Dick Durbin: “Let us honor the wishes of the American people who in November broke through debilitating divisions to join together in…”

The lowering of the FBI's hiring standards "threaten[s] to undermine the work of the FBI and pose a grave risk to the Bureau's integrity.

To leave here without this being a law finalized to protect these young people … is painful, really painful. I don’t want them to feel like I’m abandoning them.

Public executions have no place in a democracy.

You can’t survive in politics unless you’re optimistic. You’ve got to believe that even though you face a setback or you don’t have all the laws you need, that tomorrow will be better.