In The News
Women in the Air Force are finally getting body armor that fits
Women have been serving in the Air Force Security Forces since 1976, but it's taken 45 years for the service to finally provide them with body armor that actually fits. At long last, female airmen with the 377th Security Forces Group at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico have become one of the first to get fitted with protective vests designed for them. Unlike the old armor, which was designed to fit the average male body, the new variant is lighter, has a curved chest plate, a shorter torso … Continue Reading
February 15, 2021
Tammy Duckworth Urges Joe Biden to Upend Entire USPS Board for 'Silence' Under Louis DeJoy
Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) has urged President Joe Biden to replace the entire board of governors at the United States Postal Service. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was widely criticized for cuts at the service following his appointment last spring that were seen as political in the run-up to the November election. In a letter, dated February 12, Duckworth said it is important to show that the governors' "silence" in the face of the alleged sabotage will not be tolerated. "Since its … Continue Reading
February 13, 2021
Duckworth urges Biden to oust entire Postal Service board
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) on Friday urged President Biden to replace every member on the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) board of governors. In a letter, Duckworth specifically cited "recent and abject failure of leadership at the top of the USPS," under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a GOP fundraiser who attracted criticism last year after he implemented systemwide cost-cutting measures in the months leading up to the 2020 presidential election. The Illinois senator wrote Friday that … Continue Reading
February 09, 2021
1908 Springfield Race Riot National Monument Act reintroduced by Democratic senators
U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin continue to push for Springfield's history to receive greater attention. This week, in the midst of Black History Month, the pair of Democratic senators re-introduced legislation calling for the sites of Springfield's 1908 Race Riot to be designated as a national monument. "The 1908 Springfield Race Riots were a violent and hateful tragedy that are a part of Illinois' tumultuous history and shouldn't be forgotten," Durbin said. "It is because of … Continue Reading
February 09, 2021
Senator Duckworth: The Impeachment Trial Is a Choice Between Our Constitutional Values and Donald Trump
In 2004, I packed up my rucksack, laced up my boots and deployed to Iraq-ready to sacrifice whatever was asked of me. Ready to hear the "tap, tap, tap" of gunfire against my Black Hawk. Ready to lose my life, if necessary, all because I loved this nation and believed in the sanctity of our electoral system, which had declared George W. Bush my Commander-in-Chief. I lost my legs proudly fighting in a war I didn't support, on the orders of a President I didn't vote for, because I believed in … Continue Reading
February 08, 2021
Proposed “Restaurants Act” to bring more relief for businesses
(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
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
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
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
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”
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
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'
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
January 06, 2021
Duckworth: Unlike anything I’ve ever seen on domestic soil
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’
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
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
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.
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
The military designed aircraft with only men in mind. Now they are working to change that.
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
