By Dave Dahl/Illinois Radio Network

SPRINGFIELD – The parade of providers, professionals, and clients continues during the now weekly “committee of the whole” in the Illinois House. People who say their lives depend on the services which hang in the balance of the state budget impasse.

Are these hearings effective, or are they simply repetitive?

“I think it’s actually tragic, and I think it’s horrible, to sit and listen to these parents of epileptic kids whose children are now at risk,” said State Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago). “They’re looking at having to lose their jobs to take care of their kids because they can’t get child care assistance from the state.”

Harris chairs the Human Services Appropriations Committee, one of five budget-writing committees in the House.

“In my office, I look into the faces of the people who are affected by this,” Harris adds, saying the chaos and uncertainty don’t help. “The governor – you talk to him about some of these things and he says, ‘Well, what about right to work? What about redistricting?’ None of those solve the problem.”