By BEN SZALINSKI
& JADE AUBREY
Capitol News Illinois
news@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker will have hundreds of bills to review after lawmakers concluded their spring session, including measures protecting press freedoms and baby food, as well as creating a state public defender’s office.
Lawmakers voted along party lines Saturday to pass House Bill 3363, which would create the “Office of State Public Defender” that would primarily be responsible for providing public defender offices around the state with more resources.
It also reforms how public defenders would be appointed by requiring a local nominating committee to appoint or remove public defenders, which is designed to give the public defenders more independence from the judiciary.
“Every Illinoisan deserves a strong defense, no matter their income,” bill sponsor Sen. Robert Peters, D-Chicago, said in a statement. “Instating this new system would ensure real help reaches people who have been left behind in conversations about criminal justice reform for far too long.”
Public defender offices throughout the state have been starved for resources, with some defense attorneys at public defender offices handling hundreds of cases at a time. Supporters of the legislation say the main goal of the office, at least initially, will be to provide more comprehensive state resources to public defender offices, which now are typically subject to the limitations of county budgets.
Limited data shows all Illinois counties need more public defenders. According to an analysis of county public defender budgets compiled by Northwestern University, no Illinois counties have “sufficient” staffing in public defender offices.
State lawmakers appropriated $10 million for county public defense services in the FY26 budget and have appropriated as much each year since 2023. If signed by the governor, Peters’ legislation won’t fully take effect until 2027.
Safer baby food
Lawmakers in both chambers unanimously passed Senate Bill 73, which bans the sale and distribution of baby food in Illinois that contains levels of toxic elements – including arsenic, cadmium, lead or mercury – that surpasses the limits set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The bill now only needs a signature from the governor to become law.
Under SB73, any manufacturer selling baby food in Illinois would be required to test a sample of their product monthly to ensure the levels of toxic elements contained in the product fall in line with the limits set by the FDA. The bill also gives the Illinois Department of Public Health the right to request and review manufacturers’ testing results and requires manufacturers to publish the levels of each toxic element in each of their products on the manufacturer’s website.
Manufacturers who sell products in Illinois would also have to print a QR code on the label of any baby food that contains toxic elements that are limited by the FDA. The QR would be required to direct consumers to the product’s testing information and FDA guidelines on “the health effects of the toxic element on children.”
The bill comes after a study published in 2019 by Healthy Babies Bright Futures, which found that 95% of 168 baby foods tested for toxic elements contained one or more contaminants. One in four of the baby foods tested in the study contained all four elements, with arsenic being found in 73% of the baby foods tested and lead in 94% of the products.
The study gained public traction after its publication, resulting in the creation and implementation of “Closer to Zero” – an FDA initiative that aims to reduce the percentage of toxic metals found in baby food to zero.
If signed by the governor, the bill will take effect on Jan. 1, 2026.
Press protections
Pritzker will also consider a measure to bolster news media protections against lawsuits.
Senate Bill 1181 explicitly adds news media as an entity protected under the state’s Citizen Participation Act, which prohibits “strategic lawsuits against public participation,” or SLAPPs. It passed the House 75-38 and the Senate 47-10.
It was spurred by a recent state Supreme Court ruling that allowed a defamation suit filed by a former government employee against the Chicago Sun-Times to progress.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in that case differentiated “investigative” reporting from the paper’s coverage of a state inspector general’s investigation into the Illinois Property Tax Appeals Board’s executive director.
Lawyers from the Chicago Sun-Times sought to use the Citizen Protection Act to dismiss the executive director’s 2021 lawsuit against the paper, which contended it mischaracterized the inspector general’s investigation.
But the Supreme Court declined, ruling the paper’s coverage lacked any intent to elicit action or a solution from the government – which was needed to apply SLAPP protections – because the coverage was not investigative in nature.
“We are simply holding that the (Citizen Participation) Act specifically protects government participation and does not encompass all media reports on matters of public concern,” Justice David K. Overstreet wrote in the opinion.
SB 1181 directly addresses that sentiment. The bill states, “The press opining, reporting, or investigating matters of public concern is participating and communicating with the government,” meaning organizations doing so would be protected under the law if the bill is signed. It would apply to actions taken after Jan. 1, 2026.
The measure also provides that all legal proceedings in a case would be paused while a party’s Citizen Participation Act lawsuit motion progresses in court.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
