Lawmakers are disappointed in how the Pritzker administration handled the deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans' Home last year in the wake of an inspector general report that spotlights how the state didn't protect the facility's vulnerable residents.
In an April 30 video shared by IL House GOP, state Rep. Daniel Swanson (R-Woodhull), a 27-year army veteran himself, said Pritzker failed Illinois' veterans.
"Having seen this report from the inspector general [...] I'm mad," Swanson said, "It upsets me. These veterans survived battlefield conditions to succumb within the walls of our Illinois veterans home. Their families trusted us with their care and protection."
Swanson stated that the IG report "details a lack of leadership from within the Pritzker administration." The report called out the wrongful delegation of crucial leadership duties from former VA Director Linda Chapa LaVia to her underqualified chief of staff, both of whom have since resigned.
The representative referenced the 2017 lethal outbreak of Legionnaire's disease at the Quincy Veterans Home, a debacle that Swanson said turned into political power plays when several legislators visited the home and used its conditions as campaign platforms.
Chapa LaVia was one of the elected officials to visit the home when she was a state representative, where staff told her that proper standard operating protocol communicated to staff and other communication from leadership were crucial to prevent a similar outbreak in the future.
"Thirty-six of our hometown heroes are dead," Swanson said. "Please let me speak directly to Gov. Pritzker loud and clear: Governor, when you made a political issue out of our veterans' deaths at Quincy, I gave you the benefit of the doubt that it was about protecting our heroes and not scoring political points on dead veterans.
"Your failures are your own. You own them, you failed to protect our heroes, despite knowing the life and death implications of failing to respond. These families and these heroes deserved so much better."
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