Quotes from Dick Durbin

In July of 2006, I visited the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It was important for me to see Guantanamo firsthand and to meet the military personnel who are doing such a great job for our country.

I've been out to Walter Reed on unannounced visits. I've seen these soldiers. I've met their families.

Millions of Americans take vitamins safely every day, including me. Vitamins and mineral supplements taken in recommended doses are safe. It's the designer supplements that are worrisome.

It is tough to run for public office and face an opponent, to decide on issues what is the best thing, then face the criticism from colleagues, voters, the press and defend yourself.

We have to really appeal to that sensible center.

DACA, to me personally, and the DREAM Act are very personal and mean an awful lot.

When we engage in the critical decisions about our nation's future budgets, I want progressive voices at the table to argue that we must protect the most vulnerable in our society and demand fairness in budget cuts.

It simply isn't fair for senators to cut to the front of the line when seniors around the country have been forced to wait for hours to get a flu shot.

Osama bin Laden is gone. The war in Iraq is over. Afghanistan is coming to a close.

Those of us who believe in God and those of us who have dedicated our lives to helping others in the name of God don't want to take a second seat to anyone who is suggesting that one word out of the platform means that the Democrats across America are godless.

Sunlight is better than secrecy when it comes to making laws.

Having billions of dollars immediately available to plug budget holes without raising taxes is very appealing. And to the delight of Wall Street investors, state and local governments often fail to ask the important questions or consider the long-term impact.

I'm going to do what is best for the caucus.

When President Donald Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to serve on the Supreme Court, I said that he deserved a fair hearing and a vote. I said this even though Senate Republicans filibustered dozens of President Obama's judicial nominees and then stopped President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Merrick Garland.

God is not a franchise of the Republican Party.

We will have health care reform in America.

Our party is a diverse one, as is my home state of Illinois.

The for-profit college industry is clearly the single-heaviest subsidized business in America. More than any defense contractor or any farm operation... So many of them are a horrible waste of students' time and of taxpayer dollars.

You would think that, at this point, with records being kept and the vast amount of knowledge on these drugs, the pharmacists could wave off prescriptions that are dangerous to customers.

The fact is I tried for years to work with the financial industry on reasonable swipe fee reform, but the industry wouldn't have it.

We must institute reasonable, common-sense limits, such as barring those with a history of mental instability, those with a history of violent crime or adjudged dangerous and subject to restraining orders, and those whose names have been placed on a terrorist watch list from owning weapons.

There is no question that President Barack Obama should be commended for the successful removal of Assad's ghastly chemical weapons stockpile. But it hasn't been enough.

Certain classes of weapons that are strictly military and have no useful purpose in sport, hunting, or self-defense should not be legally sold.

Personally, I would counsel any woman who asked, in my family, to do her best to carry the child full term, and I'd try to help. But I do believe the government should not prohibit a woman from making that decision.