Richard J. Durbin
Senator for Illinois · Democratic · United States
“But the fact of the matter is, there is scarcely a peep when Senator Curtis, a Republican Member of the Senate, made what is a perfectly reasonable suggestion--that Congress look into any possibility of corruption and self-dealing when a member of the President's family receives such a lavish gift from a Russian oligarch.”
Senate28 September 2026Source ↗
“He proceeded to also tell how he had turned down many opportunities for payment, salaries, fees, rewards that were available to former Presidents even in the early 1950s.”
Senate28 September 2026Source ↗
“Democrats fought for pocket rescission protection in the continuing resolution we passed earlier this year to prevent the White House from doing exactly what they have done. Not surprisingly, Republicans in the Senate and the House refused to stand for the law for fear that they would anger their President.”
Senate28 September 2026Source ↗
“Still, Republicans on the committee have made no effort to obtain a copy of volume 2 of Jack Smith's report, which details the findings from the criminal investigation into President Trump's alleged mishandling of classified materials. You remember the classified information that was found near the bathroom in Mar-a-Lago? I remember it.”
Senate28 September 2026Source ↗
“Think about that for a second. Here are this President and his family, who are making billions of dollars--if you include the family-- from investments that directly relate to his office.”
Senate28 September 2026Source ↗
“Madam President, before I start my remarks this afternoon, I would like to make note of two interesting events this weekend. I was asked to speak at a dinner in St. Louis right across the river from my hometown of East St. Louis, and it was known as a Harry Truman dinner.”
Senate28 September 2026Source ↗
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“Why? Because many people, despite working hard their whole lives, doing their best to save money, ended up almost penniless when they retired, when they were forced to quit working. Those were the days when Grandma and Grandpa moved into the spare bedroom in your house. If that didn't happen to you, ask your father or even grandfather--they will remember those times. So Franklin Roosevelt said: Let's create a pension system so that after you retire, there will be some money coming in. You pay into it all your working life. When you reach the age of retirement, you get a benefit from it. They called it Social Security. It was passed into law in 1935. It made its first payment 5 years later in 1940. I think it has become arguably the most important social program in America.”
Senate14 July 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, I would like to speak on a separate topic. In 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt decided to try something. The idea was to create a pension plan for every American.”
Senate14 July 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, I thank my colleague from North Dakota for those kind words about our mutual friend. We are both going to miss him. I have given a tribute to him today in the committee and partially on the floor, but it is still hard to imagine the Senate without Lindsey. (The remarks of Mr. DURBIN pertaining to the introduction of S. 4979 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')”
Senate14 July 2026Source ↗
“I announce that the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman) and the Senator from California (Mr. Padilla) are necessarily absent.”
Senate14 July 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the scheduled vote start immediately.”
Senate14 July 2026Source ↗
“Schwartz also represented Tesla in its successful appeal of a judgment from the Delaware Court of Chancery voiding Elon Musk's $50 billion compensation package. While Musk raked in the billions Mr. Schwartz helped secure, he took a chainsaw to nearly every aspect of our government. For these reasons, I will be opposing Mr. Schwartz's nomination.”
Senate14 July 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, today, the Senate will vote to confirm Matthew A. Schwartz to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Mr. Schwartz joins the growing line of Trump personal lawyers who have been nominated to the bench during Trump's second term. Even as we consider his nomination, Mr. Schwartz is actively representing the President in two cases on appeal: Trump's 34-count conviction in the Stormy Daniels hush money case and the $464 million judgment against him, his family members, and businesses for inflating business assets. During his hearing, Senator Booker asked Mr. Schwartz about the President's reported outstanding $400,000 debt to Sullivan & Cromwell, an obvious conflict of interest. Mr. Schwartz downplayed that sum as ``an extraordinarily small amount.'' Mr.”
Senate14 July 2026Source ↗
“I announce that the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman), the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Hickenlooper), and the Senator from Washington (Mrs. Murray) are necessarily absent.”
Senate13 July 2026Source ↗
“Jones the opportunity to explain his choice to join this group. In response, he disputed that Gun Owners of America has radical views on firearms and stonewalled on the question of whether he believes the Second Amendment renders all gun safety laws unconstitutional. His refusal to admit that the Supreme Court has, in fact, upheld various regulations on firearms under the Second Amendment is unacceptable for someone who seeks a lifetime appointment on the Federal bench. I cannot support his nomination.”
Senate13 July 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, today, the Senate will vote to confirm Arthur Roberts Jones to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Mr. Jones' association with a far-right organization and refusal to disavow that organization's extreme views on firearm safety are disqualifying. Mr. Jones joined Gun Owners of America in 2025. This group has criticized the National Rifle Association for being too moderate, called for ATF to be abolished, and argued that all gun safety laws are unconstitutional. I gave Mr.”
Senate13 July 2026Source ↗
“Hungary Mr. President, lastly, after the NATO summit, we had a chance to visit Hungary, one of our NATO allies. There was a recent election in Hungary that unseated Viktor Orban after 16 years--a period that included democratic backsliding and being a thorn in the side of European efforts to help Ukraine. I want to congratulate the Hungarian people on this peaceful transfer of power and decision to play a more constructive role in European security, including standing with Ukraine.”
Senate13 July 2026Source ↗
“And we can, at long last, pass one of two bipartisan Ukraine bills pending in this Chamber--one of them being a sanctions package that Lindsey Graham worked with Senator Blumenthal tirelessly to build support for. I understand that Lindsey had finally arranged for this measure to be introduced even this week. I hope we will still go forward with the bill without delay.”
Senate13 July 2026Source ↗
“Already, Putin is testing the alliance through sabotage, hybrid attacks, misinformation, and assassinations. And with the war turning against Russia, Putin may lash out further. This is not the time for President Trump to show Putin any weakness. So I was heartened by the incredible solidarity and resolve on full display at the NATO summit. Quite simply, NATO is alive and well, as is allied support for Ukraine. Congress continues to show strong bipartisan support for NATO, including through funding, troop level requirements, and the Baltic Security Initiative. But we can do more-- notably, by helping Ukraine with desperately needed air defense. We should also continue to keep U.S. troop deployments as part of NATO efforts in frontline NATO member states.”
Senate13 July 2026Source ↗
“Most of the 32- member bloc--formed from the ashes of World War II--have notably increased their defense spending. They are contributing more funding, equipment, and personnel and are reminding one another of their commitments to and the importance of this historic alliance. I was glad that 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 of belittling the alliance and his dreams of conquering Greenland and other follies have been ill-timed, boorish, and counterproductive. They send exactly the wrong message to President Putin about American resolve and commitment. They put countries such as the Baltic States and Poland at even greater risk of future Russian aggression.”
Senate13 July 2026Source ↗
“With the war in Ukraine entering its fifth bloody year, the timing of this event was important, as tides begin to turn in Ukraine's favor. Not only did Ukraine repel the initial invasion by one of the world's largest armies, but it is increasingly showing progress in winning this conflict. Russia has been unable to seize additional land and is suffering staggering, staggering losses--losses that no political leader can sustain for a war of folly. Ukraine has also increasingly taken the conflict to Russia, weakening its energy and military infrastructure and turning Russian public opinion against the war in Ukraine. And unlike Russia, Ukraine is careful not to strike civilian targets. I am happy to report from the NATO summit that the alliance remains determined to see Ukraine defend itself from Russia.”
Senate13 July 2026Source ↗
“NATO Summit As I noted, Mr. President, our trip last week to Turkiye was an effort to discuss some of the war and peace issues of our time. Lindsey knew the stakes at play in Ukraine and the importance of standing up to Russian tyranny. This topic was top of mind for all of those who attended the NATO summit, which concluded in Turkiye last week. I attended the summit with a bipartisan group of Senators, including Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Mike Rounds, Chris Coons, and Congressman Mike Turner. Senator Graham joined us as part of the visit as well.”
Senate13 July 2026Source ↗
“I remember when John McCain and he led the Republican side of an immigration reform effort, and I was part of that on the Democratic side. After months--literally months--of negotiating, we brought a package to the floor, which passed with an overwhelming bipartisan vote, showing that we could do things like that and that we should still be able to. For those things to occur, it is not just a matter of having a good idea; you need good people who are willing to be respectful of one another and to work hard to find common ground. Lindsey was one of those people.”
Senate13 July 2026Source ↗
“Even though they were nominated by a President from a different political party, he announced early on that, if I expect Democrats to vote for Republican nominees, I have to support Democratic nominees to show the same spirit of cooperation. And he did. He kept his word. That was who Lindsey was. He was proud to be a fierce Republican partisan, but he never lost sight of the need to work across the aisle to make a difference in the lives of Americans. Loretta and I send our condolences to Lindsey's family and his legion of friends in South Carolina and around the world. He was an extraordinary Member of the Senate. He helped to make it work. There was never any bipartisan meeting of a gang--or however you would characterize it--during which Lindsey wasn't within its ranks.”
Senate13 July 2026Source ↗
“Lindsey spoke publicly about this interaction after it occurred, and despite the scorn that he earned from certain segments of the Republican base, he stuck to what he believed was right. When I happened to become the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee for 4 years, Lindsey Graham was my ranking Republican. He sat right next to me in every session of that committee. We had our share of disagreements over issues and nominees, but I knew that his word was always good. If he told me he was going to vote for something or some person, he did--he delivered--and we had a good working relationship between us--no cheap shots, no stabs in the back. He voted in favor of 75 percent of the judicial nominations that we considered while I was chair, and there were 235 lifetime appointments that came out of that committee.”
Senate13 July 2026Source ↗
“I will also never forget a meeting that Lindsey and I had with President Trump in his first term in 2018. It was a meeting to discuss a possible comprehensive immigration reform package. It didn't go well at all. President Trump made what I considered to be profane comments about some immigrants, but I won't repeat them here. Lindsey, while sitting next to me in the Oval Office, passionately, vocally, and with real commitment disagreed with the President, arguing that America is not defined by race or color but by its ideals and of the many contributions that immigrants have made to our Nation. He said to the President, as I sat right next to him in the Oval Office, that he was just wrong; that these people who are immigrants make a difference in America. It was the story of our country, and Lindsey said it was the story of his family.”
Senate13 July 2026Source ↗
“He had been speaking to each and every person who was there--business leaders and political leaders from all parts of the world--about his concerns. Lindsey was walking them through, one at a time, his vision on how we could end the war in Ukraine and the legislation we needed to accomplish that, which was typical of Lindsey Graham. We all shared that concern, but he was buzzing around that crowd like an aspiring candidate, convincing everybody that there was a way to end this war the right way. Only a few days after that dinner, my friend Lindsey Graham passed away. It was a shock. I would like to take a moment to recognize his lifetime of public service both in the State of South Carolina and for our Nation. I served with Lindsey Graham in the Senate for more than two decades, and during that time, I counted him as a trusted friend.”
Senate13 July 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, last week, I joined several of my colleagues from the Senate and from the House at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkiye. It was a historic meeting in terms of the future of NATO and the future of Ukraine and so many other issues that relate to that critical and important alliance. Last Wednesday, we had a dinner that was hosted by the U.S. Ambassador to Turkiye, Tom Barrack. There must have been 50 or 60 people there who all shared concerns of the summit conference. Among them were Members of Congress, Turkish leaders, and representatives of other countries around the world who had gone to that famous summit. At the heart of that dinner was my colleague and friend Senator Lindsey Graham. When I arrived that night, it was no surprise that he had been there before me and had been working the crowd.”
Senate13 July 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.”
Senate30 April 2025Source ↗
“I announce that the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Heinrich), the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Murphy), the Senator from Michigan (Mr. Peters), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Welch), and the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) are necessarily absent.”
Senate30 April 2025Source ↗
“I announce that the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) is necessarily absent.”
Senate30 April 2025Source ↗
“I announce that the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) is necessarily absent.”
Senate30 April 2025Source ↗
“I announce that the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) is necessarily absent.”
Senate30 April 2025Source ↗
“I announce that the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) is necessarily absent.”
Senate30 April 2025Source ↗
“Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record. There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: S.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“I announce that the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) is necessarily absent.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“I announce that the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) is necessarily absent.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“When we are elected Members of Congress, we swear an oath to the Constitution, not to any politician or any President. It is time both parties remembered that and lived accordingly. So I am coming to the floor regularly to highlight the President's latest outrage and the GOP's inevitable silence in the face of it. Until they start using the voices they were elected to raise, we are going to continue to have a pending constitutional crisis in this country. I yield the floor.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“What was the reaction of the Democratic Congress to the Democratic President, Franklin Roosevelt, who wanted to pack the Court? The reaction was fierce and it was bipartisan in opposition to FDR and he had to drop the plan. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress realized that if a President can control the composition of the Supreme Court and its rulings, that we have lost a valuable part of the protection of our Constitution. My congressional Republicans have the power to join us in a historic stand on so many areas that this President has violated. They have majorities in both Chambers of Congress, and in private moments many of them express outrage and horror at Trump's dangerous abandonment of law, norms, and the will of the American people. But as their constituents suffer, out of fear of retaliation, Republicans remain silent.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“The President is testing--and violating--the bounds of our Constitution, amassing power for himself as the economy tanks, violating the rights of Americans, and destroying our image abroad. My congressional Republican colleagues have the power to join us in a bipartisan effort to stop it. Has it ever happened in history? It did, very graphically, in history. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was upset with the Supreme Court and its rulings on New Deal programs. He went through a reelection cycle and was reelected by a large margin. He then came here to Washington and said: My first order of business is to increase the number of men-- all men then--serving on the Supreme Court so that I can finally get the rulings that I am looking for on my key elements of the New Deal.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“When our Nation's Founders began the lofty task of building our democracy, they created a system of checks and balances to ensure a stable government and prevent the abuse of power. In 1788, James Madison wrote in Federalist Paper 51: Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. But it seems the ambition of the Republican-controlled legislative branch is all but absent as Donald Trump's government goes out of control. Never in our Nation's history has a coequal branch of government so willfully rolled over and ceded their power. It is, in fact, the silence of the lambs.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“Or take Donald Trump's ill-conceived, mindless tariff tax war, which I mentioned earlier. Global markets plunged when he came out with his proposals in the beginning of April. It wiped out trillions of dollars of wealth from the stock market and will cause Americans to suffer from higher prices and smaller export markets. The advice which many people are giving to those who are worried about their IRAs and 401(k)s is: Don't look at it. Don't look at the balance. You are going to be too depressed when you see it. And it is because of the chaos in the Trump White House when it comes to our trade policy and economics. While their constituents saw their retirement funds drain and grocery bills skyrocket, sadly, my Republican colleagues remained silent. Rinse and repeat the cycle.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“In order to move forward, you have to start by obedience to the court order. You can criticize it within the realm of ethics, and you can even appeal it, but you can't ignore it. Yet these officials headed for the Trump Department of Justice wanted to equivocate on the answer. Who came to my rescue on my argument? A Republican Senator from Louisiana, John Kennedy, who came in and addressed the three nominees and said: Let me make it clear to you--I paraphrase him I think accurately--your options with a legal court order are to be critical within the bounds of ethics and to appeal the decision if you disagree with it, but you have to obey that order or resign your official position. That was as clear an explanation as I have ever heard. But under the Trump administration, they believe they are above the law. Some do.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“There were several key appointees by the Trump administration to positions in the Department of Justice. They included a Solicitor General and two other Deputy Attorneys General. During the course of questioning, I asked these individuals a basic question: Do you believe that an executive official can defy a legally held court order? I thought the answer was clear: It is no, and it should be, whatever the President's party may be. Yet they struggled to come up with an answer that suggested maybe, in some cases, it was all right to defy a court order. We have been through this in America. The case of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 was an effort to integrate schools across America for the first time--an extremely controversial decision, and several other decisions followed from it. But there was a legal court order for that to happen.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“Now, you remember how many times Donald Trump gave speeches at rallies, and he said that we are being overrun by murderers and rapists and terrorists and mentally ill people who came to this country and shouldn't be here, and as a consequence, they were going to change things when he was elected President. What they changed was to take this Mr. Garcia, living legally in Maryland with his family, and, through an administrative error, threw him into a hopeless prison in El Salvador. Is that what America is all about now? Because he had a surname like ``Garcia,'' we can ignore any reference to due process? The President went so far as to suggest he would do the same thing to an American citizen.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“When Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a father who was living legally in the State of Maryland with his family, was sent to a terrorist prison in El Salvador because of what was said in court to be an ``administrative error,'' where was the outrage that this man was treated so unfairly, with no evidence except, perhaps, a tattoo that might be connected with a gang? There was no evidence that took this man out of the United States and put him in a prison in El Salvador. Our colleague Senator Chris Van Hollen went down to see him and the conditions he is being held in and never came back with a satisfactory answer of why this man was being charged with a crime.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“What were they supposed to do in terms of the future of their businesses? Were they to assume that the tariff tax war had begun, that in order to import key elements and parts to their production, they would have to pay tariffs of 10, 20, 30 percent? 100 percent? What did I know about it? I couldn't answer because I didn't know the answer. I am not sure anyone knew the answer. Somewhere in President Trump's mind is a theory of tariffs that he believes is going to make America stronger. These business leaders said just the opposite. Because of the uncertainty of these tariffs and the uncertainty of our trade relationships, they were going to hold back. They couldn't risk it. And that is the reality of what we face today. When it comes to specific cases in this administration, it is hard to explain how we have reached this point.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“For 100 days, President Trump and his administration--mainly billionaire buddies like Elon Musk--have brought us chaos, wreaked havoc, and sowed division. President Trump has undermined the Constitution and our system of checks and balances and the rule of law. Through it all, I am sad to report that my Republican colleagues have remained silent. I got a call several weeks ago, before the Easter break, from CEOs of major corporations, some in my State and some not. I had not heard from them before. Why they called me puzzled me a little bit. What it boiled down to was they were desperate for information about the policy decisions here in Washington. What did it mean that this President, Donald Trump, started a trade war and then announced he was going to put it on pause for 90 days?”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“Mr. President, the jury is in. At the end of 100 days, the major polling firms across the United States went out and asked the American people: So what do you think? What is your impression of this new President? What is your impression of the MAGA agenda? The results that came back don't surprise me, but they might surprise some. Overwhelmingly, on every major issue that this administration has taken a position, the American people have said: We don't like it. We are not happy with what is happening in this country today. After all the promises in the last political campaign about dealing with the cost of living for ordinary Americans, there is little or no progress to be shown for the 100 days of President Trump.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Hickenlooper), the Senator from Maine (Mr. King), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) are necessarily absent.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“I announce that the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) and the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) are necessarily absent.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Blumenthal) and the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) are necessarily absent.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“He jumped at the chance to volunteer for assignments, including the fateful mission to this bog, which he went to support even though he was not on that crew. He was a model Illinoisan and American, and he leaves behind a wife and a little boy. We should all strive to be more like Sergeant Duenez, and we owe him and his family a great debt of gratitude. In honor of these four servicemembers, who were living examples of American values, I will be introducing a resolution recognizing their service and sacrifice to our Nation and our NATO allies. And I urge my colleagues to join me in honoring the memories of these four great soldiers and the remarkable effort that went into their recovery by passing this resolution without delay. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“These four American soldiers lost their lives safeguarding democracy, but we owe gratitude to our Lithuanian and other allies who dropped everything and faced great odds to help us, a reminder of the common defense underlying our alliance. On April 3, the schools were closed, the schoolchildren and their families came out and stood in the streets in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania--included in their ranks was the Lithuanian President--to pay their respects to our fallen American soldiers in their procession back to the United States. It was a devastating episode, but it illustrated the power of international cooperation, friendship between allies, and solutions in the face of great challenges. The loss of American servicemembers is always a tragedy. I particularly want to highlight my late constituent Sergeant Duenez.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“I spoke to the Lithuanian Ambassador to the United States and others in Lithuania who described these days as painful days when they first tried to discover what happened to the vehicle and then an even longer period of time when they tried to retrieve the vehicle and the bodies of our soldiers. They told me that in Lithuania, virtually every newscast focused on this tragedy. People in Lithuania felt a personal attachment to our troops, as certainly we do today. The death of these four American soldiers is a tragedy, but the joint efforts to secure them show the gravity of our commitment to our allies. We have American troops stationed in nations like Lithuania because we have a commitment to join our NATO allies in stopping Russian aggression.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗
“Sadly, last month, four American soldiers stationed in Lithuania died tragically while on a mission to recover a vehicle immobilized during a training exercise. I want to take a moment to tell you about these four brave men, one of whom was from my home State of Illinois, and the amazing efforts that were made to recover them. SSG Jose Duenez, Jr., was from Joliet, IL. He, along with SSG Edvin F. Franco, PFC Dante Taitano, and SSG Troy Knutson-Collins, was part of the 1st Armored Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division. Stationed in Lithuania at a military base that I personally visited, they were called on March 25 to retrieve a tactical vehicle mired in dangerously deep mud. Sadly, these soldiers never returned. Then search efforts were initiated to locate them, and they couldn't find them.”
Senate29 April 2025Source ↗