West Cook News

A central Illinois congressman's pre-Christmas Twitter spat last month with Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the state's unemployment agency still stings as Illinoisans continue to suffer in the pandemic-fueled economic downturn.

U.S. Congressman Rodney Davis (R-Taylorville) now has turned his Twitter page's attention to fallout from the attempted coup in Washington earlier this week but his argument over several days last month with Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) is still there for all to see - though it requires multiple browser windows to follow.

The online argument started Wednesday, Dec. 16, when Davis posted a video to Twitter claiming had was the victim of unemployment fraud. The video included a letter he'd received that seemed to back up his assertions.

IDES responded on its own Twitter page, thanking Davis for bringing the issue to its attention.

"As we've seen, this is a nationwide issue with bad actors across the globe using information from the major data breaches of the past to exploit this pandemic," IDES said in its reply.

IDES' reply was the flash point in the online spat, leaving ordinary citizens - especially those in dire need of then about to expire unemployment benefits - caught in the middle. Davis said he would do his job and told Pritzker and IDES, "you do yours."

IDES responded by suggesting what Davis' job might be.

"While we have your attention, you're also in a position to stand up for millions of families who are struggling," IDES said in that reply. "Without congressional action, 447,500 claimants in Illinois may lose benefits after the week ending Dec. 26. Only the fed gov can produce the kind of stimulus we need."

The argument continued for days, covered by multiple news organizations and finally died down as other news overtook the topic, but it hasn't been forgotten.

In an interview with The State Journal-Register earlier this month, IDES Acting Director Kristin Richards said the department doing its best and has done well considering its staffing levels are half of what they were about ten years ago. In The State Journal-Register's New Year's Day news story, Richards also referred to the "staggering" challenges the department has met amid the still-ongoing pandemic.

"I don’t have any statistics that suggest that we’re handling this any worse than any other states," Richards told The State Journal-Register. "What I can tell you is that we’ve paid out over $19 billion in benefits, and that’s no small thing."

Those billions went to claimants who really need it, Richards said in The State Journal-Register news story.

"It’s money that's being used to generate economic activity," she said. "It’s supporting businesses in the state of Illinois. So if we weren't doing our work, we wouldn't be seeing that order of magnitude being paid out. We're really proud of that."