92_SR0610
LRB9218476HShs
1 SENATE RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, The Senate is grateful to those members who have
3 devoted their energy and talent to the betterment of this
4 body and the well being of the people of the State of
5 Illinois; and
6 WHEREAS, Lisa Madigan was elected to the Illinois Senate
7 in 1998 and has served this body with distinction during the
8 past four years; and
9 WHEREAS, Senator Madigan has served as the Democratic
10 Spokesperson of the Senate Education Committee; and
11 WHEREAS, Senator Madigan has also served on the
12 Committees on Appropriations, Local Government, and
13 Elections, and the Legislative Information System and Joint
14 Committee on Administrative Rules legislative commissions,
15 the Governor's Education Funding Advisory Board, the Illinois
16 Growth Task Force, and the Governor's Task Force on Universal
17 Access to Pre-School; she served as co-chair of the
18 Conference of Women Legislators and has served on the Council
19 of State Government's National Executive Committee; and
20 WHEREAS, Senator Madigan's priorities in the Senate have
21 been to improve public education and to protect Illinois'
22 families by working to secure adequate funding for public
23 schools, enacting higher standards for students and
24 educators, writing and passing laws to protect the elderly
25 and people with disabilities from abuse and neglect,
26 sponsoring legislation that increased penalties for domestic
27 abusers who assault their victims at or near domestic
28 violence shelters, co-sponsoring legislation to help
29 survivors of domestic violence maintain their privacy and
30 safety, sponsoring legislation that allows police to seize
31 vehicles that are modified with secret compartments that are
32 used to transport dangerous weapons and drugs, sponsoring
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1 legislation to make it easier to convict domestic abusers,
2 crack down on elder abuse, and to prepare the State for the
3 threat of bio-terrorism, and sponsoring Family Care
4 legislation to provide health care coverage for working
5 parents not covered by employer-paid health care by their
6 employers; and
7 WHEREAS, Senator Madigan sponsored legislation to protect
8 children and consumers, co-sponsoring the Children's Product
9 Safety Act that prohibits the sale of unsafe toys and
10 products in Illinois, sponsored the computer "lemon" law to
11 protect consumers from buying faulty high-technology
12 merchandise, and has drafted legislation aimed at reducing
13 the high-cost of prescription drugs, and protecting Illinois'
14 consumers from unscrupulous predatory lending practices and
15 high interest pay day loans; and
16 WHEREAS, Senator Madigan has also successfully sponsored
17 and passed legislation to engage our young adults in our
18 system of government by allowing high school seniors to serve
19 as election judges, sponsored legislation to provide housing
20 redevelopment grants, and co-sponsored legislation to create
21 the Family Loan program to provide small, no-interest loans
22 to low-income families; and
23 WHEREAS, Senator Madigan has lived a distinguished life
24 of public service, including serving in the Washington office
25 of former United State's Senator Paul Simon; working as a
26 volunteer teacher at an all-girls high school in KwaZulu,
27 South Africa, during the height of apartheid in the 1980s;
28 working to create and implement one of the City of Chicago's
29 first community policing programs; working as Assistant Dean
30 of Adult/Continuing Education at Wilbur Wright College;
31 serving as President of the Board of the Inspiration Cafe,
32 which is a supportive, not-for-profit restaurant designed to
33 enable homeless people to become self-sufficient;
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1 participating in cease-fire marches against gun violence in
2 Chicago; serving as a member of the Steering Committee of
3 Women's Voices, Women's Votes; serving on the Board of
4 Advisors of the AIDS Living Remembrance Committee; serving as
5 a member of the Executive Committee of the Committee on
6 Foreign Affairs of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations;
7 serving as a member of the Board of Governors of Loyola
8 University School of Law, and she is a member of the Loyola
9 University School of Law Alumnae Project Steering Committee;
10 and
11 WHEREAS, Senator Madigan's illustrious career of public
12 service has been recognized and honored by many organizations
13 including the Illinois Women's Bar Association honoring her
14 with its 2001 Woman of Achievement Award; she has received
15 recognition from the Fraternal Order of Police, the Illinois
16 Education Association, the National Association of Women
17 Lawyers, the Lakeview Action Committee, and the Independent
18 Voters of Illinois; she was awarded a fellowship with the
19 Bowhay Institute for Legislative Leadership Development in
20 Madison, Wisconsin, and the Program for Emerging Political
21 Leaders at the Darden Graduate School of Business
22 Administration; she is a Leadership for Greater Chicago
23 fellow, and in November, 1998, she was named as one of the
24 "Top 40 Under 40" by Crain's Chicago Business; and
25 WHEREAS, Senator Madigan leaves the Senate upon her
26 election to statewide office in the 2002 General Election as
27 Illinois' 41st Attorney General, and the first woman to hold
28 that office; therefore, be it
29 RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SECOND GENERAL
30 ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we offer our best
31 wishes to Senator Lisa Madigan upon her retirement from the
32 Senate and we offer hope for a rewarding future as Attorney
33 General of the State of Illinois; and be it further
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1 RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this preamble and
2 resolution be presented to Senator Lisa Madigan as a measure
3 of our esteem and respect for our colleague and friend.