Dick Durbin

Before my colleague begins, I ask unanimous consent to be recognized after Senator Blunt. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Following leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 2112, the Agriculture, CJS, and Transportation appropriations bill. At noon there will be three rollcall votes. The first vote will be on the confirmation of Heather…

Does the minority leader wish to speak? I will yield to him if he does. No. Mr. President, I am going to respond very briefly. This argument is so upside-down. If during the last 10 years we had successfully prosecuted terrorists--300 of…

If there are no Members on the floor to offer amendments to speak to those amendments, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered. Wall Street Reform

I wish to stand and second the remarks made by the Senator from Maryland, Ms. Mikulski, related to the Ayotte amendment. I think it is important for us to reflect on recent history. It was last week that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab pled…

I certainly believe the President's criteria and your criteria are the right criteria.

I think we have a responsibility to treat them humanely and fairly in this situation.

Let us focus on removing those people who are a threat to our Nation.

Congress has dealt you and the President an impossible hand.

I wish to thank my colleague from New Jersey for this amendment. It is an amendment that is critically important to New Jersey, to Alaska, and to the State of Illinois because the Menendez-Casey amendment in my State means that 14,500…

You are given these laws and are told, 'Make them work.'

We all know as Senators and Americans that undocumented workers are an essential part of our economy.

I appreciate your commitment to this process, but I am concerned.

Tomorrow night we expect 15 million Americans--including a lot of children--to tune in to watch the first game of the World Series. It is a big deal for a lot of people and a lot of families. We watch our heroes in the championship of that…

I say to the majority leader, since I have listened to the colloquy by my Republican colleagues just a few minutes ago, and it related to the detainee policy, which is one of the controversial issues in the Defense authorization bill, I am…

Is it not true that the majority leader came to the floor on the pending legislation, the appropriations bills, and invited Members on both sides to bring their amendments to the floor, call their amendments for a vote, that some 10 or 11…

The events of this week are an indication that much needs to be done in Washington to deal with the state of our economy. With 14 million Americans out of work, it is high time that both political parties find a way to develop a plan to…

My Republican colleagues have frequently come to the Senate floor to criticize President Obama for his handling of terrorism cases. They have argued regularly and consistently that terrorism suspects should never be interrogated by the FBI…

Our country continues to struggle with the aftereffects of the housing bubble and the economic mistakes of the previous decade. There has been a great human cost to this economic slump--families forced out of their homes, shameful…

I wish to thank the Senator from Michigan for bringing us together and making the point, as clearly as we can make it, that last night we had a chance to launch maybe the most important single issue in debate that we can consider in the…

This afternoon, the Republican leader of the Senate came to the floor to talk about a vote we will have later this afternoon. It is a vote which is historically important. We all know the state of our economy. We are in a position now with…

Before speaking on the issue of the bombing, let me commend my colleague from Illinois for speaking out on this Iranian plot, state-sponsored Iranian plot, to destroy the Saudi and Israeli Embassies in Washington, DC. It is an outrage that…

I wish to follow on the speech made by my friend and colleague from Utah about the current state of unemployment in America and what to do about it. One of the last things he says is, get government out of the way. I wish to suggest that…

14 million Americans are currently unemployed. The American people are resilient, strong and hard-working. If they are given a fair shot, they will succeed. Unfortunately, as the world keeps getting flatter, as our global economy grows…

You ought to take a look at the number of people who are in prison in the United States of America.