Public Act 103-0557
 
SB1803 EnrolledLRB103 27408 AWJ 57003 b


  
    AN ACT concerning State government.
  
 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
 
represented in the General Assembly:
  



 
 
    Section 5. The Department of Natural Resources 
(Conservation) Law of the
Civil Administrative Code of 
Illinois is amended  by adding Section 805-72 as follows:
 
    (20 ILCS 805/805-72 new)
    Sec. 805-72. Lyme Disease Innovation Program.
    (a) The Department shall consult with the Department of 
Agriculture, the Department of Public Health, and members of 
the University of Illinois' INHS Medical Entomology Program to 
establish the Lyme Disease Innovation Program no later than 
one year after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 
103rd General Assembly.  The Department shall contract with an 
Illinois not-for-profit organization whose purpose is to raise 
awareness of tick-borne diseases with the public and the 
medical community to operate the Program. The Program's 
purpose is to raise awareness with the public and to assist 
persons at risk of Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases 
with education and awareness materials and campaigns while 
developing evidence-based approaches that are cost-effective.
    (b) The Program shall implement a statewide interagency 
and multipronged approach to combat Lyme disease and other 
tick-borne diseases in Illinois, including adopting an 
evidence-based model that recognizes the key roles that 
patients, advocates, and not-for-profit organizations have in 
fighting Lyme disease and tick-borne diseases.  The Program's 
objectives include issuing grants, subject to the approval of 
the Department, to State agencies and Illinois not-for profit 
organizations from moneys in the Lyme Disease Awareness Fund, 
which is hereby established as a special fund in the State 
treasury, and other appropriations for the following purposes:
        (1) Bringing awareness of Lyme disease and tick-borne 
    diseases by any one or  more of the following methods:
            (A) creating innovative ideas and collaborations 
        for raising awareness about risks and prevention;
            (B) amplifying and improving access to essential 
        information supporting innovations in prevention, 
        education, and care with open data and science;
            (C) fostering the development of new, 
        community-based education and prevention efforts; and
            (D) using programs, website advertising, 
        pamphlets, or other methods to increase the awareness 
        of Lyme disease and tick-borne diseases;
        (2) Engaging stakeholders to facilitate 
    patient-centered innovations by (i) building trust among 
    stakeholders through listening sessions, roundtables, and 
    other learning approaches that ground innovations in lived 
    experience, (ii) engaging stakeholders in identifying 
    current areas of need to promote targeted innovations that 
    will make real-world improvements in quality of care, and 
    (iii) gaining insight into patient needs and priorities 
    through stakeholders' collective wisdom and applying that 
    wisdom in shaping future innovation challenges and events.
        (3) Advancing stakeholder driven interdisciplinary and 
    interagency collaborations by providing resources to 
    not-for-profit organizations whose purpose is to raise 
    awareness of tick-borne diseases with the public and the 
    medical community in order to (i) facilitate the 
    stakeholder engagement and collaborations and 
    patient-centered innovations and support groups, (ii) 
    identify ways to better collect and share data while 
    raising awareness of tick-borne illnesses, and (iii) 
    assist with the development of outreach and education 
    materials and approaches for State agencies.
        (4) The University of Illinois' INHS Medical 
    Entomology Program maintaining a passive tick and 
    tick-borne pathogen surveillance program, based on ticks 
    contributed by the Illinois public, and including tick 
    identifications and disease-agent testing of a subset of 
    identified ticks; compiling evidence and conducting 
    research on tick bite prevention and risk of tick and 
    tick-borne pathogen exposure; and providing evidence, 
    results, and analysis and insight from both the passive 
    surveillance program, on tick species and tick-borne 
    disease-agent distributions and diversity in the State, 
    and its related research on tick bite exposure and 
    prevention, to support the Lyme Disease Innovation Program 
    objectives.
    (c) The Program shall be funded through moneys deposited 
into the Lyme Disease Awareness Fund and other appropriations.  
The not-for-profit organization contracted with to operate the 
Program shall be paid, subject to the approval of the 
Department, for its operation of the Program from moneys 
deposited into the Fund or from other appropriations.
    The University of Illinois' Prairie Research Institute 
shall be paid, subject to the approval of the Department, for 
the INHS Medical Entomology Program's operation of a passive 
tick surveillance and research program from moneys deposited 
into the Fund or from other appropriations.
    (d) The Department must adopt rules to implement this 
Section. 
    (e) The requirements of this Section are subject to 
appropriation by the General Assembly being made to the 
Department to implement the requirements. 
 
    Section 90. The State Finance Act is amended by adding 
Section 5.990 as follows:
 
    (30 ILCS 105/5.990 new)
    Sec. 5.990. The Lyme Disease Awareness Fund.
 
    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon 
becoming law.

Effective Date:  8/11/2023