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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, Richard C. "Dick" Edwards has retired from the
3Legislative Reference Bureau after 24 years of dedicated
4service; and
 
5    WHEREAS, The Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) was
6created in 1913 to offer legal assistance and information to
7the members of the General Assembly in the preparation of
8bills, resolutions, and amendments; and
 
9    WHEREAS, In 1941, the LRB was further tasked with
10continually recodifying and resolving statutory discrepancies
11in Illinois laws, such as those that inevitably occur when a
12given Section of Illinois Statutes is amended 2 or more times
13during the course of a single General Assembly; and
 
14    WHEREAS, The LRB took its modern form in 1984 with the
15passage of the Legislative Commission Reorganization Act,
16which consolidated the legislative support boards and
17commissions of the General Assembly; and
 
18    WHEREAS, Dick Edwards, after serving his country in the
19United States Navy, including 2 tours of duty in the Vietnam
20War theater, attended and graduated with honors from the
21University of Illinois College of Law, where he earned his

 

 

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1Juris Doctor degree in 1974; and
 
2    WHEREAS, In 1991, for the 87th General Assembly, Dick
3Edwards became Deputy Director of the Legislative Reference
4Bureau; and
 
5    WHEREAS, 1991 and 1992 were extremely busy years for Dick
6Edwards and the LRB, as he led the Bureau in one of the most
7successful collective projects in its history, the
8recodification of Illinois law; and
 
9    WHEREAS, This was the first recodification since 1874;
10under this 1991-1992 recodification, the LRB was required to
11create a new organizational scheme for all of Illinois'
12statutory law, which at this time numbered 6 dual-column
13volumes plus an index; and
 
14    WHEREAS, As a result of the project and Dick Edwards' able
15leadership of the task, the recodification plan was approved by
16the General Assembly in Public Act 87-1005 and enacted during
17the 1992 spring session, thereby approving the transformation
18of the Illinois Revised Statutes into the Illinois Compiled
19Statutes; and
 
20    WHEREAS, The Illinois Compiled Statutes took effect on
21January 1, 1993; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Starting with the 88th General Assembly in
21993-1994, Richard C. Edwards became the Executive Director of
3the Legislative Reference Bureau; and
 
4    WHEREAS, During well more than one-half of the modern
5history of the LRB as a legislative support services agency,
6its executive director has been Dick Edwards; and
 
7    WHEREAS, Dick Edwards' monograph, "Organization of the
8Illinois Compiled Statutes (ILCS)" (1993) is a definitive guide
9to the process used to carry out the recodification of the
10statutes, including the principles used in organizing statutes
11into common chapters based on the concept of objectively
12defined major statutory topic areas; and
 
13    WHEREAS, Dick Edwards' monograph, "Researching [Illinois]
14Legislative History" (2008), available online at the LRB
15website, is a definitive guide to the legal professional who is
16searching for a chronological outline of the various possible
17stages during the process of an Illinois statute from bill to
18law, during which a paper trail may have been generated to
19provide textual evidence of the legislative history of a
20measure; and
 
21    WHEREAS, Dick Edwards has represented the State of Illinois

 

 

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1on the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State
2Laws; and
 
3    WHEREAS, Dick Edwards' leadership of the LRB, spanning 18
4years, has been marked by significant continuity in the staff
5members who have worked with him and under his leadership; and
 
6    WHEREAS, The continuity of LRB's staff has been of
7immeasurable benefit to Illinois House and Senate members, who
8have been able to share their ideas for Illinois legislation
9with experienced professionals who are aware of many of the
10complex nuances of Illinois statutory lawmaking, and have used
11this knowledge to transform inchoate ideas into draft statutory
12language; and
 
13    WHEREAS, The patient, kind, continuity-minded guidance of
14Dick Edwards to his own staff, to partisan staffs operating
15under General Assembly leadership, to the 118 members of the
16Illinois House, and to the 59 members of the Illinois Senate,
17has been an inestimable resource of the Illinois General
18Assembly exerted for the benefit of the people of Illinois;
19therefore, be it
 
20    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
21NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
22thank Richard C. "Dick" Edwards, the retiring Executive

 

 

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1Director of the Illinois General Assembly's Legislative
2Reference Bureau, for his service to the Illinois House and
3Senate and to the people of Illinois; and be it further
 
4    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
5presented to Dick Edwards as a token of our gratitude, esteem,
6and respect.