Illinois District 72 Representative Gregg Johnson of East Moline is discussing his goals for the next term. The Quad City Democrat plans to focus on mental health coverage, cutting living expenses, and creating new safety codes for all Illinois workers.
“I'm really concerned that workers understand that there are rights as workers, but the ultimate right that workers have is that they are to go perform their duties and then go home in one piece at the end of the day back to their families,” said Johnson.
Johnson has created more opportunities for school social workers, more mental health scholarships for students and health care providers, and a structural design code for buildings and mines.
Johnson said that mental health has been on the back burner and wants to concentrate on it. “I don't feel like we're particularly here in the quad cities able to address this situation unless we take an all-hands-on deck approach right now I'm just not seeing that. We have to double down.”
He says some progress has already been made but will take a long time to undo. “Every single year, we're going to have to look for things that we've done to make things better, but we are going to have to work hard for the next fifteen, twenty years on all of these issues to truly get where we need to be.”
Johnson wants to address the bills he wasn’t able to get passed last term, such as a prescription drug affordability board and continuing protection for Illinois workers. Johnson is continuing to look for more opportunities in scholarship programs and nonprofit organizations.