Bill Text: IL HR0621 | 2021-2022 | 102nd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Congratulates Congressman Bobby Rush on his retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives. Further commends him for his decades of service to the First Congressional District of the State of Illinois.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)

Status: (Passed) 2022-02-15 - Resolution Adopted [HR0621 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2021-HR0621-Introduced.html

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HR0621 LRB102 24933 ECR 34186 r
HOUSE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
Representatives wish to congratulate Congressman Bobby Lee
Rush on his retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives;
and
WHEREAS, Rep. Rush was born to Cora Lee and Jimmy Lee Rush
in Albany, Georgia on November 23, 1946; he graduated from
Marshall High School at the age of 17; he served in the U.S.
Army from 1963 until he was honorably discharged in 1968; he
received his Bachelor of Arts from Roosevelt University in
Chicago in 1973; he later obtained his Master of Arts in
Political Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago
in 1994; he earned his Master of Arts in Theological Studies
from the McCormick Theological Seminary in 1998 and became an
ordained Baptist minister; and
WHEREAS, While in college, Rep. Rush became a political
activist and soon devoted himself to Chicago's civil rights
movement; he joined the Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC) in 1968 and soon after co-founded the
Illinois Black Panther Party; he ran the Panther Party's Free
Breakfast for Children program and also organized a free
medical clinic, which developed the nation's first mass
testing program for sickle cell anemia while simultaneously

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raising awareness of the disease's impact on African Americans
in Chicago; and
WHEREAS, Rep. Rush launched his political career when he
unsuccessfully ran for alderman of Chicago's Second Ward in
1975; he later won that same seat in 1983 and continued to
serve as an alderman until 1992; he was elected to Illinois'
First Congressional District Seat in the U.S. House of
Representatives in 1992; he won consecutive reelections and is
currently serving his 15th term in Congress; he ran for Mayor
of Chicago in 1999 but was defeated; and
WHEREAS, Rep. Rush has served as chair of the Committee on
Energy and Commerce and co-chair of the Congressional Biotech
Caucus; he has also served on the Subcommittee on Commerce,
Trade, and Consumer Protection and the Subcommittee on
Telecommunications and the Internet; and
WHEREAS, During his time in office, Rep. Rush has served
as a member of the U.S. delegation of the North Atlantic
Assembly and sponsored many community-based initiatives,
including the 2008 passage of the Toy Bill, which banned lead
in toys and boosted funding for the Consumer Product Safety
Commission, and the 1999 passage of the Urban Asthma Reduction
Act; he supported legislation to study postpartum depression
and how to support people experiencing it and secured federal

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funding for infrastructure projects like the 95th Street Red
Line Station and upgrades to the interchange of Interstates 57
and 294; he notably donned a hoodie on the U.S. House floor to
protest the killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012; and
WHEREAS, Rep. Rush is the only former member of the Black
Panther Party seated in Congress; when he defeated Barack
Obama in the race of Illinois' First Congressional District in
2000, he became the only person to win an election against the
former president; and
WHEREAS, Rep. Rush has announced he will retire at the end
of this Congressional term; he plans to focus on serving as a
pastor at the Beloved Community Church of God in Chicago;
therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
we congratulate Congressman Bobby Lee Rush on his retirement
from the U.S. House of Representatives and commend him for his
decades of service to the First Congressional District of the
State of Illinois; and be it further
RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
presented to Rep. Rush as a symbol of our esteem and respect.