Kane County Reporter

State Rep. Dan Ugaste (R-St. Charles) has pointed out former Rep. Luis Arroyo's (D-Chicago) recent guilty plea as more proof ethics reform is needed in Springfield.

“Republicans have pressed for meaningful ethics reform since well before Arroyo's indictment, including this year, only to be stonewalled by the Democrat Supermajority,” Ugaste posted on Facebook.

Ugaste has also recently opposed amending the Health Care Right of Conscience Act to keep it from being used as loophole to refuse complying with COVID-19 mandates.

“This is about religious exemptions,” he said in a video posted to Facebook. “You know, Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, or the First Amendment, says that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. It’s one of the basis for the founding of the nation.”

Ugaste argues people should have the right to stand up for the principles they believe in.

“You may not believe they’re telling the truth about it; the governor may not; the employer may not, whoever it is that’s pushing this bill so hard may not believe that they hold those beliefs that dear, but you don’t know that,” he said. “You don’t know what’s in their hearts. They’re not telling you what’s in their heart.”

Ugaste also recently introduced legislation Republicans are hoping will put limits on the governor's ability to extend emergency executive orders.

Ugaste’s proposal would make adjustments to the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act to require either three legislative leaders or the passage of a joint resolution in the General Assembly  for the governor to extend or make an additional order concerning the same disaster.

"The last 20 months we have had one person rule our state, operating under a continual emergency declaration. In fact, today he's made 91 such orders," Ugaste said during an Oct. 20 press conference. "That's 91 times the constituents, business owners and families and the entire legislative body have been silenced."

Ugaste said Pritzker has relied on an "ambiguous section" of the Illinois Emergency Management Act to make continual emergency declarations during the global health crisis.

"My House Bill 843 would guarantee that executive powers are kept in check and that the legislature is not denied its role in governing the state," Ugaste said during the press conference. "It's important that as members of the legislature we are able to act on the concerns of the people in our district and governing at all times and only in the most extreme circumstances should the executive be allowed to act alone."

Ugaste said it's a lawmaker's job to be the voice for the people they represent, and despite his efforts to make changes during the last General Assembly, Democrats declined to let the bill have a hearing.