In The News

February 08, 2021

Proposed “Restaurants Act” to bring more relief for businesses

by Maya Skinner
Source: WSILTV

(WSIL) -- Restaurants are one of many industries hit hard by COVID-19. U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) is now in support of the bipartisan Restaurants Act that hopes to provide assistance to the industry. Last week, the senate added an amendment to the budget reconciliation bill, which would ensure that the final Covid-19 relief package includes the Restaurants Act. The Restaurants Act would create a $120 billion restaurant fund to help restaurants and bars that have been affected … Continue Reading


February 03, 2021

Sen. Duckworth Wants EPA To Install Metal Emission Monitors At Sauget Incinerator

by Eric Schmid

SAUGET - U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth is calling on the new acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to install multimetal emissions monitoring at Veolia Environmental Services' incinerator. The Illinois Democrat made her request to Jane Nishida in a letter last week, after another government agency determined it could not conduct a health consultation in the communities that surround Veolia's plant. Duckworth writes she asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' … Continue Reading


February 02, 2021

Senate Democrats Draft Resolution Condemning White Supremacy

by Terrell Jermaine Starr
Source: The Root

In response to the Trump-encouraged coup attempt in Washington, D.C., last month, Senate Democrats are drafting a resolution condemning white supremacy. Axios reports that the resolution, whose lead sponsor is Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), will be introduced Tuesday. Keep in mind that Trump's impeachment trial on the charges of "incitement of the insurrection" begins next week. The resolution also calls for the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community to investigate the targeting and … Continue Reading


January 15, 2021

Both Illinois Senators Ask Joe Biden to Designate Site of 1908 Springfield Race Riot as a National Monument

by Joe Jurado
Source: The Root

Both of Illinois' senators have sent a request to President-Elect Biden to designate the site of a 1908 race riot, which inspired the creation of the NAACP, as a national monument. According to NBC News, the 1908 race riot in Springfield, Ill., occurred when 5,000 white people pillaged multiple Black neighborhoods in an effort to find and lynch two Black men for allegedly murdering one white man and raping a white woman. After learning that the two men had been transferred to a jail in … Continue Reading


January 14, 2021

Sen. Tammy Duckworth on watching rioters wave the American flag while attacking the Capitol

by Emma Hinchliffe and Kristen Bellstrom
Source: Fortune

When rioters egged on by President Trump stormed the Capitol a week ago, Sen. Tammy Duckworth wasn't in the Senate chamber with her colleagues. She was in the complex's underground tunnels, en route to the Senate floor, where she planned to speak in favor of certifying the Electoral College ballots in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. But that speech was not to be. Before Duckworth could board the train to the floor, Capitol Police told her that rioters were pressing against the building … Continue Reading


January 12, 2021

Senator Tammy Duckworth: “We Will Not Put Up With Folks Who Choose to Attack Our Democracy”

by Emma Specter
Source: Vogue

On Wednesday, January 6, much of the country watched in horror as an unruly mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of Joe Biden's presidential victory. As the violence and chaos unfolded, many elected officials were forced to shelter in place. Illinois senator Tammy Duckworth (D) was one of those elected officials, barricading herself in a secure location for hours; on Tuesday, Vogue spoke to the senator about her experience of last week's events, … Continue Reading


January 11, 2021

Sen. Duckworth demands Pentagon prosecute vets and troops who participated in Capitol riot

by David Roza

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) is calling on Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller to investigate active-duty and retired service members who stormed the U.S. Capitol building last week and hold them accountable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Duckworth, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, wrote in a letter to Miller that service members and veterans who joined in the riot betrayed their oaths by participating "in a seditious conspiracy that used force" to oppose the … Continue Reading


January 11, 2021

Duckworth demands Pentagon investigate if troops participated in Capitol 'coup attempt'

by Lara Seligman
Source: Politico

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat and Iraq War veteran, on Monday demanded the Pentagon investigate allegations that troops and military retirees played a role in the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Wednesday. In a letter to acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller obtained by POLITICO, Duckworth asked the Pentagon to cooperate with federal agencies and the Capitol Police to investigate active-duty or retired service members who played a role in what she called … Continue Reading


January 06, 2021

Sen. Duckworth pushes for electoral vote count to continue soon

Source: Fox News

January 06, 2021

Duckworth: Unlike anything I’ve ever seen on domestic soil

by CBS News Radio and Neil Doyle
Source: WJBC

WASHINGTON - Thousands of violent protesters stormed the Capitol on Wednesday as Congress was in session to count the Electoral College vote confirming the 2020 election for President-elect Joe Biden. U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) spoke with CBS News. "It is unlike anything I've ever seen on domestic soil," Duckworth said. Duckworth told CBS News that a staff member grabbed the electoral vote ballots before evacuation. Police declared the Capitol secure about four hours after the … Continue Reading


January 06, 2021

Sen. Duckworth: ‘These protestors will not stop me from carrying out my duty’

Source: KWQC

WASHINGTON, D.C. (KWQC) - U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D - IL) spoke with NBC News Wednesday afternoon regarding the protests at the U.S. Capitol. "My entire adult life, I have defended people's rights to protest." Sen. Duckworth said, after protesters supporting President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, clashing with police and forcing a delay in the constitutional process to affirm President-elect Joe Biden's win. "This is no way to be running our country, and really … Continue Reading


January 06, 2021

'We're Just Astonished That This Is Happening,' Sen. Tammy Duckworth Says

by Elena Moore
Source: NPR

As pro-Trump rioters began storming the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Tammy Duckworth was heading to the Senate floor. "I was actually in the tunnels under the complex when the breach occurred and Capitol Police told me to barricade myself in a secure location, which I did," the Illinois Democrat told NPR's All Things Considered. Speaking early Wednesday evening from an undisclosed location within the Capitol complex, Duckworth said she was in a room full of her Republican and … Continue Reading


January 04, 2021

Women in the US military may finally get body armor that actually fits

by Haley Britzky

I live my life in a state of cautious optimism, so bear with me when I say this: Women in combat could maybe, finally get body armor that fits them properly. A provision in the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act - which was passed when the Senate voted on Jan. 1 to override President Donald Trump's veto of the legislation- lays out a series of requirements and initiatives that could move women closer to having body armor that actually fits. I say "cautiously optimistic" because the … Continue Reading


December 23, 2020

Frontline workers soldier on in battle against COVID-19. The rest of us must do the same.

by Senator Tammy Duckworth

As a bedside nurse, Christina's job has always been difficult, but since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, it's been both intense and surreal. Every day, at her hospital in Chicago, she experiences things most of us could never imagine. She sees terror in the eyes of patients as they're intubated. Through layers of protective equipment, she holds their hands when they're scared and alone, disconnected from their family. She watches as they grab the handrails of their hospital beds and … Continue Reading


December 21, 2020

Military May Be Required to Report on Injuries Caused by Ill-Fitting Body Armor

by Hope Hodge Seck

With the passage of the sprawling fiscal 2021 defense policy and budget bill all but inevitable, one U.S. senator is looking forward to a new measure that will require the military to provide properly fitting body armor for female service members, and to develop centralized reporting on the injuries caused by years of requiring women to wear wrong-sized ballistic protection. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel and helicopter pilot who served in … Continue Reading


December 21, 2020

The military designed aircraft with only men in mind. Now they are working to change that.

by Tara Copp
Source: McClatchy

As a helicopter pilot in Iraq in 2004, now-Sen. Tammy Duckworth stopped drinking water hours before she climbed into the cockpit of her Army UH-60 Black Hawk for combat missions. Even in Iraq's heat, she'd purposefully dehydrate herself because there was not a safe way for her to use the restroom in her one-piece, zip-up flight suit. "I would have to take off my side arm. I wore a shoulder holster, so I would have to take off my shoulder holster. Then I would have to take off my flight vest, … Continue Reading


December 14, 2020

National defense bill pushes Pentagon to buy body armor for women in the military

by Tom Vanden Brook
Source: USA Today

WASHINGTON - The Senate is prodding the Pentagon to buy body armor designed for women troops and  to track injuries caused by ill-fitting gear. The Pentagon has made uneven progress in outfitting women for training and fightingsince every combat job was opened to them in 2015. The Air Force began issuing women in its security forces body armor tailored to their bodies that allows freedom to move and shoot. The Army developed a helmet that can accommodate a hair bun and a bomb-disposal suit … Continue Reading


December 11, 2020

Duckworth fighting to keep Illinois restaurants alive through federal relief plan

by Mike Miletich
Source: WREX

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Restaurant owners across the country are pleading for financial assistance from Capitol Hill. That's why the Illinois Restaurant Association hosted a town hall discussion Friday with one of their champions - Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois). Nearly 60% of restaurant owners in Illinois say they'll have to permanently close their doors in the next four months without federal relief. "The restaurant food service industry - including restaurants, bars, caterers, and everyone … Continue Reading


December 11, 2020

Duckworth offers hope to restaurant industry workers, says relief bill ‘very close’

by Phil Vettel

In a video town-hall meeting sponsored by the Illinois Restaurant Association, Sen. Tammy Duckworth gave hope to the restaurant industry, saying that a relief bill that would provide immediate financial assistance was "very close to the finish line." "I'm not leaving town until we get federal relief out the door," she said Friday, speaking from Washington. The news cheered the restaurant industry members who participated in the call, who also reiterated that restaurant owners and … Continue Reading


December 10, 2020

Sen. Duckworth spoke with Rock Island-Milan Superintendent Lawrence about COVID-19 relief bill

by Sarah Hayden

A massive COVID-19 relief bill has been introduced in Congress that would help families with child-care assistance and school districts with education needs. U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., is a co-sponsor of the Coronavirus Child Care and Education Relief Act, which would support education and child care by providing $430 billion to students, families, teachers and schools. Duckworth had a virtual meeting Wednesday with Rock Island-Milan School District Superintendent Dr. … Continue Reading

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