ILGA and Advocacy

HomeILGA and Advocacy

Illinois General Assembly Website:www.ilga.gov

Contact information for Representatives and Senators, including their Springfield offices and local offices.
You can search bills by House number and Senate number. The designation of a bill (i.e., HB or SB) does not change when it leaves one chamber and goes to the second chamber for consideration.
The full text of a bill is available, who introduced the bill, and who are the sponsors. Contact the legislator’s office with any questions you may have (some bills are complex and the legal language may be difficult to decipher).
The General Assembly dashboard lists session dates and committee hearings for House and Senate. If you know the committee assigned to the bill and the hearing date, then the search is fairly easy.
Committee hearings are recorded and accessible via the website. Most committee hearings are at the same time each week.

Witness Slips are very important during the committee process as they provide legislators with information on how many people support or oppose a piece of proposed legislation. Witness Slips are read out to the committee by the chair during the committee hearings. If you decide to fill out a witness slip, you must do so as “self” or “taxpayer”, “private citizen”, or “IL voter” or “concerned parent”, etc. Any resident of Illinois may submit a witness slip.
Please note: As a member of the LWV, you cannot submit a Witness Slip as an “LWV member” because the League of Women Voters speaks as one voice, not as individuals.
Once a bill passes through committees, the bill is eligible for a floor vote. This provides an additional opportunity to send an email, make a call, or ask for a meeting to voice your support or opposition to a bill.
Repeated contacts are effective because legislators’ staff are very small, so if you keep calling and emailing, it’s going to be noticed by the staff and they are going to talk to the legislator and let them know that there is a lot of public engagement regarding specific bills. This may impact how legislators eventually vote.
Make as many contacts on bills that are important to you as you like (as an individual). Keep the pressure up throughout the legislative process. Staff will log every call, email, and in-person visits. Legislators take constituent communication very seriously.