SPRINGFIELD — A bill that would eliminate the statute of limitations for cases of involuntary servitude or trafficking passed the Illinois House on Tuesday.
Current Illinois law only allows a victim of involuntary servitude, involuntary sexual servitude of a minor, or trafficking to pursue prosecution of their offender for up to 25 years after the victim reaches the age of 18. House Bill 2602 would allow victims to pursue prosecution at any time.
Bill sponsor Rep. Anne Stava-Murray, D-Naperville, said the bill, “isn’t just about putting an end to sexual assault.”
“It’s about delivering justice to survivors and removing people who violate children and teens from the streets,” she said. “With this legislation, we’ll be one step closer to delivering justice to childhood survivors of sex trafficking.”
Stava-Murray called the 25-year cap a protection for human traffickers who “really don’t deserve peace of mind.”
The bill passed out of the House unanimously.
House Bill 2805, sponsored by House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, was also unanimously passed by the House.
This bill would prohibit insurance companies from charging deductibles, copays, or any other costs for any examinations or testing of victims of sexual assault, like rape-kits. McCombie said the bill closes a loophole as current state law prohibits insurance companies from charging for examinations and tests but does not prohibit a company from charging a co-pay.
“This makes sure that victims are not victimized on any level,” she said.
Safe cosmetic products
The House approved legislation that would prohibit businesses in Illinois from manufacturing or selling cosmetic products containing certain chemical ingredients including formaldehyde and mercury.
“We just want to make sure that our body products are safe here in the state of Illinois because some of these contain dangerous chemicals and toxic metals that cause severe health issues,” said bill sponsor Rep. Sonya Harper, D-Chicago.
House Bill 3409 passed on a 69-38 vote.
Several states and the European Union have already banned many of the dozen chemicals included in Harper’s bill.
It’s not clear how such a ban would be enforced in Illinois. According to Rep. Steve Reick, R-Woodstock, that means the bill is “toothless” and shouldn’t move forward.
Dual language education
House Bill 3026, introduced by Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid, D-Bridgeview, would enable the Illinois State Board of Education to develop guidelines schools can use to implement or expand dual language educational programs.
Last year, Rashid passed a bill that mandated the Illinois Advisory Council for Bilingual Education to issue a report outlining potential strategies the state could implement to incentivize and expand dual language education in Illinois schools. The report, published last October, spans 72 pages.
“This report identified several low hanging fruit for us to improve dual language education in our state,” Rashid said. “What HB 3026 does is it implements some of those recommendations.”
The bill does not require schools to implement the guidelines, but instead it allows them to choose their participation status. It passed the House on a vote of 77-25.
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