Melba Lara: Illinois lawmakers are in the middle of their winter lame duck session and they've been busy. Late last night the State House passed a measure addressing reproductive health care rights, while expanding access to gender affirming care and HIV preventatives. And early this morning, they passed a measure banning the sale and manufacture of assault weapons, large capacity magazines and rapid fire devices. Joining us from Springfield to talk more about this is WBEZ Statehouse reporter Alex Degman. Alex, are you awake after all this marathon action?

Alex Degman: You know, not really. My regular strength coffee wasn't nearly enough today, it will take me a while to get used to the 1:30am marathon sessions. They don't happen nearly as often as they used to.

Melba Lara: And that's a good thing. Well, let's start right now with the details that you have about the state house's measure on assault weapons.

Alex Degman: Yeah, this is what the Democrats have been calling basically their top priority for months now. What passed was a statewide ban on a certain list of specific weapons that are considered assault weapons, or they can be modified to fit that definition. It doesn't confiscate anything that you might already own. But if you have one, you will have to register it with the Illinois State Police and have the gun attached to your FOID card. The measure also gives the court more latitude to take guns away from someone that they believe shouldn't have them. The Firearms restraining order has been extended from six months to a year. And the bill bans magazines that hold more than 12 rounds plus rapid fire devices like switches.

Melba Lara: And Alex not everything actually made it into that Chamber's proposal, right?

Alex Degman: Yeah, there are a couple of changes to note first, the new higher age requirement to get a FOID card was scrapped entirely. Supporters said for a long time that this was an important part because those younger than 21 don't have fully developed brains and plus the accused Highland Park shooter got his FOID card before he was 21 with parental consent, and he legally bought the weapon he used. The other change makes buying selling or manufacturing high capacity magazines a misdemeanor instead of a felony. 

Melba Lara: Let's pivot to reproductive health care. Tell us more about what the Statehouse passed last night.

Alex Degman: They're calling this the Patient Provider and Protection Act - first, it does a few things for abortion providers. It allows those from out of state to come here and get a two year temporary license ostensibly to help with increased demand. It also lets doctors practice here who have lost their licenses and other states for doing something that's legal in Illinois. For example, a hypothetical doctor in Texas who loses their license for providing a 20 week abortion there could practice here. It prevents healthcare providers from responding to out of state subpoenas that look for information on abortion patients. It makes sure the state of Illinois doesn't punish providers who might be under investigation from those other states. And it also expands access to HIV preventatives, like PrEP, through insurance, and also gender affirming care treatments like hormones.

Melba Lara: My understanding is that both measures are sitting now in the State Senate. Are we gonna see any action on those today?

Alex Degman: No, not today. The Senate has adjourned for the day. They're - I would say they've gone home for the weekend. But that's not entirely true. They will be back on Sunday night. We're not expecting too much action until at least Monday. Now the reason for this is because Senate President Don Harmon’s mother died recently. So he's attending her memorial services.

Melba Lara: Are we expecting them to ultimately vote on the Statehouse versions of these proposals or are they kind of drafting their own?

Alex Degman: They could but it's unclear at the moment. We started hearing today that the Senate could start discussing its own version of an assault weapons ban over the weekend.

Melba Lara: Well the new lawmakers are going to be sworn in on Wednesday, meaning the deadline to pass both proposals is rapidly approaching. What are the odds Democrats can see them through?

Alex Degman: Well, if Democrats are united behind these proposals, and enough people show up it should be relatively easy for them. They have more than 70 members right now, and only 60 votes are needed to pass what they're trying to pass. And there have been a few absences this week, but not really enough to alter anything so far.

Melba Lara: Alex, thanks for bringing us up to date.

Alex Degman: My pleasure. Thanks.

Melba Lara: That's WBEZ Statehouse reporter Alex Degman, talking to us about the Illinois General Assembly's lame duck session. This is WBEZ.

WBEZ transcripts are generated by an automatic speech recognition service. We do our best to edit for misspellings and typos, but mistakes do come through.