CHICAGO — The second trailer bill to the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus’ SAFE-T Act, championed by State Senator Elgie R. Sims, Jr. (D-Chicago), which addresses police and sentencing reform, the Illinois cash bail system and violence reduction, was signed into law on Friday.

“I am proud of our continued efforts to reimagine public safety in the state of Illinois,” said Sims. “I appreciate the Governor for signing House Bill 3512 and recognizing that there is still more work to do as we work to change the culture of policing.”

The new laws address implementation challenges with body camera footage labeling, detainee phone calls, officer decertification, and officer training. House Bill 3443, the first trailer bill to the SAFE-T Act, focused on issues that had an implementation date of July 1, 2021.

Implementation dates specific to pretrial services, body camera labeling and officer training were extended to Jan. 1, 2022, and Mandatory Supervised Release and the officer decertification process were extended to July 1, 2022.

“With this, we’re not making any major changes to the original SAFE-T Act, instead, we are granting law enforcement personnel additional time to roll out implementation dates,” said Sims. “We want to give law enforcement agencies our full support in ensuring we get this right for the people in our communities.”

House Bill 3512 was signed into law on Friday by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

SPRINGFIELD – Agricultural sciences will now be added as a type of course that may be counted towards the requirement for three years of sciences in order to gain admission to an Illinois public university under a plan backed by State Senator Elgie R. Sims, Jr. (D-Chicago).
“The study of agriculture is vitally important, and our curricula should reflect that,” said Sims. “It’s exclusion as an option of course study for admission did students who plan to one day work in the field a huge disservice.”

Currently, the minimum requirements to gain admission to state universities include the completion of at least 15 units of high school coursework in the following subjects: English, Social studies, Mathematics, (Laboratory) Sciences and electives in either foreign language, music, vocational education, or art.

Currently, some colleges may accept agricultural science under the auspice of a "science course" but not all are doing so. This legislation will add some conformity to the available options.

“There a wide variety of subjects taught in agriculture, whether it be math, economics, biochemistry and more.” Sims said. “I’m proud of the work done to expand studying options as every course should be considered equal for our students and their studies.”

House Bill 3218 was signed into law, and will become effective immediately.

CHICAGO— For the first time in more than two decades, the state of Illinois has received a bond rating upgrade from Moody’s Investors Service. Following the announcement, State Senator Elgie Sims, Jr. (D-Chicago) released the following statement:

“When budget negotiations first began this Spring, I vowed to move Illinois toward fiscal stability by working with other leaders in taking a responsible approach for a brighter future for all Illinoisans. Moody’s ratings upgrade coupled with the recent positive economic outlook by Fitch shows that all of the hard work and determination that went into a plan that moves Illinois forward and puts taxpayers first is working. The state of Illinois is headed in a positive direction and I am very proud of our progress.

I looking forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and the Governor to continue our collective efforts to improve the state’s financial condition and to ensure fiscal stability and growth for all Illinoisans. Our work continues.”