 2019 and continued since then. The latest six-year plan calls for investing $50.6 billion in infrastructure, including $32.5 billion for transportation projects exclusively: the construction and maintenance of roads, bridges, public transit, freight and passenger rail, aeronautic facilities and ports.
This is not the first time IDOT has targeted young engineering talent. Last year, the agency implemented an “Intern to Hire” program meant to attract college students to civil engineering internships with the department by providing direct pathways to full-time employment.
The need to fill engineering positions at IDOT is also driven, in part, by federal legislation encouraging new projects. In 2021, President Joe Biden signed the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which allocated over $17 billion to Illinois public works projects over five years.
“We have more projects than ever at IDOT right now, thanks to the capital program and funding at the federal level,” Guy Tridgell, director of communications for IDOT, said. “And we need engineers to do that work.”
According to IDOT data, the state has invested over $24 billion in Illinois highway projects through Rebuild Illinois since the 2020 fiscal year. The state hopes young engineers will take advantage of these new jobs incentives and meet the demand for continued infrastructure investment.
Public sector recruitment for the long term
In addition to helping accomplish what Rebuild Illinois set out to do, Tridgell hopes the student loan repayment incentives will inspire young engineers to pursue long-term careers in public service.
“We’re aggressively taking a look at a variety of strategies to get young engineers, in particular, to come and work for the state,” Tridgell said. “It’s a good career — you learn a lot about the profession and you can make a real difference in your community.”
Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, initially sponsored legislation calling for the program. He said he hoped the incentives would encourage students to pursue engineering careers with reduced financial pressure.
“We know that access to higher education is challenging,” Villivalam told Capitol News Illinois. “So making sure that young students and folks looking at different career opportunities understand that there are tools available to them to make it more affordable, make it more accessible to pursue a career in engineering.”
In addition to the Pritzker administration's IDOT loan repayment program, Republicans are also working to assist the creation of new engineers for the state.
Senate Republican Leader John Curran, R-Downers Grove, is a lead sponsor of Senate Bill 3855, which would create scholarship and living stipend incentives for engineering students attending Illinois public universities at the front end of their higher education careers. Curran supports the student loan repayments in addition to his own proposal, but noted that the repayments have been delayed.
“I’m glad they’re moving forward with it. It’s well past time,” Curran told Capitol News Illinois. “We are behind on capital.”
Similar to the student repayment plan, Curran’s scholarship bill requires eligible students to commit to working for IDOT for at least three years. He argues that scholarships would unlock more opportunities for students and help assuage financial concerns that arise from college decisions sooner.
“It is a way to help not only lock them in early, but also a pathway to pay for school,” Curran said. “It’s a win-win.”
Curran’s bill was assigned to committee and is currently awaiting a hearing, with a deadline of Friday.
Aidan Klineman is an undergraduate student in journalism with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications, and is a fellow in its Medill Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
Illinois lawmakers are moving forward with a bill designed to limit addictive social media features for minors. The proposal would require platforms to change how content is delivered and restrict certain functions for users under 18.
Photo: Tati Odintsova/Unsplash
by Ben Szalinski Capitol News Illinois
SPRINGFIELD - A bill to regulate social media companies and the features they make available to minors is advancing in the Statehouse.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House voted 82-27 to pass House Bill 5511, also known as the Children’s Social Media Safety Act. Gov. JB Pritzker proposed the bill, which is designed to make social media scrolling less addictive for children.
“What this bill is really designed to address is the weaponization of your data, your personal habits in a way that keeps kids glued and addicted to the screen,” bill sponsor Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, D-Glenview, said.
The bill does not limit social media use to certain ages but does require platforms to allow users setting up an account to input their age, which would trigger certain settings on the device for users under 18 years old.
The bill mandates that information used to generate a social media feed cannot be “persistently associated with the user’s device” and based on content the user previously shared or interacted with. Users must follow the creator of the content or person who shares it to see the content in their feed. Additional content could only be provided to the user when they search for it.
The bill would also require social media platforms to have default privacy settings for minors that would stop addictive feeds, location sharing and transactions with digital currency. Platforms would also be prohibited from sending notifications to minor users between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Companies that violate the law would have to pay fines.
The changes would take effect in 2028, and despite cracking down in some areas, Gong-Gershowitz said there won’t be restrictions on the content kids see.
Photo: dole777/Unsplash
“This bill does not include any content moderation or allow parents to monitor what children are doing online,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “It simply targets a harmful design feature like addictive algorithms that are designed to keep kids online. Children can still see the same content.”
Pritzker, some Republicans back it
Pritzker called on lawmakers during his February State of the State address to advance regulations.
“Everywhere I go, parents tell me one of their deepest concerns is the impact social media is having on their kids,” Pritzker said in his address. “It’s a challenge unique to this generation. And it is made worse by the perverse incentive that social media companies seem to have to keep kids scrolling no matter what the cost to their physical and mental health.”
Tackling children’s addictions to social media has been a bipartisan priority in Springfield in recent years and nine House Republicans joined Democrats in advancing the measure to the Senate.
“Up until this point, we haven’t had a lot of guardrails when it comes to social media use in our state,” Rep. Nicole La Ha, R-Lemont, told Capitol News Illinois. “Being a mom of school aged children, I think it’s really important that we start to have those conversations.”
La Ha said she is looking forward to using parental controls to make sure the content her kids see on their feeds is appropriate for their age.
Other Republicans said they supported the concept of the bill but would vote against it until more changes were made in the Senate.
Pritzker is also pushing lawmakers to tax social media companies based on the number of users they have in Illinois.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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TAGS: Illinois social media bill for minors, Children’s Social Media Safety Act Illinois, JB Pritzker social media regulation plan, Illinois House Bill 5511 details, social media restrictions for kids Illinois
Governor JB Pritzker recently halted tax incentives for data center construction in Illinois for two years due to energy concerns.
Photo: Geoffrey Moffett/Unsplash
Ireland has 134 data centers operated by 28 providers like Prescient Data Centres in Coleraine in Northern Ireland. Data centers are looking to expand in Illinois and environmental groups are trying to pass laws regulating them to prevent ecological and economic damage to the state.
by Judith Ruiz-Branch Public News Service CHICAGO - As data centers continue to expand rapidly, environmental justice groups are working to pass legislation to regulate them in Illinois.
The state is a top-five market for data centers and backers cited the tax revenue and jobs the facilities bring to some areas.
Lucy Contreras, Illinois state program director for the environmental policy group GreenLatinos, said the centers' increased demand for energy also brings concerns about utility affordability and environmental impacts for Illinois residents. She pointed out it disproportionately affects communities of color as more facilities are being built in or near low-income neighborhoods.
"If we don't mandate that they bring their own clean energy and that they pay for their own costs, then who ends up footing that bill tends to be the communities," Contreras explained.
Contreras noted legislation known as the Power Act, now in the General Assembly, would address the concerns by establishing accountability measures and mandating community benefits. She added the bill is one of the most ambitious for data center regulation. Advocates are aiming to pass it this spring.
Data center developers heavily rely on nondisclosure agreements to build, manage and operate facilities.
Mayra Mendez, executive director of the advocacy group Clean Power Lake County, said it often leaves local communities at a disadvantage. And as the proliferation of data centers has made people more conscious of potential effects, she stressed the Power Act would also require greater transparency.
"We hosted a workshop specifically going over bills, and people were like, ‘My bills are going up because of data centers.’ So, they're seeing the direct links," Mendez recounted. "And I think sometimes other environmental issues are a little more abstract, but we're seeing the real impacts of data centers here and now, and people are just more aware."
The federal government has identified data center development as a national priority and some states have offered companies incentives to build more facilities. But Governor JB Pritzker recently halted tax incentives for data center construction in Illinois for two years due to energy concerns.
Illinois consumer advocacy groups are demanding action as electricity bills rise and data centers use an increasing amount of power. But data center operators warn unfavorable state policies, combined with an existing biometric privacy law, could drive them away from Illinois to places like Wisconsin or Indiana.
Gabriel Castilho
Medill Illinois News Bureau / Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD - The debate over how to regulate data centers in Illinois is intensifying as lawmakers struggle to balance costs to consumers and the state’s need to be competitive economically.
Data centers house computer systems that store, process and distribute data but require large amounts of energy to power that workload. A growing number of these facilities are used to power AI.
Illustration: PromptPlay/Pixabay
Data centers house thousands of interconnected servers and storage systems that process, manage and deliver digital information through private networks and the internet. Their intensive energy demands can strain local power grids and contribute to higher electricity costs for surrounding communities.
A state report published in December projects energy shortfalls would begin in northern Illinois by 2029 and the rest of the state by 2031, driven in large part by data centers’ increased power usage. That’s led Gov. JB Pritzker to backtrack on a proposal he signed in his first year as governor to incentivize data center development in the state.
“With the shifting energy landscape, it is imperative that our growth does not undermine affordability and stability for our families,” he said, proposing a two-year moratorium on the incentives in his budget address Wednesday.
Illinois consumers blame data centers — which often receive generous tax incentives in Illinois — for straining the grid and driving up prices, and they want relief. But companies that operate the centers are seeking ways to build more quickly and pushing for looser regulation, arguing the centers are key to the state’s economic future.
Environmentalists want new data centers to build their own renewable energy sources on site
And the state, from the governor’s office to the legislature, is struggling with ways to balance the economic interests tied to data center development with environmental and consumer cost concerns.
“We don’t want them to overwhelm our electrical capabilities and our water resources,” Sen. Steve Stadelman, D-Caledonia, said. “If we’re going to allow them and track them, how can we make sure it benefits Illinois residents and rate payers in the state?”
Data center negotiations continue
These are the same issues and tensions legislators hoped to address in their fall veto session. But no broad consensus was reached, and instead, Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act, adding new air regulations for backup generators used by data centers.
Lawmakers in Springfield have already begun negotiating a new round of data center regulations.
Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, recently announced the introduction of Senate Bill 4016, known as the POWER Act, to place prohibitions on cost shifting, introduce “bring your own new clean capacity and energy,” guarantee transparent public engagement and implement water efficiency standards on data centers.
“By establishing policies that ensure data centers, not consumers, bear the increasing energy costs, and critical protections for our environment and sustainable water use, we can work toward a future built for technology to support our daily lives,” Villivalam said, “not deplete our resources and price us out of our homes.”
Environmentalists want new data centers to build their own renewable energy sources on site to prevent new projects from further stressing energy infrastructure and creating more pollution.
Pritzker said something similar earlier this month: “If they are, in any way, going to increase the price of electricity for consumers, they should pay for that increase, not the consumers.”.
The data center companies oppose such mandates, preferring a voluntary “bring your own energy” policy, according to Brad Tietz, director of state policy for the Data Center Coalition industry group.
“I think, ultimately, when you try to mandate something, you get less of it,” he said.
States are competing to attract investments from companies that want to build more data centers as they seek an edge in the artificial intelligence race. Illinois has the fourth-largest number of data centers — 222 — in the country, but Tietz said the state is in danger of slipping because other states have friendlier policies.
We're a leader in the country as far as protecting people's privacy rights and protecting their data
Illinois has provided tax incentives for data centers since Pritzker signed bipartisan legislation in 2019. According to the state’s 2024 report, at least 27 data centers had received incentives totaling $983 million in estimated lifetime tax breaks and benefits. That would stop for at least two years under Pritzker’s plan.
Sen. Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro, said she would like to see “a change in our policy here in Illinois” so the state does not fall behind, though she hopes those centers bring their own energy.
“We want to be able to do that because if we don’t, China will. If we don’t, Wisconsin will, Indiana will,” she said.
‘Little type of war’
As negotiations progress, the Data Center Coalition has signified another point of contention: A 2008 law known as the Biometric Information Privacy Act that prohibits private companies from collecting personal data without informed consent. The law allows people to sue over the misuse of their biometric profile, such as fingerprint mapping, facial recognition and retina scans.
Stadelman said the privacy protections in the act, which Illinois put in place before any other state, are at the center of a “little type of war.”
“You have privacy rights advocates saying, ‘We're a leader in the country as far as protecting people's privacy rights and protecting their data,’” Stadelman said. “But the data (centers) say, ‘We're not going to have more projects in Illinois unless you change the BIPA legislation.’”
Tietz said these regulations have factored into operators’ decisions to bypass Illinois, although lawmakers in 2024 drastically curtailed the way damages accrue and the liability private entities are likely to face if found in violation.
But the data center industry wasn't satisfied, and its leaders say the legal liabilities are one reason they are building in other states.
Abe Scarr, state director of the Illinois Public Interest Research Group, said biometric information is uniquely sensitive.
“We should know who is collecting and commercializing information created from the stuff our lives are made of,” Scarr said. “And we should have to opt into — and be able to easily opt out of — pervasive, intrusive surveillance.”
Consumer backlash
The legislative debate comes as data centers have become increasingly controversial. In January, the Aurora City Council approved a moratorium pausing new data centers. The city had five data centers in development and had been receiving requests to build more even as residents and environmental groups complained about noise, water usage and rising utility costs.
Alison Lindburg, director of sustainability for Aurora, said the city passed the moratorium because it needed time to put requirements for data centers in place.
“We have tried to explain that to communities, that it’s not just about data centers in Aurora, it’s about the entire grid, but that doesn’t matter to them,” Lindburg said in an interview. “I think they’re just very frustrated overall with the rising electricity prices.”
Hannah Flath, Illinois Environmental Council’s climate communications director, said other communities are also opposing data centers.
“In that case (Aurora), the local government acted in accordance with what their local constituents were saying,” Flath said.
Tietz said he has been in conversations with officials from Aurora about the 180-day moratorium and is hoping he can help find a solution.
Lucy Contreras, GreenLatinos Illinois state program director, said communities should have a voice in whether, where and how these projects are built. She said developers must ensure host communities receive tangible benefits rather than bearing only the burdens of hosting these facilities.
“They contribute to air pollution and consume excessive amounts of water daily, which restrains local water systems that might already be struggling,” Contreras said. “Without strong and forceful regulations, data center expansion will deepen existing inequalities, harm public health and undermine our Illinois clean energy goals.”
Spreading the costs
Utilities are building billions of dollars of new power lines and plants to keep up with energy demand increases brought on by data centers — whether they’re built or in the process of being built. They, in turn, spread associated costs to ratepayers.
“Speculation about data center development has actually increased prices,” Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, said. “It’s not just the immediate demand, it’s anticipated future demand, so it’s really important to sift out the wheat from the chaff on what’s a real proposal and what isn’t.”
Cunningham said he expects fellow Democratic lawmakers to work on safeguards for consumers when pending data center projects go uncompleted.
Recently, northern Illinois utility Commonwealth Edison announced it will require a 10-year guarantee of revenues upfront from big energy consumers. ComEd said this will help protect ratepayers from bearing the costs of high-load projects and ensure, even if they don't come to fruition.
Maddie Wazowicz, Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance policy director, said utilities function best when they can plan into the future.
“Whether or not data centers emerge — and how much, how many of them come, where and how long they last — does complicate utility long-term planning,” she said.
Gabriel Castilho is a graduate student in journalism with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications, and is a fellow in its Medill Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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Tags: unfavorable policies may drive data centers away, lawmakers want data center operators to use renewable energy, data centers raise electricity bills for area residents, Wisconsin and Indiana privacy laws are more relaxed than Illinois
A bill that would give state insurance regulators authority to review and modify homeowners insurance rates failed on the floor of the House last year but could be revived for a second vote when lawmakers return to the Statehouse this week.
Peter Hancock
Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD - Illinois lawmakers are poised to make a second attempt at passing a bill that would give state regulators more authority to control the rising cost of homeowners insurance.
Gov. JB Pritzker called for the legislation last summer after Bloomington-based State Farm Insurance announced it was raising premiums in Illinois an average 27.2%, citing years of losses in its property casualty line of coverage due to weather-related disasters in the state.
Photo: Serge Lavoie/PEXELS
After a natural disaster struck a while back, some insurers increased premium payments more than 25%.
A bill to give the Illinois Department of Insurance authority to approve or reject insurance rate increases passed the Senate during last fall’s veto session. But when it returned to the House for a vote to concur with changes the Senate had made, the amended bill fell four votes short of the 60 needed for passage. That left many to believe the bill had died.
The following day, however, the bill’s chief House sponsor, Rep. Robyn Gabel, D-Evanston, refiled a motion to concur, which is allowed under House rules. And Pritzker has said since the end of the veto session that he still wants the legislation to pass.
“They get a second bite at the apple,” Kevin Martin, executive director of the Illinois Insurance Association, said in an interview.
Gabel told Capitol News Illinois through a spokesperson this week that no decision had been made about calling the bill for a second vote. But Martin said people in the industry have heard the bill could be called as early as Tuesday, when the House and Senate return to the Statehouse to begin the 2026 legislative session in earnest.
Current environment
The controversy over State Farm’s rate hike last year raised attention to the fact that Illinois stands out among states for having exceptionally weak regulations over the insurance industry.
Advocates for the legislation argue that every state in the nation except Illinois has a law that prohibits insurance companies from charging “inadequate, excessive or unfairly discriminatory” premiums. And other states’ insurance regulators have authority to review and modify proposed rate increases.
Illinois, however, is known in the insurance industry as a “use-and-file” state, meaning companies can raise their rates at any time and immediately put them into effect before filing the new rate schedule with state regulators.
The Illinois Department of Insurance has authority to license companies and agents to do business in the state. It also has authority to make sure insurance products sold in Illinois comply with state laws and that companies honor the terms of their policies. But it has no other authority to review or approve the rates they charge.
Douglas Heller, director of insurance for the Washington-based Consumer Federation of America, described Illinois’ law last year as “among the most toothless in the nation.”
In the wake of State Farm’s rate increase last year, Pritzker suggested the company was trying to shift the cost of disaster-related losses in other states like California and Florida onto the backs of Illinois consumers, and he said legislation was needed to prevent that practice from happening in Illinois.
“As states across the country face even more extreme weather than we do, we need to make sure Illinois homeowners are not paying for losses that companies experience in other states,” Pritzker said in an op-ed column published in the Chicago Tribune that was cosigned by House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and Senate President Don Harmon.
State Farm officials firmly denied that allegation, and Martin insisted no insurance companies in Illinois engage in that practice.
“We have never seen anything like that, and we would argue very strongly that that does not happen and cannot happen based on the actuarial data that the companies have to provide in Illinois on Illinois losses,” he said.
Proposed changes
Pritzker’s call for new legislation to regulate homeowners insurance rates led to intense negotiations between the governor’s office, legislative leaders and the insurance industry. But the final language wasn’t unveiled until the final hours of the fall veto session.
The language was put into a Senate amendment to House Bill 3799. It included language prohibiting “excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory” rates. It also called for banning the practice of “cost-shifting” by requiring companies to use state-specific loss data to develop their rates whenever possible.
The bill also would leave in place the state’s “use-and-file” method of setting rates, meaning companies would not have to seek advance clearance from state regulators before implementing rate changes. But it would require them to give consumers at least 60 days’ advance notice before raising rates by 10% or more.
The major sticking point for the insurance industry, however, was the provision giving the Department of Insurance authority to review and approve or modify rates after they are put into place.
Under the proposed language, if the agency found a company’s rates to be excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory, it would send the company a notice specifying the agency’s objections. Companies then would be allowed to defend their rates at an administrative hearing. But after that hearing, if the agency still believed the rates violated standards of the law, it would be authorized to order the company to rebate excess charges back to customers.
According to Martin, the industry’s main objection to that language was that there was no limit on how far back in time the agency could look in its rate review process.
“They can go back forever,” he said.
“We just believe that, in all of the negotiations that we had, for them to come in at the last minute with this type of language, of the changes that they made, was just something that we thought was really unfair,” Martin said.
The House and Senate have each been in session a few days this year, mainly to introduce new bills and to pass a few resolutions. But the work of the session will begin in earnest this coming week, starting Tuesday when both chambers will meet and begin holding committee hearings.
Pritzker is scheduled to deliver his annual budget and State of the State address to a joint session of the General Assembly on Wednesday.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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Tags: Illinois bill to regulate insurance companies resurfaces, Illinois Insurance Association opposes new bill, homeowners insurance rate hikes, Illinois insurance consumers
Illinois will receive $193 million a year for the next five years to expand health care access in rural areas. The funding comes from a new federal program created to offset Medicaid cuts included in H.R. 1.
by Nikoel Hytrek
Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD - Illinois will receive $193 million for each of the next five years to expand health care access for the approximately 1.9 million people in rural areas — or about $101 annually for every rural Illinoisan.
The money comes from the $50 billion federal Rural Healthcare Transformation Program fund, which Congress created to offset federal Medicaid spending cuts included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or H.R. 1, that passed last summer.
But health care organizations said the money will not be enough to compensate for Medicaid cuts.
Photo by PEXELS/RDNE Stock Project
Illinois has 85 small and rural hospitals that serve as hubs for access to healthcare. Hospitals could be forced to reduce services like obstetrics, cut staff, or close entirely if government funding isn't sufficient.
“These funds are good, and we're going to put them to good use, but it's not a solution,” said Jordan Powell, senior vice president of health policy and finance for the Illinois Health and Hospital Association. “It's not going to mitigate the impact of the significant Medicaid cuts that are coming our way.”
The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services said between 190,000 to 360,000 Medicaid recipients are at risk of losing coverage in Illinois because of new work requirements.
H.R. 1 also imposes a tighter cap on how much money states can raise for their Medicaid programs through provider taxes. The new limits will be phased in, starting in fiscal year 2028, and could reduce total Medicaid funding in Illinois by $4.5 billion a year by fiscal year 2031.
“Long term, we know a number of HR 1 provisions will have a devastating impact on healthcare in our state and present significant challenges with respect to maintaining equitable access to high-quality healthcare coverage for all Illinois residents,” the department said in a statement.
Illinois has 85 small and rural hospitals that serve as hubs for access to care for people who can’t travel long distances. Nearly 30% operate at a deficit, though, and most of the patients they serve are on Medicare or Medicaid, according to the Health and Hospital Association.
Photo: Anna Shvets/PEXELS
Increasing the workforce at rural hospitals is a priority that needs to be addressed.
Powell described the new federal money as a bandage, not a permanent solution for the cuts Illinois hospitals will face. As Medicaid reimbursement decreases, he said, hospitals could be forced to reduce services like obstetrics, cut staff, or close entirely.
Rural population is only a small part of grant consideration
The amount each state received ranged from $147 million for New Jersey to $281 million for Texas, and rural population appeared to be only a small factor in the equation.
That means states like Texas, with the largest rural population in the country, got far less per rural resident than states like Rhode Island, which has the smallest. Texas received $66 per rural resident and Rhode Island, with a total award of $156 million, received $6,305 per rural resident.
Half of the total $50 billion was awarded to states equally, but the other half was awarded based on specific factors such as a state’s current or planned policies for rural health care and proposed ideas that align with federal Make America Healthy Again priorities.
Among its neighbors, Illinois has the second-lowest award amount. Michigan, with its $173 million award, is the only state with less.
In the Midwest, Michigan’s rural population is slightly larger than Illinois’, but it received only $83 per person compared to Illinois’ $101. Iowa, with fewer rural residents than Illinois, got $139 per rural person.
Illinois’ Priorities
When filling out the application to the federal government, Illinois’ HFS consulted provider associations, rural hospitals, community health centers, community mental health centers, universities and community colleges, legislators and vendors.
According to the department, the state’s application focused on:
Increasing the number of health care workers in rural areas with education, scholarships, training and incentive programs.
Removing the barriers that rural residents face to getting health care by investing in mobile and telehealth services.
Changing the way rural health care systems run by creating regional partnerships.
The federal government indicated a preference for “transforming systems,” not just supporting ongoing operating expenses.
HFS said the hospital transformation grants will be a good tool for expanding its existing Healthcare Transformation Collaboratives to rural areas. The state launched the collaborative effort in 2021 to improve health care outcomes and reduce disparities across the state. It involves providers sharing resources to meet the health needs of multiple communities and expand access to services like preventative and specialty care.
“Team-based care, in partnership with hospitals and primary care practices, looks to improve access to care for rural residents by building out infrastructure and technology in order to increase access to specialty services, transform healthcare delivery, and overcome known geographic barriers for these communities,” the agency said in an emailed statement.
Powell said increasing the workforce and cybersecurity at hospitals are some of the top priorities. After that, he said, expanding rural broadband internet and upgrading electronic health records are important.
“Workforce and technology were two of the main things that we heard from our members,” he said. “I think the state wants to emphasize better partnerships and collaboration between providers.”
‘Not a long-term fix’
Despite allowing rural hospitals and health systems to make needed improvements, Powell said he still doesn’t think the money will be enough to make up for losing Medicaid payments.
“It’s kind of like supplemental funding that’s going to help them survive just a little bit longer,” he said. “I would actually say a significant portion of them are facing slim to negative margins, as is. And so this is funding that, again, will maintain some stability and viability for these organizations. But it's not a long-term fix.”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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TAGS: Illinois rural health care funding, Medicaid cuts impact Illinois hospitals, rural hospitals Illinois federal grants, Illinois Medicaid work requirements health care, Rural Healthcare Transformation Program Illinois
The Illinois House met Wednesday, passing several Democrat-introduced symbolic resolutions against the current administration's federal policies. House Republicans opposed the measures, characterizing them as unproductive.
by Georgia Epiphaniou & Erika Tulfo
Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD - Illinois House Democrats kicked off their spring session this week in a mostly symbolic fashion, denouncing President Donald Trump’s policies in a series of resolutions criticizing immigration raids and cuts to health care and child care programs.
“The session was an opportunity for us to emphasize how these policies in the federal government impact Illinois,” House Rep. Lillian Jiménez, D-Chicago, said.
The Democrat-led symbolic resolutions targeted Trump’s tariffs, excessive use of force by federal immigration agents, the freezing of affordable child care funds and the expiry of Affordable Care Act subsidies. They even denounced the administration’s push to acquire territory overseas while Illinoisans face affordability challenges at home.
Photo: Capitol News Illinois/Jerry Nowicki
Rep. Lilian Jiménez speaks on the House floor during the October 2025 veto session.
They all passed overwhelmingly over Republican objections.
“We basically did nothing but allow Democrats in the General Assembly to grandstand on things that are happening in D.C, that we have zero impact on,” House Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore, told Capitol News Illinois.
House Rep. Jaime M. Andrade Jr., D-Chicago, kicked off the Wednesday session by calling out aggressive actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, citing the killing of Silverio Villegas González in Franklin Park in September last year and Renee Good in Minnesota early this month.
Andrade filed House Resolution 622 which condemned the use of “excessive and deadly force” by ICE agents, and called for an independent investigation into the Department of Homeland Security for killings and deaths of detainees in custody. Democrats also called for the resignation of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem over her handling of immigration enforcement.
Democrats then focused on the impact of federal funding cuts.
Jiménez filed House Resolution 621, which called for the immediate unfreezing of federal child care funds, saying the session was a way to signal to constituents what their priorities are.
House Resolution 620 called on Congress to reinstate health care subsidies that expired on Dec. 31, 2025, and end what they called the “Trump healthcare affordability crisis.”
Democrats voted to approve House Resolution 624, filed by Rep. Lisa Hernandez, D-Cicero, condemning “Trump’s efforts to acquire territories and titles overseas, while leaving working families at home to pay the bill.”
She told Capitol News Illinois that taxpayer money was being used to fund operations that could be used to prioritize the needs of Americans.
It came just hours after President Trump spoke to global leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday. He made the case earlier that day for why the U.S. should own Greenland, a self-governing territory under NATO ally Denmark.
But the resolutions met fierce pushback from House Republicans, who slammed the proposals as symbolic rather than productive and characterized them as theatrics.
Only one actionable joint resolution passed, which confirmed the House and Senate will convene in a joint session on Feb. 18 for Gov. JB Pritzker’s budget address.
Georgia Epiphaniou and Erika Tulfo are graduate students in journalism with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, and fellows in its Medill Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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TAGS: Illinois House symbolic resolutions, Illinois Democrats Trump criticism, Illinois General Assembly spring session, GOP response Illinois House resolutions, Trump policies Illinois legislature
by Peter Hancock
