Durbin To President Trump: It’s A Deal - Let’s Fully Investigate 2016 Election

SHEPERDSTOWN, WV-U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today announced that he supports a full and independent investigation of the 2016 presidential election, including a review of irregularities, voter suppression, foreign interference, and President Trump's allegations of fraud. "Though our reasons may differ, the President and I agree that the American people deserve an independent, nonpartisan investigation of the 2016 election-let the truth come out about his baseless allegations … Continue Reading

Durbin: President Trump Tweets Big On Federal Help For Chicago Violence, His Nominee For Attorney General Ducks The Issue

SHEPERDSTOWN, WV - In recent exchanges with U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), President Trump's nominee for U.S. Attorney General, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) pressed him to sustain and increase U.S. Department of Justice support for Chicago's public safety efforts in light of the gun violence crisis in the city. Durbin also called on Sen. Sessions to honor and implement the Agreement in Principle that the City of Chicago and the Justice Department signed on January 13, 2017 that provides f… Continue Reading

Durbin: Trump Immigration Executive Orders Make Nation Less Safe

SHEPERDSTOWN, WV-U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), the Democratic Whip and Ranking Member on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, today issued the following statement after President Donald Trump signed executive orders cracking down on immigrant communities, that, among other things, dramatically increase the number of immigration agents and strip federal funding from communities that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. "Creating a mass deportation force and de… Continue Reading

Durbin, Duckworth Announce More Than $3 Million In Federal Funding For Preventive Health Services

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded the Illinois Department of Public Health and Planned Parenthood of Illinois a combined $3,437,000 in federal funding for preventive care services. "This funding is integral in providing women and families with comprehensive family planning and preventive health services. From cancer screenings and birth control, to flu vaccines and routine phy… Continue Reading

Durbin Calls Ratification Of Equal Rights Amendment Long Overdue

WASHINGTON - On the heels of the historic Women's March on Washington, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) joined Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) and 24 other senators in calling for the removal of the deadline set by Congress for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). When the ERA was passed in 1972, Congress stipulated in a joint resolution that the amendment had to be ratified by three-fourths of the states within seven years. It later extended that deadline until 1982. 35 of the require… Continue Reading

Durbin, Duckworth Announce Over $7 Million For Illinois Community Health Centers

WASHINGTON - 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 four community health centers in Illinois a total of $7,222,617 through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Health Center Program. Community health centers are community-based organizations that improve access to affordable, high-quality health care in underserved urban and rural communities by integrating primary hea… Continue Reading

Durbin: Repealing Health Care Would Be Detrimental To Hospitals And Rural Communities

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today called out congressional Republicans for their efforts to repeal health care without any replacement plan to protect all Americans' access to quality health insurance, especially seniors and individuals with pre-existing conditions. In a speech on the Senate floor, Durbin described his meeting this week with administrators from hospitals across Central Illinois and how devastating repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would be to rural communi… Continue Reading

Durbin: We Need The Truth About President Trump And Russia Now

WASHINGTON - In a speech at the Center for American Progress, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today discussed the need for an immediate, independent investigation of U.S. intelligence reports of Russian cyberattacks on the 2016 presidential election, as well as allegations of Russian attempts to compromise President Trump and contact between Trump officials and the Russian government. "Last Friday, America achieved what so many nations have failed to do - peacefully transition to … Continue Reading

Durbin Named Top Democrat On Senate Immigration Subcommittee

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today released the following statement after a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he was appointed Ranking Member of the Immigration Subcommittee: "It was 20 years ago that I began my service in the Senate, on the Judiciary Committee, and on the Immigration Subcommittee. Though our bipartisan efforts to fix our broken immigration system have been blocked time and again, we must continue working to ensure that our immigration laws are wo… Continue Reading

Durbin Statement On Vote Against CIA Director Nominee Rep. Mike Pompeo

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) released the following statement: "Today, I voted against Rep. Pompeo's confirmation as Director of the CIA. His changing statements on the use of torture leave me no choice. His written answers to the Senate Intelligence Committee, saying that he will consult with CIA experts as to whether the methods in the U.S. Army Field Manual are sufficient, and if they aren't, work with legal experts and congressional overseers to make changes, are extremely al… Continue Reading

Durbin Hears from Hospital Leaders on Local Impact of Republican Plan to Repeal Affordable Care Act

SPRINGFIELD - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today met with hospital CEOs-including four from federally-designated Critical Access Hospitals - to discuss the local impact of congressional Republicans' plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This month, Republican leaders took the first step in repealing the law by approving a budget that allows for major provisions of the ACA to be eliminated by simple majority vote. On Friday, President Trump signed an executive order giving federal age… Continue Reading

Durbin Presses Secretary Of State Nominee Rex Tillerson On Russia Ties, U.S. Foreign Policy Under Pres.-Elect Trump

WASHINGTON-U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today met with Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson. Durbin pressed Mr. Tillerson about his role in carrying out U.S. foreign policy under President-elect Trump, particularly given his recent dismissal of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as obsolete. "The first thing I asked Mr. Tillerson was how he thought he could be an effective Secretary of State, dealing with a President who regularly tweets dramatic reversals of American foreign p… Continue Reading

Senators Demand Answers After DEA Avoids Query On Enforcement Efforts Against Wholesale Opioid Distributors

WASHINGTON - After the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) failed to answer critical questions about enforcement efforts against wholesale opioid distributors that are violating DEA rules intended to prevent legal controlled substances from entering the illicit market, Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), and five other senators reiterated their call for a detailed response. The Senators noted alarming new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that dis… Continue Reading

Durbin Statement On Consumer Watchdog Agency And Illinois Attorney General Lawsuits Against Delinquent Student Loan Servicer

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) issued the following statement after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced lawsuits against Navient, the country's largest servicer of federal and private student loans, for mishandling accounts and misinforming borrowers about their eligibility for income-based repayment. "Student loan servicers, as contractors of the U.S. Department of Education, have an obligation to provide borrowers w… Continue Reading

Durbin, Senate Judiciary Democrats To Jeff Sessions: Don’t Block Russia Hack Investigation

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), along with Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and all committee Democrats today called on Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), nominee for attorney general, to allow investigations of Russia hacking to proceed and to recuse himself from those proceedings. The letter poses two questions to Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the nominee to become attorney general: 1. "Will you commit not to impede or shut down any FBI or Jus… Continue Reading

Durbin Statement On Results Of DOJ Investigation Of Chicago Police Department

CHICAGO - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) issued the following statement after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released the results of a 13-month civil rights investigation into the policies and practices of the Chicago Police Department. Durbin joined Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan in requesting the investigation. "Following the shocking video of the shooting death of Laquan McDonald, I wrote Attorney General Lynch urging her to open an investigation … Continue Reading

Durbin, Menendez Praise Final Hud Lead Safe Housing Rule

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) today praised the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) final Lead Safe Housing Rule (LSHR), which revises the definition of "elevated blood lead levels" and strengthens protocols by which the Department identifies and investigates lead exposure in federally-assisted housing. Under the new rule, HUD will lower its threshold for blood lead levels requiring Department intervention from 20 micrograms per dec… Continue Reading

Durbin Praises Education Department Progress On Debt Relief For Students Defrauded By For-Profit Colleges

CHICAGO - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) praised the U.S. Department of Education's continued progress in providing federal student loan debt relief through the defense to repayment process for defrauded students of for-profit colleges. Today, the Department announced that former students of Massachusetts-based American Career Institute will receive automatic discharges of their federal loans and that it has approved additional claims filed by former students of Corinthian Colleges and ITT Tech… Continue Reading

Durbin, Duckworth, Quigley Announce $1 Million In Federal Funds For Additional Safety Indicators At CTA’s Control Center

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), along with U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (D-IL-5) today announced that the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), has awarded the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) $1,078,300 to fund their Operations Control Center Safety Enhancements Project. The project would add additional safety indicators to the CTA's Control Center (CC) and better integrate critical information col… Continue Reading

Durbin, Duckworth Announce Over $4.5 Million For Illinois Community Health Centers

WASHINGTON - 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 four community health centers in Illinois a total of $4,884,191 through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Health Center Program. Community health centers are community-based and patient-directed organizations that deliver comprehensive, culturally competent, high-quality primary health care services. Community healt… Continue Reading