The General Assembly may support federal legislation to study Illinois’ status as a so-called “payer state.”

Being a “payer state” means Illinois pays more in federal income taxes than it receives in federal funding. A bill introduced in Congress by U.S. Rep. Bill Foster (D-Naperville) would study this discrepancy by requiring a yearly state-by-state report on the distribution of federal funds.

State Sen. Pat McGuire (D-Crest Hill) is sponsoring a resolution for state lawmakers to support the legislation.

The House passed a similar resolution earlier this year. McGuire hopes by state lawmakers supporting the legislation, other members of Congress from Illinois will back Foster’s efforts and generally raise awareness of the “payer state” problem.

In other State news, even lowered expectations were too high for Caterpillar’s third quarter.

The Peoria-based company reported sales of about $11 billion and profit of $368 million. That compares with 2014’s third quarter of $13.5 billion and $1 billion, respectively.

There is some relatively good news: an early retirement program has given the company a jump start on the 10,000 jobs it plans to cut over the next three years.

The mining and oil-and-gas industries have suffered, creating a years-long drag on CAT’s numbers.