Jiménez did not respond with any specific training information.

State Rep. Jackie Haas, a Republican from Bourbonnais, said she thought the bill lacked clarity as to whether certain other “mobile” teams doing the same work as first responders would be entitled to the same benefits.

“If we’re looking at municipalities doing that too, I think we need to coordinate the effort before we move forward with this because we’re talking about the same types of entities and the same professionals having very different benefits,” Haas said. “And I think we need to do a little bit more work on that.”

House Republican leader Tony McCombie, of Savanna, who chose not to vote on the bill, questioned why workers from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services weren’t part of the measure. She referred to DCFS employees, Pamela Sue Knight and Deidre Silas, who were killed during the performance of their duties at home visits in recent years.

Jiménez told McCombie that DCFS workers were in a “separate category.”

Democratic state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, of Chicago, acknowledged that the co-responder measure signed by Pritzker has been slow to get off the ground but said she supported the benefits legislation.

“Let’s stick to the topic and make sure that folks who are accompanying law enforcement on these crisis calls have the same protections that they have,” Cassidy said.

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