Pritzker has failed his state during COVID-19 crisis, says Illinois Rising Action

CHICAGO – The group Illinois Rising Action released a timeline Friday that they say spells out how Gov Pritzker has failed the state during the COVID-19 crisis.

However, Democrat-controlled Illinois said in a survey released Friday that they're much more supportive of JB Pritzker than President Trump. In "The State of the Nation: 50-State Covid-19 Survey," President Trump's approval was at 39%, while Pritzker's was at 69%. 

Still, Illinois Rising Action criticized the Pritzker Administration's unemployment filing system that has been a mess from the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis.

"After six weeks, Governor Pritzker and his administration continue to fail thousands of hardworking Illinoisans," Illinois Rising said in a press release.

"It’s clear that the Governor has continuously misled Illinoisans on the status of unemployment filing system at IDES while downplaying the problem and has shifted the blame on previous administrations and the federal government. Governor Pritzker needs to own the failures of his administration and remedy the situation at IDES immediately." 

The lined out the ongoing problem: 

• March 16th – Governor Pritzker orders all restaurants and bars to close their doors to the public.
• March 20th – Governor Pritzker issues stay-at-home order, shutting down all non-essential businesses.
• March 23rd – Governor Pritzker is asked during his daily COVID-19 press briefing on the issues with IDES unemployment filing system. The Governor said, “And so we’re porting that system entirely over to a much more expansive foundational software system and server. So we won’t have any of those problems going forward. So we’ve taken care of, I think, the online problem.”
• March 25th – Previously claiming website issues were remedied, Governor Pritzker is once again asked during his daily COVID-19 press briefing on the issues with IDES unemployment filing system. Governor Pritzker’s response, “our DoIT, our department of innovation, technology, our state CIO, have been on this every day they’re trying very hard to expand availability they are expanding the availability.”
• March 26th – The issues continued at IDES and Governor Pritzker is once again asked about the unemployment filing system during his daily COVID-19 press briefing. “We’re going to get this right, and we are going to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to file for unemployment claims,” Pritzker said. “We have sped up the process for people to actually receive those claims as well.”
• March 27th – Pritzker administration issues a press release outlining the additional steps to address the IDES filing issues. From the release: The website has been moved to new hardware infrastructure to handle the increased demand.
• April 2nd – IDES filing issues continue and Governor Pritzker now points the finger at previous administrations and an old system as the reason filing issues continue. “it’s now 10 years later, not a lot of investment was made in the states IT systems in that last 10 years.”
• April 9th – Governor Pritzker at his COVID-19 press briefing gives little hope to thousands of gig economy Illinoisans after he provided a timeline of “weeks” before they would allowed to file for unemployment. “So, we’ve hired the necessary personnel, we’ve hired the outside provider who can build the system for us, and it’ll be up in the coming weeks, coming weeks, kind of the timeline.”
• April 13th – After three weeks, Governor Pritzker highlights IDES and the unemployment filing issues at his daily COVID-19 press briefing. Pritzker tried to place blame at the feet of the federal government and continued to not take responsibility for the missteps by his administration. From the press briefing: Illinois will get their first COVID-19 jobless benefits starting May 11, blaming the delay on “confusing and very stringent regulations” from the Department of Labor “that attempt to severely limit who can actually qualify.” Additionally, Pritzker acknowledged that the issues were still not fixed, despite weeks of publicly claiming these issues were being addressed.  Governor Pritzker said, “I would say that this is still a work in progress. There’s no doubt about it. It’s much better than it was, much better than it was.”
• April 27th – IDES filing issues continue as reporters and news stations from around the state continue to hear from Illinoisans on the issue. Governor Pritzker at his daily COVID-19 press briefing: “Again, I can’t, you know we can’t fix this overnight it’s absolutely true. But we are fixing it and it has been radically better over time.”
• April 30th – After six weeks, Governor Pritzker is asked about unemployment filing issues at IDES and again, the Governor offers no real solutions or announces any improvements, just more excuses and finger pointing. From the press briefing: “There’s no doubt the system’s started out unprepared for this unprecedented level of filings. But at this point, I must say, the ability to connect online is available to everyone…But I will say that the systems themselves are actually operating reasonably well given that what westarted with was a 10 year old system that’s been, as I said yesterday, one that you’ve had to, sort of, you know, build the plane while you’re trying to fly it with a lot more passengers than usual, so to speak.”

Illinois Rising Action is a 501(c)(4) organization "focused on holding liberal groups and their special interest networks accountable and advancing conservative principles," the group says. "We’re fighting for limited government, lowering taxes, fighting government over-regulation that stifles freedom, affordable and accessible health care, free enterprise, and a strong national security."