Today Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie passed House Bill 5439 in the legislature to clarify permitting issues identified by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR).
Leader McCombie’s legislation is a follow-up to her past initiatives that dealt with the state’s handling of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), the disease of the central nervous system in deer. Specifically, McCombie’s bill provides Illinois residents who hunt exclusively on land where they reside to receive free deer permits where IDNR has confirmed cases of CWD in the deer population.
Since it was first detected in Boone County deer in 2002, efforts to manage CWD have had a lasting impact on McCombie’s 89th District. The Leader has backed several legislative initiatives that incorporated public feedback to produce the best state approach to dealing with CWD.
“For more than two decades, chronic wasting disease has affected communities across northwest Illinois. This legislation is a fix to ensure we’re taking a balanced, practical approach to managing the issue at the state level, in a way landowners and hunters alike can engage.”
House Bill 5439 passed the Illinois House unanimously today and will now move to the Senate for further consideration.