It is my honor today to extend a special welcome to those participating in Illinois Muslim Action Day, an annual opportunity for Illinois Muslims to meet their legislators and discuss a variety of issues important to our state's Muslim community. I look forward to speaking with those in attendance, many of whom are my constituents.

I am proud to represent one of America's largest and most vibrant Muslim communities, centered in the 16th District. I consider it a privilege to listen to the concerns and perspectives of these valued constituents. Like them, I am a person of faith whose beliefs and values inspire me to seek justice, especially for the marginalized, vulnerable and overlooked among us.

The priorities of the diverse group of Muslims assembling at the Capitol today include immigrants' rights and assistance, civil liberties, anti-violence efforts and youth employment. I wish them a successful day of action and hope their presence here increases awareness, tolerance and acceptance of our great state's cultural and religious diversity.

CHICAGO – State Senator Jacqueline Y. Collins (D-Chicago 16th) was honored last week as the Illinois Housing Development Authority’s “Legislator of the Year.”

The IHDA called her “a true champion and the housing expert in the Illinois Senate.”

The award recognizes her eleven years of work in the Senate for consumer protection, foreclosure assistance and renters’ rights. As chairperson of the Senate Financial Institutions Committee, Collins has sponsored important legislation protecting the rights of consumers entering into subprime mortgages, refinancing agreements and loan modifications. Long before the national recession hit, she warned colleagues about the threat of predatory lending, and at the height of the housing bust, she worked to protect consumers from mortgage fraud and mortgage rescue fraud.

Collins has championed financial literacy – including a requirement that high school students be taught about household budgeting, rent and mortgages. In 2012, she sponsored landmark housing legislation, Senate Bill 16, that has made funding available to towns and cities to rehabilitate properties abandoned during the foreclosure crisis.

I am pleased to host a very important public hearing Monday evening to gather public input on the truancy crisis in Chicago Public Schools. Last year, I sponsored legislation creating a task force to study the problem of why so many CPS students - from kindergarten through high school - are chronically absent from the classroom. Chronic truancy not only causes children to fall behind in school (making them less likely to graduate); it also affects the amount of state funding for Chicago schools, since each year's state aid depends in part on average daily attendance figures. Please participate in Monday's hearing and let us know your thoughts about what works, what doesn't and what CPS can do to keep students in school and off the streets.

CHICAGO - I was proud to co-sponsor and vote in favor of a state constitutional amendment that will expressly forbid discrimination based on race, sex, language, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or income against anyone attempting to vote or register to vote. Please listen to my remarks on the history of the struggle for our most basic civil right – and keep in mind that the right to vote is still threatened today by the “voter ID” movement, especially because a disproportionate number of registered voters who do not have photo identification are low-income persons of color.