In the News
US President Joe Biden has signed a raft of executive orders to begin reversing several initiatives by former US president Donald Trump. On Wednesday, Biden – in his first day in office – re-joined the Paris climate accord and set out a national strategy to get the coronavirus pandemic under control.
As Sen. Dick Durbin readies for a historic role as chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee, members of Congress from the suburbs are dusting off bills on climate change and cheaper prescription drugs with the White House and Senate changing from Republican to Democratic hands.
Coronavirus has killed more than 400,000 people in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. reached the grim milestone Tuesday, almost one year since the first COVID-19 case was reported in the country and a little over a month after passing 300,000 coronavirus deaths on Dec. 14, The New York Times reported.
Congress needs a new committee that focuses exclusively on information technology, Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) said Thursday at an event hosted by The Hill.
Foster, a member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, told The Hill's Steve Clemons that the growing IT sector means Congress needs more resources so that it can be nimble in its responses to issues facing the industry.
With the hours dwindling until Joe Biden is sworn in -- officially taking the helm of the US government during its worst health crisis in 100 years -- a sense of nervousness has set in among those advising the incoming President on the pandemic.
On the same day the U.S. House impeached President Donald Trump an unprecedented second time, U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood on Wednesday called Trump "a clear and present danger" to the country and urged his removal from office after last week's violence at the Capitol.
"Donald Trump is a national security threat," Underwood, a Naperville Democrat, said in a phone call with the media. "Congress must take action."
Underwood was joined by members of the Illinois delegation on both sides of the political aisle in calling for impeachment.
U.S. Reps. Lauren Underwood and Bill Foster were among the Illinois members of Congress who urged Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to rescind a rule which they said would improperly divert federal funds away from public schools.
U.S. Rep. Bill Foster highlighted Obama-era federal investments he argued were key to successful vaccine development during a committee meeting on Friday.
Foster, D-Naperville, questioned Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, during a hearing of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis.
U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, introduced a bill Friday to designate the U.S. Postal Service facility in Elwood after Larry Walsh Sr., the longtime Will County official who died earlier this year.
The bill would name the post office building at 303 E. Mississippi Ave. the "Lawrence M. ‘Larry' Walsh Sr. Post Office," according to the bill.
Walsh died June 3 at age 72, after battling prostate cancer.
Two Will County-area members of Congress praised the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the Trump administration's attempt to end legal protections for undocumented residents who came into the country as children.