Barbara Flynn Currie.

We’ve been hard at work in Springfield over the past few months, and I’m pleased to tell you about a few of my bills that passed the House and await action in the Senate.

One is the Illinois Privacy Act. This measure intends to make sure that the information state government has about you isn’t shared with me – or anyone else. Given increasingly sophisticated technology, now is an especially important time to protect our personal information. House Bill 4088 sets strict limits on how government stores and disseminates records and it would allow us to inspect and correct any documents that the state has about us.

Sometimes something good comes out of tragedy. The Crime Victims Compensation Act was enacted to help out victims of violent crimes and their families. But the Act doesn’t cover everybody. When three of our neighbors fell victims to a hit-and-run driver, the family was denied compensation under the Act. They weren’t eligible for counseling, though a child – badly injured himself – watched his brother die even as the driver fled. My amendment to fix the act has passed the House.

I’m also working hard to make sure that everyone gets treated fairly in the workplace. Equal pay for equal work should be a fundamental right. That’s why I introduced an amendment to the Equal Pay Act of 2003 which gives employees greater opportunities and more time to file claims based on gender discrimination. If the bill becomes law, the Lilly Ledbetters of the world can expect a fair shake in Illinois.

As a member of the legislature’s Joint Committee on Government Reform, I can assure you that more is in the works: reforms to our state procurement procedures, greater access to public records and an improved governmental ethics act will shortly see the light of day.

To see details on these bills and others, visit the General Assembly’s website – www.ilga.gov. You can look up pending legislation by sponsor, by bill number and by subject matter. Track a bill’s progress: Did it pass both houses? Did the Governor sign it? Did I vote your way – or not?