The Public Record
Richard Durbin, commonly known as Dick Durbin, is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Illinois since 2005. A member of the Democratic Party, he has held various leadership roles, including Senate Majority Whip. Durbin has been a prominent advocate for issues such as healthcare reform, immigration policy, and gun control. He has also played a significant role in negotiations on budget and appropriations matters in the Senate.
In less than 18 months at the Department of Justice, you have shown you are still President Trump’s personal attorney. Your tenure can be summed up in just four words: ‘I love you, sir.’ This was your response when asked what you would say…
We are here because there is a vacancy in the office [of the Attorney General]. The President decided to fire [Mr. Blanche’s] predecessor after just 14 months on the job, after courts and grand juries blocked her from prosecuting the…
That kind of rhetoric, I think, is unacceptable on either side of the table, Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative. It just inflames people and has them thinking in terms of violence that may reach physical violence if we're not…
Since you were confirmed, DOJ has literally violated dozens of court orders to advance Trump’s agenda. Last year, you declared that the Justice Department was ‘at war’ with the federal judiciary… I believe all of us on both sides of the…
This nation deserves an Attorney General who loves the Constitution more than any single president—an Attorney General who is focused on keeping Americans safe and combatting corruption, not satisfying the President’s personal grievances.
Americans sent us to Congress not to observe the problems but to solve the problems. There is no greater long-term challenge before Congress than preserving Social Security.
I think this is going to fall in our jurisdiction here in the future, and I hope we take it seriously.
If Congress sits on its hands and does nothing to respond to this looming crisis, millions of Americans will be expected to make ends meet with fewer-and-fewer dollars each month.
Some of them physically assaulted policemen in the Capitol, [and] some of them are guilty of serious crimes before that day. For the President to give a blanket pardon to these individuals is something you cannot explain to the American…
Today, 60 new Americans from 25 countries took an oath that binds us all—not by birth, but by shared belief in our country's promise.
The original misstep may have occurred even earlier, when President Trump withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear agreement during his first term, a deal that was working to restrain Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
I was glad President Trump attended the summit—he and President Obama were right to push our allies to pay more of their fair share for the cost of NATO. But President Trump’s constant rhetoric belittling the alliance and dreams of…
It reminds me that America has always been strengthened, not weakened like some want us to believe, by those who choose it.
To our newest citizens: you now carry both the rights and the responsibilities of this democracy, and I'm counting on you to exercise and defend them.
There must be full, fair, and independent investigations into these shootings so the truth can be revealed, and it is critical that DHS not deport any eyewitnesses and allow them to participate fully in the investigation.
The fatal shootings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Joan Sebastian Guerrero are tragic, heartbreaking, and enraging.
I wish I could say I am surprised, but I am not. President Trump started this war with a genuine destabilizing regime without thinking it through...
Here is our chance to agree on a bipartisan process to rescue Social Security this year.
These lands belong to every American. In the wake of these unfortunate reductions, I urge Congress to pass my America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act to protect and defend these lands for future generations.
As an East St. Louis native, I’m thrilled to introduce legislation that would expand the Gateway Arch National Park into Illinois.
President Trump’s decision to, once again, slash the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments is an attack on some of our nation’s most extraordinary public lands.
The United States failed to act and prevent the Rwandan genocide—and during my stay, I reflected on how we, as a nation, could strive to never make that same mistake again.
As we see in Sudan and Burma, oppressive regimes are mercilessly targeting civilians, using many of the same tactics from Rwanda more than 30 years ago.
Politicians like Dick Durbin
