Governor Bruce Rauner signed historic legislation making Illinois the first state in America to divest its public pension funds from companies that participate in the Boycott, Sanctions, Divestment movement targeting Israel.

The new law, signed yesterday, is the first state-based measure to take specific concrete action against boycotts of Israel.

The anti-BDS measure, Senate Bill 1761, was initiated by Rauner and sponsored by Senator Ira Silverstein and Rep. Sara Feigenholz. It passed 49-0 in the senate and 102-0 in the House.

In other news, speaking at the Capitol on Tuesday,  Rauner implied House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) is the one to blame for the budget stalemate.

But on Wednesday, while Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) was addressing the budget battle at the Thompson Center in Chicago, Rauner’s office issued a statement attacking him, saying “President Cullerton made clear today that his view of a balanced budget is a budget that makes no spending reforms, no pension reform and only raises taxes.”

Cullerton seemed surprised by the timing of the statement and said he believes the problem with budget negotiations is Rauner’s insistence his legislative agenda must be passed along with it, which Cullerton says amounts to “holding the budget hostage.”