WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to end the Senate legislative graveyard and take up bills already passed by the House of Representatives. In a speech on the Senate floor, Durbin highlighted the House-passed Protecting Americans with Pre-Existing Conditions Act, which passed on a bipartisan basis and would prevent President Donald Trump from once again allowing health insurance companies to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions.
“Under Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Republican Leader from Kentucky, the Senate is exclusively considering partisan, controversial lifetime appointments to the federal courts and virtually nothing else – nothing else,” Durbin said. “I urge Leader McConnell and my Republican colleagues, let’s get back to work. Let’s use this Chamber for the purpose of which it was built… I’m ready to go to work. Perhaps a few Republican Senators will join the Democrats in actually doing that.”
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Video of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor are available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here for TV Stations.
During his speech, Durbin shared the story of an Illinois constituent from Naperville, Cathy, who wrote Durbin about her children. Her eldest has diabetes, and her other three have cystic fibrosis. The Protecting Americans with Pre-Existing Conditions Act would protect the five million Illinoisans with a pre-existing condition, as well as families such as Cathy’s. In a letter to Durbin, Cathy wrote, “As a constituent and someone so personally affected by cystic fibrosis, I’m asking you to please protect access to quality, specialized care for people with pre-existing conditions.”
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