SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WICS/WRSP) — Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch, D-Westchester, is ready to turn a new leaf in the Illinois House of Representatives.
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The new rules establish a new term limit of roughly 10 years on the speaker and House minority leader, allow for remote legislating, and ensure bills that are submitted to the Rules Committee in odd-numbered years are sent to a substantive committee or the appropriations committee for consideration.
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Newly-elected Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch talks with WBBM Political Editor Craig Dellimore about the challenges that await him as he takes the gavel from Michael Madigan. He discusses setting a more bi-partisan tone in the House, and dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, economic recovery, the budget, ethics, redistricting and more.
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SPRINGFIELD — State Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch was walking through security at the Bank of Springfield Center on his way to the makeshift Illinois House floor the morning of Jan. 11 when he received a call that would change his life.
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When Emanuel "Chris" Welch was a student at Proviso West High School in the late 1980s his classmates liked him and were impressed by him. He was known as a good athlete, a smooth talker, and was class president all four years in high school. Classmates expected him to go far.
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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WLS) -- One day after making history by being the first Black person elected as Speaker of the Illinois House, Emanuel "Chris" Welch sat down for a one-on-one interview with ABC 7.
While the Hillside Democrat said he may be ready to work with Republicans, he said he is also putting them on notice about who is in charge.
It’s been quite a whirlwind for the new Illinois Speaker of the House Chris Welch, as he’s received more than one thousand text messages from all over the country as well-wishers congratulate the state legislature’s first-ever Black Speaker.
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Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch hasn’t had much time to digest the new position he’s in — or had much sleep over the last few days while trying to win that position — but he said Thursday he’s charting a path forward, one that will be shaped by input from the House Democratic Caucus.
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The Illinois House of Representatives on Wednesday elected Rep. Emanuel "Chris" Welch as the first Black speaker in the state's history and the chamber's first new leader in decades, marking a seismic shift of power in Springfield, bringing the reign of longtime Speaker Michael Madigan to an end.
"I am grateful and humbled by your friendship, your guidance and your trust," Welch, 49, told colleagues immediately after taking his oath of office.
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SPRINGFIELD — Signaling the end of one era and the beginning of another, state Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch was elected the new speaker of the Illinois House on Wednesday — succeeding Mike Madigan, the longest serving statehouse speaker in U.S. history.
Welch is the first African American to win the powerful leadership position.
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Illinois State Representative Emanuel Chris Welch is isolating at home after he tested positive for COVID-19.
The Hillside Democrat said his symptoms are minor.
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State Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch (7th), whose district encompasses a large part of Proviso Township, has tested positive for COVID-19.
During an interview on Nov. 29, Welch said that he started feeling symptoms last Wednesday and tested positive on Saturday. He said he’s been quarantined in the basement of his Hillside home ever since then.
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Illinois lawmakers are free to pursue their own investigation into House Speaker Michael Madigan’s role in a bribery scheme involving utility giant Commonwealth Edison, as long as they don’t specifically ask witnesses what information they’ve shared with federal investigators or a federal grand jury.
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Federal prosecutors have given Springfield lawmakers investigating House Speaker Michael Madigan the all-clear to call witnesses and request documents — so long as they steer clear of asking for procedural details about the criminal probe into utility Commonwealth Edison.
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U.S. Attorney John Lausch said in a letter Thursday that his office doesn’t have an issue with an Illinois House committee seeking testimony and documents from witnesses in its inquiry of Speaker Michael Madigan, while also offering some guidelines.
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The Illinois House kicked off a rarely used disciplinary process Thursday to probe the conduct of Speaker Michael Madigan in light of allegations that Commonwealth Edison undertook a bribery scheme to gain his favor, with Republicans seeking to hear testimony from the powerful Democrat and former utility executives and lobbyists.
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Did the longtime Speaker of the Illinois House, Michael Madigan, engage in conduct “unbecoming” of a legislator such that it is a “breach of public trust”?
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Complaints of political posturing created some bumps in the road Thursday for the bipartisan state House committee during its first meeting investigating Speaker Michael Madigan.
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Charges have been filed for the first time in the ongoing ComEd investigation that has implicated Illinois' powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan.
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