A comprehensive economic reopening and recovery framework created by House Republicans (HGOP) was shared with Governor Pritzker prior to the unveiling of his own recovery plan. Even though he had HGOPsuggestions in hand, none of the HGOP ideas were included in the plan the Governor unveiled on Tuesday.
Click here to read the HGOP plan.
The House Republican plan balances important public health priorities with the need for businesses to reopen so Illinoisans can get back to work. The HGOP plan calls for a regional approach utilizing ten economic recovery zones with a second option to allow for a county-led approach. Through this approach, community and economic leaders would work in cooperation with county health departments to drive decisions at a more localized level, with oversight and input by the State. Widespread testing, contact tracing and reporting of COVID-19 cases would be an integral part of the HGOP plan, and benchmarks similar to the markers used in the Pritzker plan would be utilized, but without the 28-day data point requirement. No zone or county could simply decree that no restrictions apply.
Plans would outline which data sets would be required for the loosening of restrictions, as well as include a contingency plan for the implementation of tighter restrictions if cases trend back upward. Each smaller regional plan would require the approval of relevant county boards, county health departments and hospitals, and submission to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
The HGOP plan also calls for the creation of a bipartisan, bicameral COVID-19 Economic Recovery Commission, which would be assembled immediately and include public health experts, business and labor leaders, economic policy experts, educators, community leaders and state and local elected officials, including some members of the General Assembly. This group would work collaboratively to forward COVID-19-related recovery legislation to the House and Senate for consideration. The joint commission would reflect the geographic balance of the state and have no partisan majority, similar to the Illinois Joint Commission on Administrative Rules (JCAR).
If you support this kind of reopening framework as opposed to what the Governor has presented, please consider signing this petition.