March 27, 2026 State Capitol Report
Bill Deadline Week
This week was a hectic deadline week at the Illinois General Assembly as both the House and Senate had committee deadlines of March 27. This means that if any bill did not get voted to move out of committee by the deadline, the bill is technically dead. At the beginning of the week, we had 118 bills on our target list that were on the committee schedule. We did a lot of blocking and tackling and ended the week with just 10 bills that need further attention.
On five of the 10 bills, (HB 4921, HB 4266, HB 5449, HB 5425 and HB 4571) we have agreements with each bill sponsor to amend the bill to address our needs and remove our opposition. On HB 5234, we worked with the bill sponsor to gut the language of the existing bill and replace it with language that would amend the effective date of legislation that is pending on the House floor on a concurrence vote (HB 3564). While we do not like this original bill and are fine if it doesn’t ultimately move on the House floor, we have successfully mitigated the major concerns with the bill. If and when HB 3564 passes, we now have the legislation that we need in place to make the changes to the effective date on the original bill.
Given the immense work that Governmental Affairs did at the Capitol this week, only two of the 118 bills we strongly oppose passed out of committee with no agreement with the bill sponsors to amend. HB 5394 and HB 3526 passed out of their respective committees on a partisan roll call vote. These are very bad bills for landlords, which is an industry where we are seeing constant attacks at the legislature. However, your Illinois REALTORS® Governmental Affairs Team is working diligently with a coalition of other landlord organizations to defeat these bills.
BUILD Plan Update
Much work is going on behind the scenes on the Governor’s BUILD Plan so stay tuned for further developments. As reported last week, the bill package in the Senate includes: SB 4060, SB 4061, SB 4062, SB 4063, and SB 4064. In the House all these bills are wrapped up into one bill, HB 5626. Currently, these bills remain in committee, however, discussions continue to take place between leadership at the General Assembly and the Governor’s Office so we expect there will be legislative attention on these bills soon. In the meantime, we need all of our members to get involved and engage in getting the word out on the importance passing this housing package into law!
Next Steps
The legislature will NOT be in session next week but will be holding hearings primarily focused on appropriations matters (funding of state programs and operations) and AI. Your statehouse team will be participating in the AI hearings. On the list for possible consideration is legislation to prohibit the use of AI for real estate professionals and landlords (SB 3364 and HB 1427 from last year).
Only the House returns to Springfield on April 7, 2026, with both chambers back the following week. Both the House and Senate are scheduled to adjourn on May 31, 2026.
