Fighting for Ethics Reform, Transparency, and Fiscal Responsibility

Statement

Recently, I introduced two bills to target and root out what has become far too common in Illinois - public corruption. The State Ethics Law Protection Act (SELPA) will allow Illinois to crackdown on pay-to-play without federal interference, and the Public Officials Accountability Act restores a statute to prevent elected officials from using their offices for personal gain. The Chicago Sun-Times called our bipartisan, bi-cameral efforts "welcome teamwork."

I also introduced The Taxpayer Receipt Act, a bill to give each taxpayer an itemized receipt of how your tax dollars are spent. As I said when we announced the legislation last month, we check our grocery receipts to make sure our hard-earned dollars are being spent properly. There's no reason we can't do the same with our taxes. It's simply good government.

On the budget front, I recently released a report with 60 recommendations to save the federal government $2 trillion over the next 10 years. We are on an unsustainable fiscal path, and must make some tough -- but necessary -- choices in the coming years. The key to reducing our deficit is to look at every part of our budget to ensure we are not protecting sacred cows (like weapons systems the Pentagon says it does not need!) while stifling job growth or eliminating services middle-class Americans count on.

And as always, I remain committed to what have always been key priorities to me: protecting our environment, a woman's right to choose, and fighting for equality and justice.

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