In The News
Service chiefs grilled over efforts to fix mold, vermin and other military housing woes
Senators peppered service officials for more than two hours Tuesday with questions about ongoing problems with privatized family housing. Meanwhile, government auditors issued a report saying DoD's measures of tenant satisfaction are fundamentally flawed, leading to financial rewards to housing companies that may have been undeserved. The latest hearing came 10 months after the first hearings where family members testified about the hazards that threatened their health and safety, … Continue Reading
November 22, 2019
Durbin, Duckworth introduce bill to develop and preserve public housing
Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth are supporting legislation that would infuse $100 billion into the development and preservation of affordable housing across the country. The state's Democratic senators announced Friday that they are co-sponsoring the Housing is Infrastructure Act alongside Sen. Kamala Harris. Rep. Maxine Waters, chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, filed companion legislation in the House on Thursday. (Waters and Harris, who is running for … Continue Reading
November 21, 2019
Editorial: Science, not politics, must guide monitoring of water, air quality
A report out by the Better Government Association this week should concern every Illinoisan who cares about the air we breathe and the water we drink. The report says, among other things, that in Region 5 of the Environmental Protection Agency -- Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio -- inspections for air, water and land pollution have dropped by more than 60% in the past three years. That drop is twice as big as other regions of the U.S., which average a 30% decrease in … Continue Reading
November 20, 2019
Is waste incinerator poisoning Sauget with heavy metal emissions? CDC will investigate.
The Center for Disease Control will investigate whether a waste incinerator is poisoning people in Sauget. A federal agency within the CDC is expected to announce Wednesday it will conduct a preliminary investigation into "potential health hazards" from pollution near the Veolia North America-Trade Waste Incineration facility. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is expected to determine if the Sauget incinerator is causing heavy metal poisoning. A permit, issued by the EPA … Continue Reading
November 12, 2019
Tammy Duckworth: It's been 15 years since my 'alive day'
I probably should've died in a dusty field in Iraq 15 years ago today. I still remember the rain coming down that morning, and I still remember the taste of my lunch that afternoon. But most of all, I remember the scorching heat and deafening roar of the RPG that tore through the helicopter I was flying just north of Baghdad-a blast that cost me my legs and nearly my life as well. I wouldn't have lasted the hour if it weren't for the heroism of the troops around me, who thought I … Continue Reading
November 12, 2019
Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth Honors Deported Veterans In Mexico
Dozens of deported U.S. military veterans and their families celebrated Veterans Day in Tijuana, Mexico, with a special guest: Iraq War combat veteran and Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth. It was an emotional day at the Deported Veterans Support House, also known as the "bunker," where deported veterans shared their stories with Duckworth. The stories were eerily similar. The veterans were born in Mexico but were raised in the U.S. As young adults, they enlisted and served in the military. … Continue Reading
November 11, 2019
Sen Tammy Duckworth Spends Veterans Day In Mexico To Be With Veterans Deported By Trump Administration
Iraq War veteran and Democratic Senator and Tammy Duckworth spent her Veterans Day across the border to be with veterans who have been deported to Mexico under the Trump administration. Duckworth, who lost both of her legs in 2004 while serving in Iraq, said she had wanted to spend the day in Tijuana to honor the service of veterans who have been turned away from the U.S. despite serving for the country. In a statement following her visit to The Bunker, a shelter for veterans who have been … Continue Reading
November 10, 2019
Wounded war vet Duckworth marks her 15th ‘Alive Day’ after Veterans Day visit to Tijuana facility for deported vets
WASHINGTON - On Monday, Veterans Day, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a wounded Iraq war vet, will cross the border from California to Mexico to visit a facility in Tijuana helping veterans deported in this Trump era. On Tuesday, in Washington, Duckworth will celebrate her 15th "Alive Day." That's the anniversary of the day she almost died after a rocket-propelled grenade ripped through the cockpit of her Black Hawk helicopter flying over Iraq on Nov. 12, 2004. She lost her legs and partial use … Continue Reading
November 06, 2019
Senators move to protect program for immigrant military families that Trump may end
Washington - A group of Democratic senators led by U.S. Army veteran Tammy Duckworth of Illinois unveiled a proposal on Wednesday to shield certain undocumented family members of U.S. troops from deportation, a move aimed at safeguarding a little-known immigration program the Trump administration is considering ending. The bill introduced by Duckworth would codify into law a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) program known as "Parole in Place," which has been "under review" by … Continue Reading
October 29, 2019
Boeing ‘set those pilots up for failure,’ Sen. Tammy Duckworth tells CEO at hearing probing 737 Max crashes
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg faced withering questions from senators Tuesday about two crashes of 737 Max jets and whether the company concealed information about a critical flight system. "We have made mistakes, and we got some things wrong," Muilenburg conceded. Some members of the Senate Commerce Committee cut Muilenburg off when they believed he was failing to answer their questions about the key flight-control system implicated in both crashes. Chicago-based … Continue Reading
October 24, 2019
Sen. Duckworth: With Syria drawdown, Donald Trump turns his back on America's credibility
In the most fractious, war-torn countries in the world, victories are rare and allies you can truly count on even rarer. Yet over the past five years, the United States had found that kind of partner in the Kurds, who were willing to fight - even die - by our troops' sides to defend the free world against the Islamic State and the terror it spread. The relationship was symbiotic. We were reluctant to use ground troops in Syria to wage war against ISIS. The Kurds were willing to take that … Continue Reading
October 21, 2019
Sen. Duckworth Highlights Plan to Improve School Bus Safety Nationwide
Sen. Tammy Duckworth spoke during the 51st annual National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS) conference in Washington, D.C. about the importance of updating school buses with the latest safety technologies. She said these should include seatbelts and the funding that school districts need to install them. While the Democrat from Illinois and member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation discussed her reintroduced legislation, … Continue Reading
October 18, 2019
Airlines damage thousands of mobility aids every year. ‘It’d be an uproar’ if it were pets.
After a United Airlines flight three years ago, Isabelle Briar ripped open her thumb as she pushed her wheelchair away from the gate. The airline had cracked the metal grip ring, leaving a sharp, protruding shard. The same airline ignored Cindy Otis' complaint about damage to her power chair in 2006, responding weeks later and only after she had an attorney write a letter threatening to sue. In 2017, U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, boarded a flight hours after writing federal … Continue Reading
October 18, 2019
Duckworth: ‘We have abandoned our allies’
After the Trump administration made a 'deal' with Turkey to give it everything it wants in its invasion of America's Kurdish allies, Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran, joins Chris Hayes to voice her strong … Continue Reading
October 09, 2019
Duckworth: Trump's troop withdrawal from Syria a 'serious mistake' that could revive ISIS
CHAMPAIGN - Calling the president's decision a "serious mistake," Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth said Wednesday she will work with her Senate colleagues to try to halt the pullout of U.S. troops from Northern Syria. Turkey began an offensive Wednesday against the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurds, who had led the fight to defeat ISIS in that region but are considered terrorists by Turkey. "I think it's absolutely the wrong thing to do for the president to unilaterally abandon our allies who have stood … Continue Reading
October 04, 2019
Duckworth, Booker File Bill to Reduce Cost of Solar Energy for Poor Families
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., is the lead sponsor behind a new bill that aims to make solar energy more affordable for low-income Americans. Duckworth and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., recently introduced the Low-Income Solar Energy Act, which would expand an existing energy assistance program while also creating new energy financing programs for the poor. The proposed legislation would also require the Department of Energy to create a solar workforce … Continue Reading
October 03, 2019
Duckworth, other officials celebrate first-phase completion of Fox River rail bridge project in Elgin
The $34 million project to replace the Fox River rail bridge just south of Elgin's National Street Metra station and build a second rail bridge alongside it could be completed as soon as next fall, officials said. A ceremony to celebrate the first phase of work being finished on the Metra Z100 Fox River Bridge was held Thursday and attended by U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, U.S. Reps, Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Schaumburg, and Sean Casten, D-Downers Grove, who represent the Elgin area, and … Continue Reading
September 21, 2019
Durbin and Duckworth ask FCC to step up prevention of robocalls
U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) on Wednesday urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to use the tools at its disposal to curb the number of robocalls received by Americans. In a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and the four FCC Commissioners, Durbin and Duckworth urged the agency to enhance traceback efforts to bring these scammers to justice, stop this illicit robocall traffic, and prioritize enforcing the laws already on the books. Robocallers placed 172 … Continue Reading
September 20, 2019
Hearing on online extremism amid ‘gun-violence crisis’ shows Congress’s ‘absurdity,’ says Democratic senator
Nothing highlights the absurdity of Congress's inability to solve the gun-violence crisis then seeing 318 mass shootings in 260 days, and then holding a hearing on extremism in social media.'Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth That line came from Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth during a Wednesday hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee titled "Mass Violence, Extremism and Digital Responsibility." The panel's chairman, Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, noted in his opening … Continue Reading
September 19, 2019
Duckworth unloads on Trump over possible attack on Iran
Vowing to "do our troops justice," U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., today demanded President Donald Trump ask Congress for a declaration of war before launching any attack on Iran. In a fiery speech delivered on the Senate floor, as tensions build over an assault on Saudi Arabia oil fields, the combat-veteran lawmaker accused Trump of effectively outsourcing to Saudi officials the decision on whether there will be a U.S. military response to the attack. "We have not authorized (Trump) to … Continue Reading
