HB5368eng 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HB5368 Engrossed LRB095 16838 RCE 42876 b

AN ACT concerning military affairs.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Military Family Interstate Compact Implementation Statute Drafting Advisory Committee Act.

Section 5. Committee; created; mandate. The Military Family Interstate Compact Implementation Statute Drafting Advisory Committee is created as an interagency advisory committee to develop a comprehensive statute to implement the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children, a document developed by the National Military Family Association. The Lieutenant Governor is the chair of the Committee, which shall be composed of the following individuals or agency designees:

(1) The Lieutenant Governor.

(2) The Illinois State Board of Education.

(3) The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

(4) The Department of Healthcare and Family Services.

(5) The Housing Development Authority.

(6) The Department of Veterans' Affairs.

(7) The Department of Military Affairs.

(8) The Department of Labor.

(9) Any other interested stakeholder, at the discretion of the chair.

The Committee shall meet at a time and place designated by the chair, but in no case shall the Committee meet less often than once each month, until it has fulfilled all the obligations delineated in this Act.

All meetings of the Committee are subject to the provisions of the Open Meetings Act.

All proceedings of the Committee and documents produced by the Committee are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.

The Committee shall draft and submit to the General Assembly a model implementation statute and a report outlining all the issues raised by the implementation by no later than December 31, 2008 or within 90 days after the effective date of this Act, whichever is later.

The Office of the Lieutenant Governor shall provide staff and administrative support to the Committee.

Section 90. The Department of Veterans Affairs Act is amended by adding Section 30 as follows:

(20 ILCS 2805/30 new)

Sec. 30. Task Force on Servicemember and Veterans Education.

(a) The Task Force on Servicemember and Veterans Education is created. The Task Force shall be chaired by the Lieutenant Governor and shall consist of the following members:

(1) one member appointed by the Governor;

(2) one member appointed by the President of the Senate;

(3) one member appointed by the Senate Minority Leader;

(4) one member appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives;

(5) one member appointed by the House Minority Leader;

(6) one member appointed by the Director of Veterans' Affairs; and

(7) one member designated by the Department of Military Affairs, appointed by the Adjutant General. Vacancies in the Task Force shall be filled by the initial appointing authority. Task Force members shall serve without compensation, but may be reimbursed from appropriations available for that purpose for necessary expenses incurred in performing duties associated with the Task Force.

Within 60 days after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 95th General Assembly, the Task Force must issue a report to the General Assembly, including draft legislative language and draft administrative rules, designed to do the following:

(1) assist public universities and community colleges throughout the State in developing an Internet-based curriculum of higher education courses for credit, tailored specifically to the needs of active duty servicemembers and veterans of the United States Armed Forces, with a particular emphasis on addressing the unique needs of servicemembers who are stationed abroad; and

(2) create on-campus veterans' centers at each public university and community college within the State to assist veterans in applying for financial aid and other benefits that may be available to them; on-campus centers shall be staffed by veterans and those intimately familiar with the needs and concerns of veterans.

Section 95. The Unemployment Insurance Act is amended by changing Section 601 as follows:

(820 ILCS 405/601) (from Ch. 48, par. 431)

Sec. 601. Voluntary leaving.

A. An individual shall be ineligible for benefits for the week in which he has left work voluntarily without good cause attributable to the employing unit and, thereafter, until he has become reemployed and has had earnings equal to or in excess of his current weekly benefit amount in each of four calendar weeks which are either for services in employment, or have been or will be reported pursuant to the provisions of the Federal Insurance Contributions Act by each employing unit for which such services are performed and which submits a statement certifying to that fact.

B. The provisions of this Section shall not apply to an individual who has left work voluntarily:

1. Because he is deemed physically unable to perform his work by a licensed and practicing physician, or has left work voluntarily upon the advice of a licensed and practicing physician that assistance is necessary for the purpose of caring for his spouse, child, or parent who is in poor physical health and such assistance will not allow him to perform the usual and customary duties of his employment, and he has notified the employing unit of the reasons for his absence;

2. To accept other bona fide work and, after such acceptance, the individual is either not unemployed in each of 2 weeks, or earns remuneration for such work equal to at least twice his current weekly benefit amount;

3. In lieu of accepting a transfer to other work offered to the individual by the employing unit under the terms of a collective bargaining agreement or pursuant to an established employer plan, program, or policy, if the acceptance of such other work by the individual would require the separation from that work of another individual currently performing it;

4. Solely because of the sexual harassment of the individual by another employee. Sexual harassment means (1) unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, sexually motivated physical contact or other conduct or communication which is made a term or condition of the employment or (2) the employee's submission to or rejection of such conduct or communication which is the basis for decisions affecting employment, or (3) when such conduct or communication has the purpose or effect of substantially interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment and the employer knows or should know of the existence of the harassment and fails to take timely and appropriate action;

5. Which he had accepted after separation from other work, and the work which he left voluntarily would be deemed unsuitable under the provisions of Section 603;

6. (a) Because the individual left work due to circumstances resulting from the individual being a victim of domestic violence as defined in Section 103 of the Illinois Domestic Violence Act of 1986; and provided, such individual has made reasonable efforts to preserve the employment.

For the purposes of this paragraph 6, the individual shall be treated as being a victim of domestic violence if the individual provides the following:

(i) written notice to the employing unit of the reason for the individual's voluntarily leaving; and

(ii) to the Department provides:

(A) an order of protection or other documentation of equitable relief issued by a court of competent jurisdiction; or

(B) a police report or criminal charges documenting the domestic violence; or

(C) medical documentation of the domestic violence; or

(D) evidence of domestic violence from a counselor, social worker, health worker or domestic violence shelter worker.

(b) If the individual does not meet the provisions of subparagraph (a), the individual shall be held to have voluntarily terminated employment for the purpose of determining the individual's eligibility for benefits pursuant to subsection A.

(c) Notwithstanding any other provision to the contrary, evidence of domestic violence experienced by an individual, including the individual's statement and corroborating evidence, shall not be disclosed by the Department unless consent for disclosure is given by the individual.

7. Because the individual left employment to accompany a spouse who has been reassigned from one military assignment to another. The employer's account, however, shall not be charged for any benefits paid out to the individual who leaves to accompany a spouse reassigned from one military assignment to another.

(Source: P.A. 93-634, eff. 1-1-04.)

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.