Advocacy Team
Access Living friends and allies,
We have two important Illinois legislative updates for you. It’s a busy Friday! Read on for more.
CESSA Passes Illinois House Committee: This morning, the Illinois House version of the Community Emergency Services and Supports Act (CESSA) passed through the Mental Health & Addiction Committee on a vote of 10-5, with 300 supporters filing digital witness slips. Thank you! We are thrilled by this development and pleased that all the “no” votes came with comments that the aim of the bill was important and the details need to be worked out. The next step is to work with both parties, and hopefully see this brought to the floor of the Illinois House. Thank you to AYLP and our CESSA House chief sponsor, Representative Kelly Cassidy!
We Still Need Your Help: In the meantime, if you live in Illinois, you can help by asking your State legislators to support CESSA using this email tool. CESSA is also known as HB 2784 and SB 2117. You can see a flyer at this link: CESSA One Pager 3.19.21.docx. Let us know if your organization wants to be a supporter!
We Need Your Help on the Legislative Accessibility Act: As we continue to work with legislators virtually, we are also highlighting the need to coordinate improve accessibility for people with disabilities when dealing with the legislature, both online and in person. We need your help to ask your legislators to support SB 180/HB 855, the Legislative Accessibility Act. Here is an email link to ask for their support. Also, here is a flyer with more information: Legislative Accessibility Act Flyer March 2021 (1).docx. We expect that the House version will hopefully be heard in committee next week, so there is no time to lose!
Want to Be a Supporting Organization?: We are also looking for Illinois organizations that want to support the Legislative Accessibility Act. If your group is not listed on our flyer, and you want to support, please contact Amber Smock at asmock@accessliving.org.
Please share this update with fellow community members in Illinois.