this morning I held a hearing in Chicago at the University of Illinois, Chicago medical campus. It was a hearing to discuss the challenges we face with returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. It was clear from the turnout at that…

I rise today to again raise the issue of Darfur. I may not match the tenacity of former Senator William Proxmire. You see, he came to the Senate floor every day--every day-- for 19 years urging the Senate to ratify the 1948 Convention on…

I rise today to introduce S.J. Res. 5, honoring the valor of General Casimir Pulaski, who made the ultimate sacrifice in pursuit of American freedom. This Resolution would grant posthumous honorary citizenship to General Pulaski. Casimir…

I conclude by saying that the subcommittee which I chair of the Judiciary Committee, the Human Rights Subcommittee, had a hearing several weeks ago on genocide in Darfur. We are preparing legislation as a result of that hearing to…

I come again to the floor this evening to speak about Darfur in Sudan. Most Americans are now familiar with what is going on in this remote part of our world. Hundreds of thousands of people have died. Two million have been forced to flee…

if one travels across the States of Maryland or Illinois and stops at any business, large or small, and has a conversation about how the business is going, it won't take long for the conversation to move to the issue of health care…

Why hold off for tomorrow what we can do today? The current healthcare crisis in our Nation did not happen overnight. It has been accumulating as a result of a lack of serious attention to the most pressing healthcare issues, including…

I am glad we are discussing this issue. I am glad we are on the floor of the Senate to discuss the war in Iraq. I think this is an issue that is being discussed across America--over coffee pots in offices, in doughnut shops in the morning…

I rise today to honor PFC Arva ``Marie'' Johnson, who recently retired from the United States Capitol Police force after more than 32 years of dedicated service. Marie Johnson made history on October 15, 1974, when she became the first…

I rise today to come to the floor, as I have done many times before, to speak on the crisis in Darfur, Sudan. I keep coming because at the very least, I want to do that, to keep speaking out. But this Senator, this Congress, this country…

We know what that vote is about. It is about a war that is now in its fourth year, a war that has lasted longer than World War II. We were told recently that advisers to the President told him that at this stage of the war, there would be…

I think you have to step back for a moment and reflect on what happened today. Four years into a war--which Senator Sanders has reminded us has lasted longer than World War I or II--we are now engaged in the first meaningful debate about…

an historic vote was announced in the House Chamber moments ago. By a vote of 246 to 182, the House of Representatives, in a bipartisan rollcall vote, has approved the resolution relative to the President's call for escalation of the…

years ago, a friend from Chicago went out and bought hamburger meat at a local grocery store. She took it home, cooked it, and gave it to her five-year-old boy. That poor boy was exposed to E. coli and died a few days later, a gruesome…

At this moment across the Rotunda, not far from here, in the House of Representatives, there is an ongoing debate about the war in Iraq. It has been 2 or 3 days of debate with Members each allowed 5 minutes to express their feelings about…

like his hero, Abraham Lincoln, Gerald Ford helped heal our Nation. His calm leadership and fundamental decency helped hold our Nation together at a time when the forces of war and scandal threatened to tear it apart. When he took the oath…

the Senate has heard this song before. We heard it 2 weeks ago, and we have listened as seven or eight Members on the other side have come to the floor repeatedly day after day. They have sent letters and held press conferences saying they…

I might ask the Senator from Nevada whether this resolution being offered by Senator Gregg really is focused not on the major issue of escalating the war but somehow is focused on supporting the troops. Even the Warner resolution, a…

If you are not loyal to the policies of the Commander in Chief, then you are not loyal to the troops. If you are not prepared to say you will stand behind the policy, the military policy of the President, whether you agree with it or not…

I want to understand what has happened over on the other side, the Republican side. Is it my understanding they have asked now to drop the McCain-Lieberman amendment?

If I might continue through the Chair to ask the Senator from Nevada a question, on the issue that I think is before America today--whether we should escalate the number of troops into this war in Iraq--we had offered to the Republican…

I might also ask the Senator whether it appears to him now that the Republicans, at this point, don't want to debate either of the Republican amendments and want to change the subject; that they want to move to a Gregg resolution, which…

let me say, for those who have not followed this debate closely, I think we have made amazing progress until today--until today--because what happened before today was that we were moving on a bipartisan track, a track of cooperation, so…

I rise today to honor Charles H. Ramsey, who retired as chief of the Metropolitan Police Department at the end of December. A Chicago, IL, native, Chief Ramsey began his career in law enforcement with the Chicago Police Department in 1968…

last October, my alma mater, Georgetown Law Center, established an endowed chair in human rights in honor of Father Robert Drinan. At the ceremony, Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh called Robert Drinan ``a father in more senses than one.''…