Durbin Statement On Seventh Circuit Judge Ann Claire Williams Assuming Senior Status

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today released the following statement upon the announcement that Seventh Circuit Judge Ann Claire Williams, the first African-American judge to serve on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, has assumed senior status. Senior status allows veteran federal judges to retire but continue working with a reduced caseload. "Judge Ann Claire Williams has been an inspirational leader on the bench. She has served the people of Illinois and the 7th Circuit w… Continue Reading

Durbin, Senators Urge DEA To Lower Opioid Quotas To Combat Prescription Drug Abuse

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) led a group of sixteen senators in sending a letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), urging the agency to better prevent painkillers from flooding the market by setting lower opioid production quotas for 2018. Last year, the DEA heeded the senators' call to address America's opioid epidemic by reducing nearly all opioid quotas by 25 percent or more. This was the first reduction of its kind in over twenty years, but DEA-approved opioid pr… Continue Reading

Durbin Calls On Labor Department To Continue Funding Youth Job Training Programs In High Poverty, High Crime Areas

WASHINGTON-In response to drastic cuts to federal job training programs proposed in the President's fiscal year 2018 budget, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Labor calling for strong investment for youth training programs in communities with high levels of poverty and violence. Durbin argued that these programs help keep at-risk youth safe, improve their future employment outcomes, and make them less likely to engage in crime. "Chronic… Continue Reading

Durbin Joins Bipartisan Letter Urging Ambassador Haley To Pursue Special Investigation Into Deaths Of UN Imvestigators

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) joined a bipartisan group of ten senators in urging the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations to work with the UN Secretary-General to pursue an independent special investigation into the suspicious deaths of two UN investigators killed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in March. American Michael Sharp and Swedish-Chilean dual citizen Zaida Catalán were murdered in the Kasai region of the DRC while they were investigating human rig… Continue Reading

Senate Democratic Leaders To McConnell: Drop Health Care Repeal & Sabotage And Instead Work With Dems To Advance Policies To Strengthen Health Insurance Markets

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Democratic Leaders Dick Durbin (D-IL), Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) today released a new letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) urging him to abandon efforts to repeal and sabotage the Affordable Care Act and instead work on a bipartisan basis to advance policies that would help bring much needed stability and certainty to the health insurance markets. In the new letter, the Senate Democratic Leaders note th… Continue Reading

Durbin: Senate Republican Health Care Repeal Bill Cruel Prescription for Illinois Families

GRANITE CITY - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) said today the Senate Republican health care repeal bill will throw 22 million Americans off their health insurance, decimate the Medicaid program, allow insurers to stop offering critical coverage and charge seniors more for their benefits, all in order to finance huge tax cuts to big corporations and the wealthiest individuals. Durbin was joined by hospital and health care leaders at Gateway Regional Medical Center to discuss the local impact of r… Continue Reading

Durbin Statement On Illinois Passing Budget For The First Time In Three Years

SPRINGFIELD - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) issued the following statement after the Illinois House of Representatives voted to override Governor Bruce Rauner's veto of a $36 billion budget package, giving Illinois its first annual budget since 2015. The Illinois Senate voted to override Gov. Rauner's veto on the Fourth of July. Illinois' budget crisis was the longest budget crisis of any state since at least the Great Depression. "Illinois was in a self-imposed, devastating recession due t… Continue Reading

Ahead Of President Trump's First Meeting With Vladimir Putin, Senate Dem National Security Leaders Write To President Trump Demanding That He Press Putin On Russia's Interference In The 2016 U.S. Election

President Trump's Meeting With President Putin Will Be Their First Individual Meeting Since The U.S. Intelligence Community's Conclusion That Russia Sought To Undermine The Most Central Tenet Of U.S. Democracy - Our Election Despite Russia's Election Interference, The Trump Admin Has Said The President Has No Agenda Going Into Meeting With Putin - Senate Dems Say Not Raising Putin's Election Meddling would be a Dereliction of President Trump's Duty Senate Dems to Pres. Trump: Don't Let Putin… Continue Reading

Durbin, Duckworth, Senate Democrats Urge HUD Secretary Ben Carson To Restore Resources That Protect LGBTQ From Housing Discrimination

SPRINGFIELD - U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) joined Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and 26 of their colleagues in a letter to Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson, urging him to reinstate resources that protect LGBTQ people from housing discrimination. These resources, designed to help housing providers comply with HUD's nondiscrimination rules, were removed from HUD's website in recent months. "It is concerning that HUD apparently removed … Continue Reading

Durbin, Duckworth Announce More Than $14 Million In Federal Funding For HIV Treatment In Chicago

CHICAGO - U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded the City of Chicago with $14,823,525 in federal funding through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP) Part A Grant Program. With this funding, Chicago's Department of Public Health will develop and/or enhance access to a comprehensive continuum of high quality, community-based care for low-income people living with HIV. "This critical i… Continue Reading

Durbin, Duckworth Announce More Than $3 Million In Federal Funding For Firefighter Resources

CHICAGO - U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today announced that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded a total of $3,122,417 to sixteen communities across Illinois through the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Program. The AFG Program provides first-responder organizations with the ability to obtain much-needed emergency response equipment, personal protective equipment, firefighting and emergency vehicles and training in an effort to strengthen t… Continue Reading

Durbin, Bipartisan Senators Introduce Bill To Protect Veterans' Education Benefits

SPRINGFIELD - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) joined Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) in introducing bipartisan legislation that would provide relief to veterans whose Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits are affected by the permanent closure of certain educational institutions. In 2016, ITT Tech filed for bankruptcy and closed all 136 campuses in 38 states - after receiving $917 million in Post-9/11 GI Bill funds - leaving student veterans stranded and unable to reallo… Continue Reading

Durbin Calls On Illinois To Refuse Request To Release Illinois Voter Files To Trump Commission On Voter Fraud

SPRINGFIELD - U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today called on the Illinois Board of Elections to utilize every legal authority to protect sensitive voter information being requested by the Presidential Commission on Voter Integrity. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who serves as the vice chair of the commission, wrote on Wednesday to all 50 states and the District of Columbia requesting that all publicly available voter roll data be sent to the White House. "This Commission… Continue Reading

Durbin, Brown Urge SEC To Hold ITT Tech Executives Accountable

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today sent a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton, urging the Commission to prevent future abuses in the for-profit college industry by holding ITT Tech and its executives accountable. The SEC is currently suing ITT Tech, its former CEO Kevin Modany, and former CFO Daniel Fitzpatrick for fraud. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is also suing the now-defunct company over its illegal s… Continue Reading

Members Of Congress To Secretary DeVos: Stand Up For Students And Families, Reverse Delay Of Protections For Defrauded Students

WASHINGTON - Led by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Patty Murray (D-WA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Representatives Bobby Scott (D-VA), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Susan Davis (D-CA), and Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), 48 Members of Congress sent a letter to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos slamming her recent decision to delay the "borrower defense" rule that would provide defrauded students with debt relief and hold predatory institutions accountable for cheating students across … Continue Reading

Durbin Statement On Trump Administration's Unfair Travel Ban Criteria

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, today issued the following statement after the U.S. Department of State issued new criteria in response to the Supreme Court's decision on President Donald Trump's ban on travelers from six-Muslim majority nations and all refugees. "Earlier this week, the Supreme Court exempted from the ban travelers and refugees with a 'bona fide relationship' with individuals or entities in the United States.… Continue Reading

Durbin Joins Legislation Demanding Trump Administration Release Report On Asian Carp

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) joined U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Gary Peters (D-MI) to introduce the Stop Asian Carp Now Act, which will require the Trump Administration to release the Brandon Road Study within seven days of the bill's enactment. The Brandon Road Lock and Dam study will provide important guidance on how best to prevent Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes and is an important hurdle before further action can be taken. "With last week's discovery … Continue Reading

Durbin, Duckworth Press Trump To Fully Fund Fastlane Grants

WASHINGTON-U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today called on President Trump to fully fund the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) fiscal year 2017 FASTLANE grants after the Administration announced that DOT will hold funding for large project awardees and call for new and separate applications with "updated" criteria. This latest delay of much needed transportation grant funding by the Trump Administration will directly impact transportation infrastructure proje… Continue Reading

Durbin Joins Senate's First-Ever Resolution Recognizing June As Pride Month

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) joined Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in introducing the first-ever Senate Resolution recognizing June as LGBTQ Pride Month. The resolution notes major milestones in the fight for equal treatment of LGBTQ Americans and resolves to continue efforts to achieve full equality for LGBTQ individuals. Today, June 28, marks the 48th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. "This month we celebrate the contributions of LGBTQ Americans and the strides made toward equ… Continue Reading

Durbin Calls On Republicans To Work With Democrats To Improve, Not Destroy, Health Care System

WASHINGTON - After Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell was forced to delay a vote on his catastrophic health care repeal bill, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) called on Senate Republicans to take the repeal option off the table and work with Democrats to improve America's health care system. "I am glad that we've reached this point, that these proposals by House and Senate Republicans are not going to move forward quickly and become the law of the land. Too many people woul… Continue Reading