Metro East Sun

Following the Senate Executive Appointments Committee hearing, Monday, Sen. Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville) said the meeting was a peril to Illinoisans.

Plummer and two more Republican senators spoke to the media concerning the Democrats’ refusal to call Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Parole Review Board Appointees to testify.

“What we just experienced in this committee room behind me is not just unacceptable it's dangerous for the people of Illinois,” Plummer said as he pointed to the hearing room. “We’re extremely disappointed in the chair of the executive appointments committee declining to call the governor's appointments to the Prisoner Review Board here in committee. These same appointees were voted not once, not twice unanimously in the state senate to be called and posted in this committee hearing. Yet after two unanimous votes by the state senate, the chair of the committee, doing the bidding of the governor, elected not to bring them to the committee today.”

He applauded the DOC director who took the time to testify.  

“We had the director for the Department of Corrections, the person responsible for keeping our DOC personnel, our public, and our prisoners safe and behind bars,” Plummer said. “He was here answering tough questions, but the people appointed by the governor who haven't appeared before the senate for questions, who are releasing dangerous criminals willy-nilly out there on the streets of our communities couldn’t appear today … How much longer are the people of Illinois, how much longer is the state legislature going to sit by while Gov. Pritzker, the most dangerous governor in America, has appointees who are unaccountable to the legislature, has appointees that are releasing people on the streets of this state that we can't find in some instances — cop killers, sexual assault, rapists, child molesters, being released and yet the people doing that won’t appear before the state senate. The Democrat majority won't call them and will not do their constitutional duty because apparently, the governor's checkbook is more important than the people living in their districts.”

Plummer said that elected officials should ensure that the governor and his party will be held accountable for their decisions.

“Mark my words, people in Illinois will be harmed by some of these people who are being released and when that harm happens, when someone is sexually assaulted, when someone is robbed, when someone is murdered and the family of the victims come before the legislature and say what were you doing, I'll be able to say we asked, we asked, we asked, but the governor would not let the Senate majority call them for questions. The Senate majority was apparently too concerned about the governor's feelings than to do their constitutional duty. What just happened in here is unacceptable, it's dangerous.”

The state constitution requires that appointees testify before the Senate Executive Appointments Committee to be confirmed or rejected within 60 legislative session days of their appointment.