Dick Durbin

Anticipating that the debate over reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act will soon come to the Senate floor, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) on Tuesday asked Attorney General Eric Holder to declassify key information about how the law’s “business records provision” has been used. They last sent a classified [...]

The White House program designed to prevent foreclosures by paying banks to alter loans voluntarily isn’t doing nearly enough to keep struggling borrowers in their homes, several powerful Democrats charged Wednesday.

Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-Ill.) office sends word that the Senate will vote on cloture on the nomination of Cass Sunstein after a debate this hour.
At 4:45pm, the Senate will proceed to vote in relation to the following:
- Final passage of the Travel Promotion Act (S. 1023, as amended)
- The motion to invoke cloture on the [...]

I haven’t blogged much on the “yo mama” contest between the Democratic National Committee and the National Republican Campaign Committee, but it’s been fascinating to watch. The DNC, keying off of reports revealing the Tea Party/health care industry/conservative grassroots ties of the people making fusses at congressional town hall meetings, released a page-long, darkly-written statement [...]

Letters between Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and the Justice Department shed light on a reportedly impending investigation that would mark the Obama administration’s first clear break from the Bush-era policy of refusing to prosecute abuse cases.

While judges must recuse themselves from cases where financial interests are at stake, members of Congress regularly invest in the very companies they regulate.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) took to the Senate floor on Thursday and talked about the implications of Congress’ cave to the banks on his mortgage “cramdown” proposal, which would have allowed bankruptcy judges to reduce loan amounts and keep borrowers out of foreclosure and in their homes. Durbin eloquently summed up the way Congress has [...]

Responding to growing concerns about immigrants displacing U.S. workers, assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today introduced the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act, designed to preserve the controversial H-1B program that allows U.S. companies to hire foreign workers, but to limit its abuse.

Yesterday, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) admitted that he probably wouldn’t be able to muster 60 votes to pass a climate and energy bill along the lines of the one unveiled by House Democrats earlier in the day. As a result, it appears likely that the various elements of the bill — including cap-and-trade, [...]

The Washington Post’s A-1 story on Republican opposition to the Democratic stimulus plan emphasizes what I learned this week in talking to Republicans about their strategy. First, there isn’t much of one. Second, what strategy there is depends on portraying the Democrats as unreasonable, big-spending bullies. They want more tax cuts; Democrats want more infrastructure [...]