|
Meet Representative Lyons |
First elected in 1994, State Representative Eileen Lyons represents the 47th District in the Illinois General Assembly.
Representative Lyons is
best known for sponsoring legislation that repealed the Retail Rate Law. The
Retail Rate Law had previously given incinerator operators a no interest, no
return, 20 year subsidy, paid for by the Illinois taxpayers. Representative
Lyons is considered a leader in areas of tough anti-crime legislation,
environmental protection, and education reform. Lyons voted to improve education
at the local level by voting in favor of the 1995 Chicago School Reform and the
1997 Education Reform bill, which demands academic excellence and increases
education funding without a statewide tax increase.
Representative Lyons serves as Minority Spokesperson for the Child Support Enforcement Committee, as Vice-Spokesperson for the Constitutional Officers Committee and as a member of the Registration & Regulation Committee, Judiciary Committee on Criminal Law and the Mental Health & Patient Abuse Committee. Representative Lyons has also served as a member of the Elementary and Secondary Education, Consumer Protection, Cities and Villages, and Human Services Appropriation Committees, the Consolidation of Human Services Task Force, and the Republican Policy Committee to eliminate obsolete and duplicative laws.
Some of the groups who
have honored Representative Lyons are: Suburban Mayor’s Action Coalition of
Cook County; National Federation of Independent Businesses; Western Springs
Public Safety Award; Community Hospitals Against the Medicaid Provider Tax,
LaGrange Memorial Hospital; Friend of Nursing Award, Illinois Nurses
Association; Voice of Employers, The Management Association of Illinois; Friends
of West Town Hospice; Distinguished Alumni Award, College of Du Page; Senior
Friends Hall of Fame.
Representative Lyons has been active in community, civic and educational affairs in the western suburbs for over twenty years. She has been a member of the Western Springs Police and Fire Commission since 1992, is a member of the National Conference of State Legislators, West Suburban Chamber of Commerce, Business and Professional Women’s Network, Illinois Federation of Republican Woman’s Network and American Association of University Women.
Representative Lyons graduated with high honors from Elmhurst College in 1992 and is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. She has been married for 35 years to Arthur D. Lyons and has four daughters: Nancy, Judy, Jeanne and Jennifer.