May 22, 2026 State Capitol Report

It was another busy week at the Capitol, filled with the twists and turns that have become the norm as the General Assembly approaches the end of the 2026 Spring Session in Springfield.

Bills of Interest

The following pieces of legislation are bills your Illinois REALTORS® State Legislative Team are currently actively engaged in and saw legislative action this week.

Last week, we reported on Amendment 1 to SB 343. The amendment was offered by RealPage, a private software company that provides algorithmic rent-setting services for rental properties. The bill amends the Illinois Antitrust Act by making it unlawful for competing landlords to coordinate rental prices, rental fees, or other residential lease terms. The amendment, however, creates antitrust liability for software end users of systems involved in providing rental data information.

This week, SB 343 passed the Senate on a partisan roll call and now moves to the House, where Rep. Maurice West is serving as the sponsor. Illinois REALTORS® remains concerned that rental data software users would face legal risks simply for using the system.  Landlords, particularly “mom and pop” landlords, have no control over embedded AI algorithms in the software so the liability should rest on the software provider – not the user.  Your Statehouse Team is working with the House sponsor to determine whether language creating liability for users can be removed. SB 343 is part of a broader package of AI legislation approved by the Senate this week aimed at regulating rapidly emerging artificial intelligence technologies. We expect much more discussion on this issue in the coming week.

Another significant measure advancing this week was Sen. Adriane Johnson’s SB 3777, an initiative of the Illinois Department of Human Rights. The bill seeks to expand Illinois anti-discrimination law by making it unlawful not only to intentionally discriminate, but also to implement policies or practices that result in discriminatory outcomes — even when no discrimination was intended.

Several years ago, REALTORS® heavily negotiated desperate impact language into Article 3 of the Human Rights Act.  However, SB 3777 seeks to go beyond current state and federal law by giving the Illinois Department of Human Rights the unfettered authority to determine what is considered a discriminatory practice.  We have already seen the department support a bill that would make the use of credit reports for recipients of housing vouchers to be a human rights violation so we believe that giving the department the authority to ignore decades of well-defined human rights and discrimination law in order to pave their own path is dangerous.  We are working with the House bill sponsor to amend the bill so that the previously negotiated law is honored.

Next Week – The Final Week of Session

Only eight days remain in the 2026 Spring Session, and significant work still lies ahead on both good and bad legislation. We remain optimistic that lawmakers will still advance the BUILD Plan so that we have a law that paves the way for meaningful housing growth in Illinois. At the same time, your Statehouse Team continues working with legislative sponsors to address the unintended consequences of several bad legislative proposals that remain very much alive.

There is still much to come in the final days of session. Stay tuned as Illinois REALTORS® remains focused on one central goal — helping reverse Illinois’ severe housing shortage while protecting property owners, housing providers, and the real estate industry.

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