Following FDA Warning, Durbin Meets With Walgreens To Urge Pharmacy To Stop Selling Tobacco Products

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today met with Walgreens Co-Chief Operating Officer Alex Gourlay to discuss tobacco sales to minors at their stores, and urge Walgreens to stop selling tobacco products. Last month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that some of our nation's largest health pharmacies have been illegally selling tobacco products to minors. Walgreens was the top violator among pharmacies that sell tobacco products, with 22 percent of Walgreens stores in… Continue Reading

Durbin Meets With Open Textbook Pilot Grantees And Students

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today met with Open Textbook Pilot grant recipients, open textbook experts, and college students to get an update on how federal funds are helping students save money. Over the last two fiscal years, Durbin, along with Senators Angus King (I-ME) and Tina Smith (D-MN), successfully secured $10 million in federal funding to create an Open Textbook Pilot program at the Department of Education. The Pilot is a competitive grant program for institutions o… Continue Reading

Durbin, Duckworth Press Trump Administration To Release New Bridge Repair Funding

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today urged the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to immediately release $475 million in new federal funding for risk-based bridge repair and replacement that they secured in the recently passed Fiscal Year 2019 appropriations bill. Illinois currently has the third largest bridge inventory in the country. Of the 26,775 bridges in Illinois, 2,303 bridges, or 8.6 percent, are classified as structurally deficient. "Illin… Continue Reading

Durbin Meets With Open Textbook Pilot Grantees And Students

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today met with Open Textbook Pilot grant recipients, open textbook experts, and college students to get an update on how federal funds are helping students save money. Over the last two fiscal years, Durbin, along with Senators Angus King (I-ME) and Tina Smith (D-MN), successfully secured $10 million in federal funding to create an Open Textbook Pilot program at the Department of Education. The Pilot is a competitive grant program for institutions o… Continue Reading

Durbin: Judicial Nominations Process Is Breaking Down Under Republican Majority

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today called out his Senate Republican colleagues for the breakdown in the judicial nominations process under the their majority. This week, the Senate is considering three more highly controversial judicial nominees, including Chad Readler, who filed the Trump Administration's brief in the Texas. v. U.S. case where he opposed the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) pre-existing coverage requirement. Mr. Readler's brief argued that this requ… Continue Reading

Durbin On Eli Lilly Insulin Pricing Scheme: I Won't Be Sending Any Flowers

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today on the Senate floor slammed Eli Lilly - a pharmaceutical company that manufactures insulin - following an announcement that it would be selling a less expensive, "generic" version of its rapid-acting insulin, Humalog. Humalog was introduced in 1996 and cost $21, but today that same vial now can cost as much as $329. Eli Lilly announced it would lower the price to $140 in the United States for some patients, while in Canada a patient can still b… Continue Reading

Durbin, Murkowski, Degette, Raskin Introduce Bill To Restrict Kid-Friendly Flavors In E-Cigarettes

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), along with U.S. Representatives Diana DeGette (D-CO-01) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD-08), reintroduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation to crack down on kid-friendly flavorings in highly-addictive e-cigarettes and cigars. The Stopping Appealing Flavors in E-Cigarettes for Kids (SAFE Kids) Act will place strong restrictions on e-cigarette flavorings and ban cigar flavorings altogether. "Ask any teacher, parent, or public health… Continue Reading

Durbin Statement On Announcement By Eli Lilly To Sell Lower Cost, Generic Insulin

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today released the following statement after Eli Lilly announced it would be selling a less expensive, generic version of its rapid-acting insulin, Humalog. Humalog was introduced in 1996 and cost $21, but today that same vial now costs $329. "Humalog can cost as little as $38 in Canada and yet Americans are charged up to $329. Now Eli Lilly is lowering the price in the U.S. for selected customers to $140. Charging Americans four t… Continue Reading

Durbin, Duckworth, Foster, Lipinski, Schneider, Casten Press ATSDR For Updated Health Report For Willowbrook

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and U.S. Representatives Bill Foster (D-IL-11), Dan Lipinski (D-IL-03), Brad Schneider (D-IL-10), and Sean Casten (D-IL-06) today requested that the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) conduct another site-specific Health Consultation for Willowbrook, Illinois, based on the most recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ethylene oxide (EtO) ambient air measurements from November 2018 - February… Continue Reading

Durbin, Duckworth Call On Amtrak To Make Changes To Prevent Another Equipment Failure At Union Station

WASHINGTON-Following yesterday's Amtrak computer system failure at Chicago Union Station, which lasted more than 12 hours, caused significant delays and overcrowding, and impacted both morning and evening commutes, U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today sent a letter to Amtrak CEO and President Richard Anderson asking for swift policy and operational changes to prevent future equipment failures. Today, Anderson admitted that Amtrak made a series of errors, including a … Continue Reading

Durbin Statement On Amtrak Computer System Failure At Union Station

WASHINGTON-U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today released the following statement after he spoke to Amtrak CEO and President Richard Anderson about yesterday's Amtrak computer system failure at Chicago Union Station, which lasted more than 12 hours, caused significant delays and overcrowding, and impacted both morning and evening commutes: I talked to Mr. Anderson this morning and in blunt terms, asked him what happened in Chicago yesterday? Why did thousands of commuters see their service int… Continue Reading

Durbin, Cramer, Cassidy, Smith To FDA: Price Of Insulin Is Unacceptable

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), and Tina Smith (D-MN) today urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to speed up approvals of lower-cost, generic insulin products in order to help lower costs of the life-saving drug for 7.5 million Americans with diabetes who rely on insulin to survive. In a letter to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, the Senators called for the agency to amend recently issued guidance that poses unreasonable appr… Continue Reading

Senate Passes & House Introduces Bicameral Resolution Honoring Victims & Injured Police Officers Of Aurora Shooting

WASHINGTON - Today, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution introduced by U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) honoring the victims and injured police officers of this month's shooting at the Henry Pratt Company in Aurora, Illinois, in which a gunman killed Russell Beyer, Vicente Juarez, Clayton "Clay" Parks, Josh Pinkard, and Trevor Wehner, and injured Aurora Police Officers Adam Miller, Marco Gomez, John Cebulski, James Zegar, Reynaldo Rivera, and Diego Avila. U.S. Represen… Continue Reading

Durbin, Waters Re-Introduce Bill To Give Students Defrauded By For-Profit Colleges Their Day In Court

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA-43) have reintroduced bicameral legislation designed to strengthen students' ability to hold for-profit colleges accountable in court for their misconduct. The Court Legal Access & Student Support (CLASS) Act prohibits any school receiving Title IV student aid funding from placing restrictions on students' ability to pursue legal claims, individually or with others, against higher education institutions … Continue Reading

Durbin, Cassidy Introduce Legislation To Support Leading Rehab Facilities

WASHINGTON-U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) today introduced bipartisan legislation to support rehabilitation facilities that lead the nation in medical research. The Preserving Rehabilitation Innovation Centers Act recognizes the unique role that a leading class of rehabilitation facilities play in our health care system, by driving innovative research for the entire field, providing medical training to students, and serving the highest need patients across the co… Continue Reading

Durbin Presses Agriculture Secretary Perdue On Food Stamps, Trade, Immigration Reform

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today, in the first Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee hearing of the 116th Congress, pressed U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue about access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for the elderly and those with disabilities, how President Trump's trade war with China is hurting the price of soybeans in Illinois, and whether he would support comprehensive immigration reform for more than 1.… Continue Reading

Durbin Statement On President Trump's Second Summit With Kim Jong Un

WASHINGTON-U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today released the following statement after talks between President Donald Trump and North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un collapsed: Diplomacy can be a long and difficult path. Following this experience, I hope that the President finally has an appreciation for the diplomatic achievements - such as the JCPOA and Paris Climate Agreement - that came before him, a better understanding of the limits of photo-ops, and a realization of the… Continue Reading

Illinois Meets With Illinois State Board Of Elections Director To Discuss Election Security Funding

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Senate Rules Committee, today once again met with Steve Sandvoss, the Executive Director of the Illinois State Board of Elections, to discuss continued federal funding for election security. Last year, Illinois received $13.2 million in new federal funding to strengthen its election security systems, part of the Fiscal Year 2018 federal omnibus spending bill that provided $380 million to the Electi… Continue Reading

Durbin Statement On For-Profit Agrosy University Losing Title IV Funding

WASHINGTON-U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today released the following statement after the Department of Education announced that Argosy University, a for-profit college, will no longer receive Title IV funding: The downfall of Argosy University has been a long time coming-from its days as part of the predatory for-profit Education Management Corporation, to its mismanagement under Dream Center and the federal receivership, and the Department's complicity at every step. About 8… Continue Reading

Durbin Opposes Andrew Wheeler, President Trump's Nominee To Head The EPA

WASHINGTON-U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today released the following statement after voting against President Trump's nominee to be U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, Andrew Wheeler: We need someone leading the EPA who will put the health and well-being of the people of this country above the profits of corporate polluters. We need someone who is willing to protect families and communities from toxic chemicals in our air and water by fully enforcing the C… Continue Reading