Southern Illinois News

Republican state Rep. Patrick Windhorst (R-Harrisburg) was happy to recently rub elbows with constituents attending a prescription drug drop-off event in Harrisburg.

"Great weather and a great turnout for today's prescription drug drop,” Windhorst posted on Facebook. “Properly disposing of unused or expired prescriptions keeps medicine out of the wrong hands, out of our landfills, and out of our water systems. Thank you Harrisburg PD Chief Riden and the community of Harrisburg for your efforts and participation."

Windhorst has also been busy pushing ethics reform legislation in Springfield, including making the calculated decision to support the House passage of Senate Bill 539.    

"The latest iteration of ethics reform passed in an omnibus bill that I voted for back in May of 2021,” added Windhorst  in a YouTube video. “That legislation was the only chance legislators had to vote on ethics reforms this year. I along with others had objections to that legislation because it did not go as far as is recommended during our commission hearings, but ultimately many House Republicans voted yes because it was the only opportunity we thought we might ever have to codify at least some reform."

Not long ago, Windhorst filed House Bill 3396, a lobbying reform bill that has been stuck in committee.

"House Bill 3396 contains several provisions that would be improvements on the bill that passed the general assembly this past spring," he added. "First, it would strengthen the revolving door prohibition. As we noted, the one that passed in the General Assembly is weak, it only has a 6-month provision which has a very large loophole, meaning that once the General Assembly ends, then a legislator is free to lobby the next day. HB 3396 sets that time period at one year or the end of a person's term in office whichever is longer."

Windhorst insists the Republican-backed proposal leads to what he thinks is truly needed in Springfield.

"Our bill will have a complete prohibition of local lobbying for compensation by a member of the general assembly," he said. "It does not contain the loophole that exists in the Democratic legislation that passed this spring.

House Bill 3396 also seeks to expand the powers of the state's Legislative Inspector General (LIG) to conduct misconduct probes.

"It allows the LIG to have subpoena power without the approval of the legislative ethics commission,” he added. “It also requires reports made by the LIG be made public unless a 3/4 vote of the legislative ethics commission would prevent it. In summary, our legislation provides tougher ethics and corruption reforms that we believe are necessary and that was justified by the presentation and evidence we heard in The Joint Commission on ethics and lobbying reform."