Given a crisis the Illinois Legislature can react quickly and that’s what they have done to get laws passed to stem the tide of sexual harassment claims at the Capitol.
The Governor signed legislation today (Thursday) that will require lawmakers, staff and lobbyists to go through training that is designed to recognize harassment and avoid actions that can be harassment. The bill also takes steps to better identify procedures for reporting harassment and the investigation of it.
Another bill signed today will extend the amount of time that Legislative Inspector General has to investigate claims of harassment. There are currently 27 claims at the office that have piled up for the 3 years there was no Inspector General investigate.
Rauner says that more has to be done to make sure that individual can address the complaints.
Another bill creates training for lawmakers, staffers and lobbyists to go through to identify what is harassing behavior and a 1-800 hotline to report bad behavior.
