Illinois General Assembly members filed 31,011 pages of amendments to bills in the last 24 hours of the 2025 regular session. Truly understanding what they were deciding would require reading 22 pages per minute.
The chaotic last day of session in the Illinois General Assembly was marked by 54 amendments filed and 96 bills being sent to the governor, including a record-high $55.2 billion budget for 2026.
The 54 amendments were to 34 different bills, but only 13 were adopted. The page total was 31,011 for all amendments, but about 1-in-5 pages passed both chambers. Of the roughly 6,000 pages that did pass, over half were for the record $55.2 billion state budget.
How can anyone consider nearly 6,000 pages of legislation in a day? To put that in perspective, the Bible is around 1,500 pages. The entire Harry Potter series is only around 4,000 pages. It is lawmakers’ duty to understand the legislation they vote into law, but does anyone really think they read all of that in one day?
Under Article IV, Section 8 of the Illinois Constitution, it is required for bills to be read on three separate days before they are passed. This provision is intended to give lawmakers – and taxpayers – a chance to know what is in the bill before it is passed. But lawmakers regularly insert hundreds or thousands of pages unrelated to the original bill and pass it the same day.
Why are lawmakers allowed to do something clearly prohibited by the Illinois Constitution? Illinois courts adhere to what is known as the “enrolled bill doctrine.” That means courts defer to leaders of the state House and Senate to determine whether all procedural requirements for passing a law have been met.
In practice, this means the three-day reading requirement is never enforced, and lawmakers must vote on bills they had little to no chance to read. These bills cannot face real scrutiny until after they pass.
Lawmakers should follow the laws already in place to ensure they have time to read and fully understand the laws to which they are subjecting their constituents.
