Chiropractic Legislation Update from Springfield

Ben Schwarm reports from Springfield as the Illinois legislature enters its final weeks. While things look good for chiropractic physicians now, ICS is closely watching for last-minute amendments or surprises.

Transcript:

Hi, this is Ben Schwarm, Director of Government Relations for the Illinois Chiropractic Society. I’m in Springfield in the State Capitol on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. I’m sitting in one of the committee rooms, the House committee room 118 on the first floor of the Capitol. Upstairs, both the House of Representatives and the Senate are in session, working their way to try to complete the spring 2025 legislative session. There are about two and a half weeks left that are scheduled for this spring session, they’re trying to hit adjournment by the end of the month on May 31. We’ll see if that happens. It’s not really surprising if they go over time. That happens quite often.

Advertisement

So, where we are now in the session is that we are wrapping up. Bills have swapped houses, they’re coming up for final votes here in the next week or two, and at this point, most of what has happened, the more non-controversial bills that have passed, that’s why it was been relatively quiet. Other bills that maybe had initial opposition were negotiated and worked out until the opposition was removed. So, most of the bills that have moved to this point have been fairly quiet.

The heavy lifting starts now. So between now and the end of session, the bigger issues, the budget, and controversial issues, they have a lot of opposition. They will be popping up more and more frequently over the next couple of weeks by amendment, where they are amended onto a bill, but that language is there for the first time, so it kind of wakes everyone up, gets their attention, and they take their best attempt to passing a bill. From our point of view, we really don’t see anything out there right now that would have adverse reactions to the Illinois chiropractic profession, which is a good thing. We worked on a lot of bills early. A lot of bills that were troublesome were stopped. Others were amended to remove opposition. So at this point, things are looking pretty good for chiropractic positions, but we never know, as I said earlier, now is when different issues pop up, new issues pop up by amendment, sometimes just with an hour’s notice.

So, just know we are in the Capitol. We’re watching this day by day, following everything, looking at every amendment filed, to make sure that nothing happens here in the state legislature that’s signed into law that could adversely affect you as you work in your practice. So, again, from the Capitol here in Springfield, we will keep you updated, and have a good day. Thanks.